King thought a moment and then said, "I don't altogether like that idea, but I'll talk it over with Bill and see what he says."
As he was leaving the room, Bob added, "That's the best I can do. If I should tell you about it, and then you failed, you would blame me, and I'd have to suffer for it."
King was gone about half an hour, and when he returned, he brought a good dinner with him.
"We've decided to take you up, and here's your dinner," he said. "But now listen to me. My future depends on this thing; how, is none of your business, but I'd rather die than fail, so if you try any funny business, you can know what to expect."
"How soon shall we start?" asked Bob.
"We shall start, in the car, as soon as it is dark."
"I don't know," thought Bob, after King had left the room, "whether I'm jumping out of the frying pan into the fire or not, but that dinner looks mighty good to me, so here goes."
CHAPTER IX.
ON THE ROAD TO BOSTON
"Well, the die is cast one way or the other," thought Bob, as he ate the last scrap of his dinner; "that sure did taste good." Then as a sudden thought struck him, he began hurriedly to search his pockets. As good luck would have it, he found a small note book, containing several blank leaves and a stub of a lead pencil. Hastily, he tore out a page and wrote the following note:
"I am confined in a house in the woods, have no idea where, but it must be within twenty or thirty miles of Skowhegan. King and Reed are taking me to Boston tonight, in a car. Secret still safe."