CHAPTER III
At the Inlet
“SLOW down,” said Detective Calvert as the launch drew near the southern end of Barter Island. Captain Alvin did as requested and all eyes were fixed upon the inlet.
“If that boat should happen to come out while we are in sight,” added Calvert, “pass up the river, as if you had no interest in it.”
“But if it should happen to be there?” said Alvin, repeating the question he had asked before.
“We can’t know until we have turned in, and then it would not do to withdraw, for that would be the most suspicious course of all. You have as much right to go thither as anyone. Act as if you were merely looking in out of curiosity; make a circuit of the islet and then come back and go on up the Sheepscot toward Wiscasset.”
It was at this moment that Mike Murphy asked a question whose point the others were quick to perceive.
“If the spalpeens are there, will ye let ’em have a sight of yersilf?”
“No; I shall drop down and hide, for if they noted that you had me for a passenger they might smell a rat, but would think nothing of seeing you three, for they know you travel together.”