"We had some thought of trying the fish at Indian River as we went along; but circumstances do not allow us to stop, and we shall run direct for Key West. Was there anything new in regard to the robbery of the bank messenger this morning?"
"I heard nothing. But your friend, Captain Boomsby, is in great trouble," said Cornwood, smiling, as though the saloon-keeper's trouble, whateveér it was, could not produce a deep impression on his late employé.
"What is the matter with the captain?" I asked, with interest.
"His son Nick has disappeared."
"Nick disappeared!" I exclaimed, not a little astonished.
"He cannot be found, though his father searched from six o'clock this morning till the time I left."
"When did his father first miss him?"
"It appears that Nick tended bar till after midnight. The old man was too full to sit up any longer, and he left Nick to close the bar. The captain says his son did not sleep in the house last night, and he has no idea when or where he went."
"Very likely he left in the first train this morning," I suggested, recalling all that had passed between Nick and me the day before.
"No, he didn't, for his father went to the station, and passed through the train just before it started. He did not leave by railroad, or come up the river in the Hampton, or I should have seen him."