“You can bank on me to the last cent,” replied Captain Brown impressively. “You say you want to look at that swamp?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t want to walk through it, I suppose?”
“Hardly,” said Nick, with a smile. “It must be pretty wet about this time.”
“Almost a lake! What I was about to suggest is that I can take you along the east road in my car, and you can see the swamp over the fence. If that is all you want of it.”
“That will be just what we do want,” replied Nick. “I should like to assure myself that nothing has been done to alter the appearance of the place. How soon do we start?”
“In ten minutes, if you like. I’ll go down and telephone the garage at once, and have the machine at the door by the time you are ready. It will be an open car—unless you would rather ride in a limousine. You would not be so exposed to view then.”
“It’s a lonely road, and if we do see anybody staring, we can pull our hats down over our eyes, and be looking for something that we may have dropped in the car,” said the chief. “We’ll take the open car.”
Neither Carter nor Chick made any attempt to disguise themselves for this trip. They appeared merely to be two visitors to Old Pike Inn looking at the country as the guests of Captain Brown. He often took guests out in his car.
Nick knew something about the section of the Milmarsh estate generally spoken of by those who lived in the neighborhood as “the swamp.” But he wanted to look it over, to make sure that it had not been changed.