“To-day I was watching Island Number One for—well, for a reason. I saw those two boys racing over there in a most marvelous iceboat run by a motor——”
“Oh, jolly!” exclaimed Lettie, breaking in. “They’ve built the new boat, then.”
“Wait, Kimball,” interposed Mr. Parker. “Tell the girls something more. I can see Mildred is interested.”
“She is if you are going to arrest Billy and Dan Speedwell,” laughed Lettie, who was just as full of fun as her father, and was not above teasing her chum on occasion.
“Well, I tell you!” exclaimed the sheriff, smiling. “I’m in a hurry. The Biggins, like all farmer folk, go to bed early, and I hear that Harry has dared creep home again and may be there to-night. I’m in a hurry, as I say; but I’ve got a two-seated sleigh here, and plenty of robes, and about the fastest pair of horses in this county—raised ’em myself. What say if we all—you, too, Parker—drive up the river, and on the way I’ll explain how the Speedwells seem to be mixed up with the Steinforth counterfeiting gang.”
“The Steinforth counterfeiters?” gasped Mr. Parker. “That’s more than you’ve told me before, Kimball.”
“Yes. But it seems we have about got things to a head now. Something is going to break soon, and I’ll risk talking a little. Want to go, Parker?”
“We’ll go,” said Mr. Parker, looking at the girls. “Just ’phone your mother, Milly, that you are going sleighing with me.”
“That’s all right,” said the sheriff, with a boyish laugh, and he ran out to spread the robes for the girls in the rear seat. Not a flake of snow had fallen yet, but the night was starless, and the wind cut sharply.
They got under way in ten minutes. The black horses were young and they had been standing in the stable behind Appleyard’s all day, and were very restive. The girls squealed a little as they clipped the corners going down to the open ice.