BROUGHT TO BOOK—CONCLUSION
"What time is it, Frank?" asked Andy, who w as breathing very hard after his recent exertions in helping both men to get a footing on the hydroplane.
"I think pretty close to four o'clock," replied the other, though he made no attempt to take out the little nickel watch, he always carried nowadays.
The fact of the matter was that Frank did not dare trust Casper Blue. He could see that the little man was a desperate character, and that he did not view the prospect of being made a prisoner, and taken back to Bloomsbury with any great show of enthusiasm. In fact, it was a most unpleasant proposition for the bank thief to contemplate at all.
And so Frank was watching him closely. He had, before starting on this dangerous air flight that had ended so far from home, and under such singular conditions placed a little pistol in his pocket, though hardly under the belief that he would have any occasion to make use of it.
But he was now determined not to let this man get the upper hand. He could see that various desperate plans must be forming in that scheming brain of the one-time aviator, and now yeggman; and Frank was constantly on the watch so that he might not be caught napping.
"Four o'clock!" repeated Andy; "that would mean at least two more hours before the sun set, wouldn't it; and even after that it might stay light enough another hour for them to see us if they steamed along?"
"You mean the people aboard that tug, don't you?" asked Casper Blue, sneeringly.
"Yes, they seemed to be chasing after us, and I only hope they do keep moving," replied Andy, "because they must have seen the accident, that is if they had any sort of a marine glass aboard, which I reckon they did."
"And I suppose, now, you think there might be officers aboard that same tug?" the other went on to say.