"What's the news?" said Claus, who was loitering at one of the windows of the pool-room. "Did you see them go?" he asked, in a whisper.
"I did," answered Casper. "We have just time to get down there, and that is all. You are making a mistake by not taking some baggage along."
"No, I am not. We shall go as far as the station at which the passengers take breakfast, and then we will stop and come back. That is as far as we want to go."
"And come back as empty-handed as we went," said Casper to himself. "I'll bet there won't be anything worth having in those valises."
It took Claus and Casper a long time to walk to the depot, although they went with all the speed they could command; but when, at last, they got there, they found that the ticket office was not open. It was no trouble at all for them to find the boys whom they were seeking; they occupied a couple of seats in the gentlemen's waiting-room, sitting pretty close together, too, and were engaged in earnest conversation.
"Those are the ones, are they not?" questioned Claus. "They are dressed up so fine that I would not have known them."
"Yes; they have new clothes on," said Casper. "They are going off as though they were business men starting out on a vacation."
"That is the way we will travel when we get our money," said Claus, with a wink.
"And when we do get it you may go your way and I will go mine," said Casper to himself; "I am not going to stay around where you are all the while bothering me to play a game with you. I am going to save my money; that's what I will do."
It was shortly after they reached the depot that the ticket office was opened, and Julian went to purchase tickets for himself and companion. Casper watched them until they were safe in the train, and then Claus bought two tickets for Casper and himself, and they took seats in the car behind Julian's. In that way they would keep out of sight. They did not intend to show themselves until the train stopped for breakfast the next morning, and then they would show themselves to some purpose.