“All right,” answered Tom. “And we might be making inquiries about a launch, eh?”
“Yes, but be back on the platform by eleven.”
Tom retraced his steps to the station, leaving the others to go on in search of the police officials. He passed a fruit and candy store on the way and was sorely tempted to buy some of the latter, but he told himself resolutely that what money he had ought to be expended toward recovering the Vagabond and so fought off the temptation. The Mayflower Limited rolled in on time to the minute and Tom watched the steps of the long line of parlor cars in expectation of seeing Dan descend. But no Dan appeared. After making certain of this fact Tom went into the station and studied the time-table.
“Now he can’t get here until a quarter to one,” he said disgustedly. “And we need his money like anything! I dare say he didn’t want to pay the extra fare on the Limited, the stingy beggar!”
He went down to the wharf to make sure that Dan had not somehow managed to get off of the train on the other side and gone to look for the Vagabond. But the wharf was empty, and so Tom set out on the search for a launch to rent.
Twenty minutes later the three met again on the station platform, all more cheerful for having accomplished something. Bob reported smilingly that the wheels of justice were in motion and that already the local sleuths were on the trail. Nelson had sent telephone messages up and down the Sound and over to Long Island. Tom had found the very thing they wanted in the way of a launch.
“She’s a little bit of a thing, only eighteen feet long,” he explained, “but she can go like anything. And we can hire her for six dollars a day. I tried to make him take five, but he wouldn’t. She’s right up here at a wharf. Come on and look at her.”
The Sylph proved to be a very smart-looking little craft, built of white cedar and mahogany. Her engine took up a good deal of space, but there remained room for four passengers. The owner had built her himself and was very proud of her, so proud that when Bob and Nelson became enthusiastic over her lines and finish, and when he had learned why they wanted her, he voluntarily knocked off a dollar of the renting price.
“Call it five dollars for to-day and the same for to-morrow if you need her again,” he said. “I guess you can run the engine all right, but I’ll show you one or two things about it that you probably aren’t used to.”
The one or two things proved to be small improvements of his own devising and it took some time for Nelson to understand them. But at a quarter to twelve they had paid their five dollars and were in possession of the Sylph. They ran her down to the wharf where they had left the Vagabond and found that she went finely.