Part 40 (1/2)
”In raincoats. One was a tall fellow with a heavy beard.”
”That's our game, Curly!” was the exclamation on the second launch.
”About a mile up the river, you say?”
”About that--or maybe a mile and a half,” replied Dan Baxter.
”Thank you. We'll get after them now!” And in a moment more the second launch sheered off and started up the Ohio through the mist and rain.
As soon as it was out of sight the men in the cabin of the _Dora_ came out again.
”That was well done, kid,” cried he called Pick. ”And it was well you did it that way. If you had said we were aboard you might have got a dose of lead in your head.”
”I always keep my word,” replied Baxter.
”You're a game young rooster, and I reckon I can't call you kid no more. What's your handle?”
”What's yours?”
”Pick Loring.”
”You're a horse thief, it seems.”
”I don't deny it.”
”My name is Dan Baxter, and this is my friend, Lew Flapp.”
”Glad to know you. This is my pard in business, Hamp Gouch. We had to quit in a hurry, but I reckon we fell in the right hands,” and Pick Loring closed one eye suggestively and questioningly.
”You're safe with us, Loring,--if you'll give us a lift.”
”I always stick to them as sticks to me.”
”If you want to stay on this houseboat for a while you can do it.”
”We'll have to stay on this craft. It's about the only place we'll be safe--for a day or two at least.”
”You can stay a couple of weeks, if you want to--all providing you'll lend us your a.s.sistance.”
”It's a go. Now what's your game? You must have one, or you wouldn't act in this style,” said Pick Loring.
CHAPTER XXV
PLOTTING AGAINST DORA AND NELLIE
”In the first place,” said Dan Baxter, ”perhaps we had better give some directions to that man on the launch.”
”What kind of directions?”