“Frankly I haven’t an idea. There was nothing in his manner, when I mentioned the subject to him, that would indicate it, but it’s evident that he’s up to something and it seems to me that if it isn’t that it’s a mighty peculiar coincidence.”
An hour later they were on the wharf ready to start out after trout when a motor boat rounded the point a short distance below.
“Wonder who that is,” Jack said.
“That man in the bow’s Mr. Kane,” Bob declared.
Mr. John Kane, the sheriff of Somerset County, lived in Skowhegan and was well known to the boys. With him, in the boat, were four men, but the boys failed to recognize any of them as the boat drew up at the wharf.
“Hello Bob. Hello Jack,” the sheriff cried as he made the painter fast to a post at the end of the wharf. “How’s things?”
“Fine,” both boys spoke together as they shook hands.
The sheriff then introduced them to the men with him, informing them that they were deputies, with the exception of one who, he explained, was a detective from New York.
After they had acknowledged the introduction all around, the sheriff asked:
“Have you seen a man up here who looks anything like this?”