“He’s been making for the waterside all along,” reasoned the big man. “And he came this way so as not to be seen from the castle.”
Evidently this was correct. The stranger, when he gained the river, began walking along its margin in the direction of Schwartzberg, concealed by a sharp rise in the ground. But his searching glances seemed not to gain him the satisfaction he sought; and so, finally, though he did not seem at all eager to do so, he approached that portion of the riverside in full view of the castle.
The river was fairly broad at this point, and its placid waters flowed by with scarcely a ripple; a great mass of soft reddish rocks ran from the walls of the castle down to the water’s edge.
“He seems somewhat backward about putting himself on display,” said Scanlon, as he watched the doings of the jaundiced man with keen attention. “But, then, he may have the most urgent reasons for it, so I’ll not pick on him for that.”
From across the river came the sounds of laughing; some boys were fishing from a boat, and were shouting to each other over some comic misadventure. The saffron-hued man lifted his head and looked out across the slowly flowing water; but the pause was for an instant only; for he proceeded with the matter in hand.
A dozen yards further on he stooped, and seemed to grow intent and eager. Out came the lens which Bat had seen him use on the top of the tall hill, and down on his knees he went to examine something on the ground.
“And right there,” said Bat, “is the place where the soft-looking party broke through the edge of the bank and flopped into the water.” He stood watching for a space, and then, unable to restrain his curiosity, he pulled his hat firmly down upon his head and said: “I think I’ll have a closer view of those proceedings. They may contain something I ought to know.”
With a light step he moved along the river bank until he was within a half dozen paces of the stooping yellow man. Then he paused, and said:
“Hello! What’s the idea? Lost something?”
The yellow man replied promptly, without turning or lifting his head, and in a voice from which every vestige of huskiness was gone.