"Oh! he thought of it himself, did he?" the young aviator shot back, "well, that was pretty bright of him, and shows that he was a fellow to take notice. And now, please tell me what he said about the direction in which the biplane was headed, at the last instant he could see it far away in the distance."
"Exactly southwest, Frank!"
This gave Frank a sudden jar, because it upset the theories he and Andy had been forming concerning the escaping bank robbers. They had believed the two men had gone almost directly north!
"Southwest, you say, Joe?" he asked, wishing to make assurance doubly sure.
"He said exactly southwest; and as he kept repeating that word a number of times there isn't a bit of chance that I'd get it mixed. You can depend on it, Frank, and if you're away up at Rockford, seems to me you'll have to make a big change of base right soon, if you want to get in touch with them raskils."
Frank's mind was in somewhat of a whirl. He wondered whether the farm hand, Felix Boggs, could have been mistaken in what he had said; though Andy, too, had seen the biplane, and noted the direction of its flight. But perhaps this farmer, or whoever he might turn out to be, had discovered the fugitive flying machine at a much later time, after the two men had changed the course of their flight.
"I suppose you might as well tell me who the party was from whom you got your news, Joe," he remarked; though without any particular object in view, since he could hardly expect to hunt the other up, and ask more questions.
And then came the answer, that gave Frank quite a thrill, as he grasped the peculiar significance of it all.
"Why, you know him all right, Frank," said Officer Green, glibly, "he's the pilot of the little lake steamer, and his name's Todd Pemberton!"