"We will give them a great surprise."
"Sure, but after they discover their mistake——"
"It will be too late for them to do any harm. We will have them flattened out, or we will have forgotten an old way of managing these things. Oscar, it is a great thing to meet an antagonist who really underrates you."
"That is true."
"And so in this deal I tell you I think we are on a better lay than we are aware of. After we have downed these fellows we will know what to do."
"Yes, we will follow them up."
"Certainly, and we will have a great lead."
Oscar and Cad lingered a long time at the table. They desired "wind and tide," as we will put it, to be just right for them.
It was well on toward five o'clock when the confederate detectives rose from the dinner table and walked down toward the beach. They walked very slowly and all the time maintained the rôle they had started out to assume. They passed the bathing pavilion, walked along beyond the Oriental Hotel and then turned toward the beach at a point bordering on the inlet, and there they halted and stood to admire the incoming waves. Twilight was beginning to cast its lengthening shadows over land and sea.
The men who were set to rob the couple meantime dodged along on their trail, keeping far in shore toward the Sheepshead Bay, and their leader was chuckling all the time. He said: