“Escaped! I should say he did. Not a sign of him was seen after Nick Carter, with his assistant Chick and myself, captured Sparkle and the Shadow.”
“Then you may depend upon it,” she said, “that the Count of Cadillac has managed somehow to repossess himself of the Shadow. It was his craft as much as his brother’s, was it not?”
“I suppose so.”
“And, as a matter of fact, you never did know which of the brothers was the real count, and which was the genuine Captain Sparkle, did you?”
“No; I’m in doubt if they knew themselves apart, let alone the possibility of a third person being wise about it.”
The eyes of all three were still fixed upon the approaching vessel, which was now not more than half a mile away.
“Don’t you think we had better run for it?” asked Bessie now.
Kane laughed.
“Why, Bess,” he said, “if that craft is the Shadow, we would have about as much chance of running away from her as a snail would have in a foot-race with a rabbit.