“I’m mighty hungry, Roake, and dry as a fish. A man must eat and drink after such a job as I’ve been through.”
“You’ll find what you want in the cupboard there,” said Roake.
He lit a pipe, and smoked furiously, muttering:
“I don’t know what the boss will say.”
Snags proceeded to eat with a voracity that attested a good appetite, and a mind untroubled, for the time, by the bloody scene in which he had so recently been the chief actor.
The men conversed no more together, but each occupied himself with his own thoughts, and anxiously awaited the appearance of Leonard Lester, who at that moment had nearly abandoned all hope of eluding the four men who were pursuing him with their boats.
CHAPTER VII.
IN STRANGE QUARTERS.
Snags, when his appetite was in a measure appeased, grew impatient. He was anxious lest Leonard Lester should make good his escape, and felt a sort of responsibility concerning the securing of the captive. More than that, he apprehended that his carelessness would bring him into discredit among his comrades, should Leonard not be retaken.
And still further, there was something he had not chosen to tell Roake, namely, the contents of the paper he had torn from Colonel Conrad’s hand. He had read it hastily before the arrival of Carlos on the scene, and it fell just short of conveying some very desirable information. That information, he was sure, could be supplied by the missing fragment, and this he was eager to obtain. But he decided that Roake must know nothing of all this, at least for the present.