“You’re sure it’s Amsterdam Joe we’re after?”
“No, I’m not.”
“But great Scott, you said you were sure.”
“I was talking,” said Hank, “the words were hit out of me by something outside my head, but I’m never far wrong when I’m taken like that. I’d bet a thousand to a nickel it’s him, but that’s not being sure. You see, it’s not Dutch Pete, for I saw him shot with my own eyes, but the affair was hushed up, and they gave his name different in the papers. He was hand and fist with Joe and that’s what put the wrong idea about. Joe went south more than nine months ago, superintending a fishery or something down there, and he hasn’t come back, and he’s just the chap to fill this bill—and there you are.”
“Well, it doesn’t much matter,” said George, “as long as a man’s there and will put up a fight and we have the fun of catching him. Now then, Hank F., what are your plans? Spit them out.”
“Well,” said Hank, “my plans are simple enough. I’m going to drop down to the Islands and do some fishing and water-lily around picking up information where I can. There’s all sorts of boats down south of the Islands, doing shark fishing and going after the sulphur-bottom whales; and at Avalon and San Clemente and places there’s lots of fellows I can pick up information from. A police boat or a destroyer would find nothing but shut heads, but a man that knows how to go about it can tap the wires. Why, you wouldn’t believe how news goes about along the coast, and the long-shoremen are pirates by instinct. There’s not one of them isn’t backing old man Vanderdecken. Pirates by instinct, only they haven’t the pluck of their opinions.
“Well, when I’ve got this bird’s fishing waters, I’m going to lay in them and cruise round in them and whistle ‘Chase me Charlie’ till he pounces, or maybe I’ll be able to put my finger on the creek or bay or wherever it is he makes his port of call, and pounce myself—no knowing.”
“I see,” said George.
“I’m blessed if I do,” said Hank. “It’s mighty problematical, but I’ve got the feeling in my toes that I’m going to collar him.”
“Well,” said George, “we’ve got so far. Now about the boat.”