"Do you think so?"
"I do."
"Well, there's where your head ain't level. We will never catch him now that he has got away from the coast."
The men walked away and the detective fell to a big scheme.
Quick as lightning he changed his appearance, worked a perfect transformation, and strolled down toward Rigby's, the old resort, of the gang before the storm of adversity set in over them.
Rigby was as deeply interested in the success of the smuggling business as any man connected with it. When trade was good he had plenty of money and did a large business; but when it was bad his business decreased proportionately; up to the time of the arrest of the crew off the "Nancy" Rigby had been a passive man as far as the illicit traffic event, but when Ike Denman was in jail he sent for Rigby, and the man became an active partisan. He had been let into the scheme with the capitalists, and the glow of big money was opened up to him.
A short time after the incident at the cabin of old Tom Pearce the residue of the gang began to assemble at the Rigby place. The men were in an ugly and desperate mood.
Rigby had just returned from a trip to New York, where he had held a second interview with Denman. The men had been awaiting his return.
Meantime the detective had stolen down to Rigby's place, and had taken up an outside position, from whence he could take note for a few seconds, and overhear what immediately followed the man's reappearance.
It was a lucky move on the part of our hero, as he got the remainder of the points needful for the carrying out of his immediate plans.