“The man was a passenger by the Albany boat, I suppose?”
“No; that was what looked queer. Before the Albany boat came in the man was lyin’ round with his valise, and the boy thought he was goin’ off somewhere. But when the boat came in he just mixed in with the passengers, and came up to the entrance of the pier. Two boys asked to carry his valise, but he shook his head till Dodger came round, and he engaged him right off.”
Tim Bolton nodded knowingly.
“It was a plan,” he said. “The man wanted to get hold of Dodger. What puzzles me is, that you said he was an old man.”
“His hair and beard were gray.”
“And Curtis has no beard, and his hair is black.”
“But the boy said he didn’t look like an old man, except the hair. He walked off like a young man.”
Tim Bolton’s face lighted up with sudden intelligence.
“I’ll bet a hat it was Curtis in disguise,” he soliloquized.
“That’s all we could find out, Mr. Bolton,” said Briggs, with another longing look at the bar.