"Had on a soft, light hat, gray suit and carried a handbag."
"Thank you, Henry, good night."
"I 'spose I was so rattled at fust I didn't think of him when you asked me if I'd met anybody. Wal, so 'long."
"What do you make of it now?" asked Alvin of his chum, as they resumed their walk toward the inlet.
"That's the man we saw pretending to rest at the further end of the first bridge; he's the one who sat near us on the steamer reading a newspaper, and he left the boat when we did. That swinging of his hat and yelling for the steamer to come back and pick him up was a bluff. He got off because we did and he has been following us ever since."
Neither could doubt this self-evident fact, which was enough to make them graver than usual.
The man in gray must have known from the actions of the youths that one if not both had discovered him while he was passing over the road behind them. He had, as Chester suspected, turned in among the pines and made a circuit by which he came out in advance of them. This might never have become known but for the meeting between him and Henry Perkins.
But the disturbing question remained to be answered: who was he and what did he mean by his actions?
"I believe he is one of the post office gang," said Alvin.
"So do I," assented his companion; "he knew from what we said on the boat that we are hunting the stolen launch and he means to be on the ground when we find it."