We stepped out boldly, making some effort to reduce the space between the man Duran and ourselves, all the while, endeavoring by playful punches at one another to make it appear that we had no more serious purpose than to pass the time of a holiday.
Presently the man turned off the street, disappearing from our sight.
"There he goes!" said we both together; and we darted off, one after the other. When we reached the place where our quarry had made his turn, we looked in vain down the side street. He was nowhere in view. On each of the two corners stood a two-story house with the usual shallow balcony above the walk.
"He may have gone into one of these houses," suggested Robert.
"Yes," I agreed, "and he may be watching us now."
From a point of vantage we watched for above an hour; but our man did not again appear.
"Well," I finally began, "he's given us the slip. We can't do better than go hunt up the others."
We were anything but dejected, for we had discovered the region of one of Duran's haunts.
We had not long to wait at the wharf, and our friends were much interested in the tale we spun them.
"It's plain enough that fellow suspected you were looking for him," declared Norris. "It wasn't just ordinary curiosity made him go back to see what you were up to."