“Or if it should be discovered that he walked out of his office unattended that day and was abducted from the buffet of the Raleigh Hotel. That would twist your theory some, wouldn’t it?”
“Oh, yes,” laughed Jimmie. “If a shovel-nosed pike from the Potomac river should crawl into a back yard and set up life as a hen, that would be remarkable, too, wouldn’t it?”
“That’s right!” Mr. Havens advised. “Stick to your theories. I half believe they are right!”
“Now, about this proposed visit to Crooked Terry,” asked Jimmie. “Do you think we’d better take the Louise out and have a talk with him to-night?”
“Keep on, Jimmie!” Ben grinned. “You’ve landed Colleton in a stateroom on the Pacific coast, so what’s the use of looking for him in a smugglers’ den on the Continental Divide?”
“I didn’t say what they did with him after they got him to the coast!” Jimmie replied. “My private opinion is that they brought him up here and hid him! They wouldn’t check him for safekeeping with the smugglers, would they? Of course they wouldn’t, but Crooked Terry might know of some likely hiding-place in this section!”
“It won’t do any harm to go and talk with the fellow, anyhow,” Ben suggested. “We can fly up there to the camp, get what information he possesses and be back in a couple of hours.”
Leaving Carl to his slumbers, the boys prepared a hasty supper for themselves and Mr. Havens and started away in the Louise.
The night was clear and they had no difficulty in making their way to the landing which they had discovered on the previous night.
“I don’t think we ought to leave this machine alone,” Ben said as he alighted. “Why don’t you go up again and fly about until I signal with my electric for you to come down?” he asked Jimmie.