Thinking he had made a mistake, Plums would have hurried on, but for a hoarse whisper which came from out the darkness.
"Come in here, quick! Don't stand there where everybody'll tumble to who you are."
Plums obeyed immediately, as was his custom when any one spoke harshly, and Dan seized him by the arm.
"Keep quiet, now, whatever you do, 'cause I wouldn't be s'prised if more'n a dozen cops followed me over on the boat."
"I didn't see any," Plums replied, in astonishment.
"That's 'cause you didn't keep your eye peeled. Of course they wouldn't try to get on my track while they was dressed in uniform. I saw one I felt certain about; he was disguised like a truckman, an' drivin' a team, but he couldn't fool me."
"Do they know where Joe an' I are?"
"I don't think so; but jest as soon as I left the town they was bound to have their eyes open mighty wide, 'cause I guess it must be known up to perlice headquarters that I'm in on this case. Where's Joe?"
Master Plummer told the amateur detective of the very pleasant refuge they had found, and concluded by saying:
"First off we couldn't talk with the old woman at all; but at dinner-time a kid about half as big as me, what calls her 'grandmarm,' come home, an' he knew how to talk United States. Little as he was, he could chin in the old woman's lingo as fast as she. That fixed things for us. Joe said he was out lookin' for work, which is the dead truth when you come to that, an' made a trade for us to stay there a couple of days. I was 'fraid they'd ask about the princess, but it seems like they didn't. They thought she belonged to us straight enough, so it's been all plain sailin'."