[CHAPTER I.]
ON THE ROAD TO WAUNAKEE.
"Do you know what you're doing, John?"
"If I didn't, Ollie, I wouldn't be doing it. I'm not one of these fellows who take a jump in the dark and trust to luck."
"Then it's about time you put me wise. I've been taking jumps in the dark ever since you showed up in Madison yesterday."
The man with the closely cropped red hair, the smooth face, and the mole on his cheek laughed softly.
"Back the car off the road and into the bushes," said he, "then we'll sit where we can look around the bend toward Waunakee and I'll tell you all you want to know."
The young fellow with black hair and a sinister face threw in the reverse and backed the big automobile off the road and into the undergrowth. When he stopped the car it was all but screened from sight. Jumping down, he walked out to where the man was standing in the highway thoughtfully smoking a big, black cigar.
Pulling a silver cigarette case from his pocket, Ollie helped himself to a highly ornamental brand of Turkish poison, each little cylinder cork-tipped and marked in gilt with his monogram.