“Confound you! So you recognize my voice, do you? I didn’t mean you to. But, after all, it doesn’t much matter. By the time you rejoin your friends again I’ll be far away. Take his shoes off, Blinky.”
Jack flushed with indignation.
“What for?” he asked angrily. “What do you expect to find?”
“About five hundred dollars, and a similar sum in your friend’s shoes.”
Jack’s heart sank. How Duke had obtained his information he could not imagine, but it was true. He and Tom had decided to draw that sum each from their substantial deposits in the Camwell bank. Fearful of carrying such a large sum in bills of big denomination on their persons in ordinary fashion, they had decided to conceal them in their shoes.
It was not hard to hide the five one hundred dollar bills, placing three in one shoe and two in the other.
How could the man Duke have guessed where they carried their valuables, and how came he to know the route that they would take home—not the usual one between Camwell and their destination?
CHAPTER XVI.
ADAM DUKE’S METHODS.
As if Duke had guessed the boy’s thoughts, he broke into a harsh laugh. Had it been light, the boy would have been able to see the yellow, puckered skin about the man’s nervous jowls quiver with merriment.