“Yes, I’ll stay right here,” the cook said with a grin.
But as Jack entered the thicket he added:
“Until you get out of sight. Then it is me for the Tivoli and Lieutenant Gordon. It looks to me as if these babes in the woods had bitten off more than they can chew.”
Whether his supposition was right or wrong, the cottage was closed in five minutes, and Tommy, wearing Jack’s clothing, was racing through the path Ned had taken the night before, on his way to Lieutenant Gordon.
His journey on foot, however, was destined to be a short one, for at the turn of the path he came upon a man loitering in the open space just ahead.
“Wait a second,” the man exclaimed.
Tommy was not inclined to check his pace, but a revolver in the hands of the fellow induced him to do so.
“You are Jack Bosworth?”
Tommy hesitated. For an instant he thought of declaring his identity and so getting away to the Tivoli and Lieutenant Gordon. The man in his path settled the problem for him.
“No use to deny it,” he said. “You are to come with me.”