"Are you crazy?" demanded Jack. "I was locked in that cellar by some rascals and got out through your trap-door."
"Tell that to the marines," sneered the woman, as she made a grab for him.
Jack wrenched himself away and dodged a blow from the rolling-pin. The window was open and it was a short drop to the yard. He darted for the window and made the jump.
"Pat! Pat!" yelled the woman.
Jack leaped over a fence at the back of the yard and found himself in an alley. He ran for his life. Behind him came cries of pursuit but they soon died away. He ran for several blocks, however, and then came to a standstill.
"I guess Ned and Billy went home," he mused. "I'd better hunt up Ned. If his father is a Senator he may be able to use some influence to catch these rascals before they get away for good. I wonder what time that ship sails? By the way, I don't know her name."
At the hotel, to which he went first, he slipped up to his room without attracting much attention and washed off the dirt of the cellar. Then he inquired for Billy and learned that Raynor had telephoned the night before that he was going to stop at Senator Rivers' house and for Jack to come straight over there, if he came in. Jack procured a copy of a commercial newspaper which he knew listed sailings of ships from all important ports. He turned to the Baltimore section. Half way down the column he found this entry:
"Italian-American Line. S.S. Southern Star,—Balto., for Naples, Italy. Sails—A.M. (hour indefinite). Mixed cargo. Ten passengers."
"Hurrah! That's the ship, all right," thought Jack, "there's a chance yet that we can stop them."