“Why not take it on board?” he asked. “We can cook it much better than any city chef,” he added.
“Well,” Alex. replied, “I saw a neat little restaurant back here, not far from the river front, and I thought I’d like to go there and have a feed.”
So the two turned into the restaurant, when they came to it, and took a small table at a rear corner of the room. It being late for dinner and early for supper, there were few in the place.
One party, at the front of the room, at once attracted Clay’s attention. There were three men in the party, one young, smiling and flashily dressed; one old, grizzled and clad in a well-worn business suit; and another dressed expensively and with great care. This man had a surprising growth of red hair which showed evidences of great care. His face was smooth-shaven, and had the appearance of having recently been divested of a beard, the flesh showing soft and white, as if not long exposed to the weather.
When this man arose to pay the check and laid a hand on the back of a chair, Clay noticed that the hand was very large and finely kept. The man was something over six feet in height! Clay gave Alex. a kick under the table and directed his gaze to the large man, then passing over to the cashier’s window.
“Take a good look at that man,” he whispered. “Ever see him before?”
“I saw him when I passed,” was the reply, “and brought you here. That’s Red, the Robber.”
[CHAPTER XIV—ALEX. BREAKS FURNITURE]
“Unless Red, the Robber, has a twin who is an exact duplicate of himself,” Clay whispered, “that is just who it is!”
“When I passed here,” Alex. explained, “the three were just sitting down to dinner, and I knew that I could get you back here in time to see Red, the Robber, before he could finish the big steak he had just tackled. There he is! Now what?”