“Well, that is what we have got to consider—and just as sure as you are sitting there, I don’t believe we will find him at his château. No man, I don’t care a rap how much of a silk purse he happens to be, is going to give up life, and hope, and everything else, without continuing the struggle as long as there is a possibility of coming out winner.”
“That is quite true.”
“Well, then, the question comes down to this: If Cadillac does not take Bessie to his château, where shall we look for them? But wait; you need not reply to that now, for you have not had time to think about it, and you are no more capable of answering it than I am, at the present moment. I will change the question. How shall we look for them?”
“I had thought,” replied Nick slowly, “of taking passage on one of the fast ocean liners for the other side, and hastening direct to Anjou; but your last suggestion puts a different face upon it. There is another and a better way.”
“Now, we are getting at it. What is the other and the better way? Remember, I don’t care a picayune what it costs, even if it goes up into the millions.”
“I know that; but I don’t think it will approach the millions.”
“What is it?”
“This: You and I will take the midnight train to Washington. In the morning, early, we will call upon the President. We will explain the situation to him, and unless I am greatly mistaken, he will find a way to place the Dolphin at our disposal at once. She is at the Washington navy-yard now. I happen to know that. He will also direct the department of state to cable all over the world to have the Shadow intercepted, wherever she may appear.”
“Now you’re talking.”