“Of course you can,” said Bob. “They’ll give you connection at New York. But I think you might as well save your money. If she’s been stolen there’s just one place the thief will take her to, and that’s New York or somewhere around there.”
“Maybe,” replied Nelson dolefully. “Thunder! If we don’t find her I’ll hate to go back home and face the pater!”
“We’ll find her,” said Bob earnestly. “Do you know where the police hang out?”
“Yes, the man told me where to go,” answered Nelson as they left the wharf.
“If she was towed away,” said Tom, “they must have used a launch, I suppose.”
“Probably,” Bob agreed. “They wouldn’t be likely to use a rowboat and a sailboat wouldn’t be much better. If the wind died out they’d be caught.”
“Unless they started early last night and got over to Long Island or down the shore somewhere while it was dark,” said Nelson. “They might put in at some little out-of-the-way place and no one would think of looking for them.”
“Well, if it was a launch,” said Tom, “wouldn’t it be a good plan for the police to find out whether any launch is missing?”
“I should think it would,” said Bob, and Nelson agreed. “We’ll suggest it to them. Have you any more of those clever ideas, Tommy?”
“Well; I think we ought to hire a boat of some sort, a launch if we can find one, and hunt around ourselves. It wouldn’t be much of a trick to run up to Norwich, and it wouldn’t take long to search the shore around here.”