“I have been wondering since we started,” said Alvin over his shoulder, “whether by any possibility the Water Witch kept on up the river ahead of us instead of running into some bay or inlet to the south.”
“It is possible, but not probable. You know we had an extended view of this stream, or rather of Montsweag Bay, and she could not have gone far enough in the short time to pass out of sight.”
“Ye forgits how anxious the Captain was not to overtake her,” reminded Mike. “I once read of a farmer who chased a big black bear that had been staaling his sheep fur two days and nights and then quit. Can ye guess why?”
“I should say that after so long a chase he would have given up disgusted,” replied the detective.
“It was not that; it was ’cause he found the tracks were becooming too fresh.”
“I don’t think, Mike, that you are in danger of being accused of that,” ventured Chester, “because you are always fresh—you are never becoming so.”
“But the same is becooming to me, as Jim Flannery said whin he walked into church wid two black eyes and his head bent out of shape from the shindy he had with his twin brither over the quistion of aiting maat on Friday.”
“You seem quite sure that these three whom we saw in the launch are mixed up in these post office robberies?” asked Alvin.
“It has that look. No matter how certain I may feel, nothing can be accomplished until legal proof is obtained. You know the rule that every man must be presumed to be innocent until proved guilty.”
“It shtrikes me that the most important quistion of all has been sittled.”