“But they went away, back to the boat, I suppose,” Mr. Gray asserted. Jack nodded.
“Well, we want to find out where they went,” began Bill.
“Mort was my pal while he was here,” Jack said. “I don’t remember nothing, but if it’s account of the law, or anything, I won’t help you to track down a pal.”
“No decent man would, unless his pal had done wrong!” agreed Mr. Gray. “We aren’t after him. We don’t know of anything he has done that is wrong. But we think he can help us to locate the sister of our Tom, here—” he related briefly the circumstances of her disappearance. “As a decent, self-respecting man, you want to help us all you can, of course!”
Jack nodded sturdily. The appeal had its effect.
“I do,” he agreed. “But I wasn’t in condition to pay ’tention and I can’t remember——”
“You recall him talking about Mexico—” suggested Mr. Gray.
“Mexico—Mexico—I can’t just seem to—maybe he did, but I don’t recollect what he said.”
“Something about the Golden Sun—” suggested Bill.
“The—Golden—the Golden Sun—” Jack said, trying to screw up his forehead in his effort to rebuild the old story.