"'Where to?' he asked.
"By Jove! I hadn't thought up to that moment where I wanted to go to, so I simply said, 'Straight ahead!'
"Fortunately he was headed eastward, and, as I didn't interfere, he kept on to the river. At sight of it, what we were talking about yesterday came over me like a flash of lightning, and thinks I, 'Why shouldn't I join Barney and Jake in their voyage to the Gulf of Mexico?' The next moment I decided to do it. And so I told the driver at what point I wanted to get out, and from there I found means to be conveyed to the schooner in the bay."
"Were you wise in letting the cabman take you where you did?" asked Barney, in a somewhat anxious tone.
"I suppose not," was the reply; "but I was far too weak to walk, and so had to risk it."
"It may prove a risk that will cost us all dear."
"As matters turned out, I don't think so, my friend."
"How's that?"
"Why, even if the detectives should happen to stumble upon that cabman, it isn't at all likely they'll ever unearth the man who conveyed me to the bay."
"Who was he?"