"Do you think the 'Panther' will overtake us here, out on the high seas, Captain?" questioned Mr. Baldwin, just as they entered this cabin. "That is, will he recognize the 'Victor's' fog-whistle?"
"He'll make a good guess at it, I think," laughed Halstead. "I've just directed Mr. Prentiss, in ten minutes more, to begin sounding whole bunches of blasts in quick succession. Ab will be clever enough to guess that it is our crowd celebrating a capture."
"Now, then, Rollings," declared Mr. Jephson, sternly, "it is time for you to tell us where the money stolen from the Sheepmen's Bank is hidden aboard this craft?"
"You won't find five hundred dollars on board," replied the cashier, with a ghastly smile.
"My man, it may save you some years on the sentence that is coming to you if you tell us promptly where to find the stolen money," warned the United States assistant district attorney, sternly.
"I've said all I'm going to say," returned Rollings, sullenly.
"Captain Blake," asked Jephson, turning toward the bearded one, "you also have much to answer for in the courts. Do you desire to win any leniency by telling us, now, what you can?"
"All I've anything to do with here," retorted Captain Blake, "is the running of this yacht. That work you've taken from me. So I've nothing to do, and nothing to say."
Mr. Jephson, however, continued to question first one prisoner, then the other, though in vain, until Mr. Baldwin broke in:
"Jephson, you can't make these fellows talk. They're afraid they'd only run their necks further into the noose of the law. Besides, this rascal, Rollings, hopes that, if you can't find the money, he'll win complete pardon in the matter by restoring most of it later on. It'll save a good deal of time, I imagine, if you place both these fellows under close guard by one of your deputies, then lead us in a search through this craft."