“Perhaps I shall never come to an explanation,” he thought, “or find out what that strange Frenchman wanted with me.”
As he turned the matter over in his mind, however, there was one thing about which he made up his mind definitely, and that was that if he ever succeeded in reaching his cousin, he would never cease his efforts to find out all about that mysterious house, and to inform the proper authorities about the unfortunate captive who was detained there. “I guess I will have a hard time finding him, though,” Roberts thought. “Perhaps I have only exchanged one danger for another, as I have pretty well lost myself in this thicket.”
It was just then he chanced to notice that a heavy package had been stuffed into one of the pockets of his coat. He found it was a paper parcel, which he took out and examined with not a little curiosity. He found that his enemies, as if anticipating his escape, had provided him with a supply of food!
Again he put his hand to his pocket, and, discovering something else, proceeded to examine it. There were two pieces of paper, and he struck a match to examine them. One, as he found to his utter consternation, was a French bank-note of the value of five hundred francs!
That discovery almost overwhelmed him. He sat gazing in silent wonder at the paper until the match went out. Then he struck another and proceeded to examine the other piece of paper, which he found was a note addressed to him in English:
Sir—It was all mistake. We thought you were somebody other. We are sorry. We inclose money to pay you for your time and loss of——
As Roberts read the last word he gave a gasp. Then he swung his hand up to his head and found to his horror that the statement of the letter was only too true. The word was hair, and every particle of it had been shaved from his head!
If anything had been needed to complete Roberts’s amazement at his strange adventure, this would have done it. He sat where he was for fully five minutes, alternately feeling for his missing locks and examining the bank-note and the lunch.
“All a mistake!” he muttered to himself. “Took me for someone else!”
The first thought that came to Roberts after that was a renewal of his resolution to probe the mystery to the bottom.