Jack stared, as well he might.
"Why, hello! Mr. Gregory!" he cried, perhaps with hardly the reverence he ought to show toward a bank president; but the astonishment of seeing the gentleman away down here, so many hundred miles from home, rather disconcerted him.
"Yes, it's no other, Jack," replied the other, smiling. "They wired me that perhaps if I hurried down I might be able to recognize the valuable bonds that were stolen from our bank, in case they turned up. We were told that a boat answering the description of the mysterious one in which the robbers took flight had been sighted on the river; and for two days now we've been watching. But it must have been your little boat they meant."
"Perhaps not, sir," said Jack, quietly. "There was another just like mine, and we have run across it several times. In fact, the two fellows who operated it are lying here right now; and that satchel contains all the stuff they stole from your bank, Mr. Gregory."
CHAPTER XIII.
THE "WIRELESS" IN TOW.
"What's that?" exclaimed Mr. Gregory, hardly able to grasp the astounding news that Jack Stormways so modestly launched at him.
"Why, you see, we camped in a little cove last night," continued the boy; "and as luck would have it, these fellows had entered another one close by. Seems that an accident had happened to their boat, so that, with a hole stove in her bow, they could not go any farther. So they figured on stealing our dandy little Tramp, you know, and leaving us to hold the bag."
The police officers looked at each other and nodded their heads, as if to say they knew a smart young fellow when they saw one.