Josiah did not venture into the cabin again, but, after filling his lungs with fresh air, seated himself at the head of the stairs where he could hear what was being said by his friends below, and also take part in the conversation.
It seemed to him a very long while before the young gentlemen were willing to leave the scene of the festivities; and they might have remained much longer, to his discomfort and disquietude, had there been a larger stock of cigarettes on hand.
As it was, however, when the tobacco was exhausted, the cabin of the craft had no further attraction for the merry-makers; and Bill said as he rose to his feet:—
“Come on, fellers, we might as well start for Sim Jones now. It won’t do to wait too long, for fear he’ll sneak off home.”
The chase for the boy who had robbed them offered quite as many inducements in the way of pleasure as an additional supply of cigarettes would have done, therefore no objection was made to the proposition; and, five minutes later, all the party were on board the leaking boat, pulling rapidly toward the New York side of the river, leaving behind them only the fragments of candle and the offensive odor of tobacco.
As a starting-point for the search, it was decided to go directly to the pier from which Bill believed he had seen Sim leave for the Jersey shore; and there was found the boat in which he had probably rowed across to the basin, but with her ended all clew to the direction taken by the thieves.
Master Foss was too good a general to allow anything of this kind to distress him. In fact, he rather prided himself on his abilities as an amateur detective, and lost no time in making what he believed to be a proper disposal of his party.
Two of the boys were sent toward the Battery, two more in the opposite direction, and the remainder ordered to proceed toward City Hall Square.
Bill’s instructions to his subordinates could hardly be mistaken, so simple and expressive were they.
“Keep right on huntin’ till you find ’em, an’ then come down to Dick Murray’s stand where I’ll be waitin’. Don’t let them know you wanter get hold of ’em; but scoot back so’s all hands of us can do the rest of the job. We need the whole crowd, ’cause there ain’t less’n five in their gang.”