Part 3 (1/2)
”Good enough,” was the response.
”Yes, and it's dead easy.”
”What is it?”
”I'll go over opposite the grand stand; you fellows follow me. Come up offhand and I'll show where a big haul lies right in sight.”
The rogues had struck a lead and so had the two sharp-eyed detectives who were playing such a neat game.
”Cad,” said Oscar, ”we've got a bite.”
”Yes, I felt the nibble.”
”It's a good thing, sis, to locate a rogue.”
”Indeed it is.”
”We have not chummed in vain.”
”So it would appear.”
This little bit of side talk was carried on while the two detectives maintained the role they were enacting, and a little while later they saw the three join each other and beheld them as furtively they watched their antic.i.p.ated prey.
”We've got three bites, Cad.”
”I see them.”
”What shall we do?”
”Don't ask me to suggest, Oscar. No one can beat you in laying out plans.”
”We'll leave here.”
”And learn if they follow?”
”Yes.”
”That would be my idea.”
”Where shall we go?”
”We will give them a chance to follow us. We will go to the beach.”
Oscar and Cad did not start right off--they were too smart for that.
They were playing a great game. They did not see the three men; they did not know they were being watched. Oh, no, they were too absorbed in each other and the fun they were having and the winnings they were raking in.
It was a strange incident, but one that often occurs. Oscar was not betting to win. He was merely betting as a ”guy,” and, as intimated, it often happens that the careless win where the careful and posted lose. A race had just been run and a messenger boy returned with the tickets he had cashed, and the girl pulled out a big wad of bills and added the winnings to her roll. The three observers noticed that she carried the bulk of the money, and one of them said:
”Great sea waves! what a wad she has got!”