CHAPTER V A STRANGE CONVERSATION
For a long minute after the stranger had departed, Ned Blake stoodstaring after him, a puzzled frown wrinkling his forehead.
“Humph!” grunted Dick, who also was gazing after the hurrying figure.“He must have been in an awful rush, if he’d pay twenty-five dollarsjust to get here ahead of the express. What do you make of it, Ned?”
Dick had to repeat his question before Ned roused himself to reply; butnow the conversation was interrupted by the plaintive voice of TommyBeals, who had dragged himself from the end of the cross-plank and wasstamping the blood back into his aching feet.
“Gosh, I’m about froze to death!” he wailed. “Froze and starved! What’sthe program, Ned?”
Ned cast a quick look at the fast-gathering shadows, which already layin a black smudge along the shore of the lake. “We’d better not try toget home tonight,” he decided. “I’ve no mind to chance jumping thatcrack after dark. There’s a hotel close by the station where we can geta good dinner and a bed. We’ve got the cash to pay for both.”
“Yeah, that’s the idea!” exclaimed Tommy fervently. “A steak smotheredin onions and French fried spuds! What?”
“How about the boat?” asked Dick.
“We’ll furl the sails and push her in against the dock,” replied Ned.“We can unship the tiller and hide it so that nobody will be tempted torun off with her.”
This was quickly done and the boys turned their steps toward the UnionStation, the lights of which gleamed a scant hundred yards ahead. Theexpress had thundered into the station while they were taking care ofthe boat, and now, as they crossed the tracks, her rear lights wereblinking in the distance as she picked her way through the switch-yardswestward bound.
“There goes our twenty-five-dollar passenger,” remarked Dick, with acharacteristic jerk of his thumb toward the departing train. “He hadplenty of time to catch her, I guess.”
“I can’t get it out of my mind that I’ve seen that man somewhere beforetoday,” began Ned. “I couldn’t see his face clearly, he was so muffledup, and yet there was something about him that seemed familiar—the wayhe stood—or walked—or something.”
The hotel was just across the street from the station, and here the boysregistered after bargaining for a room containing three beds.
“And now for that steak and onions,” gloated Tommy Beals as he headedfor the grill room closely followed by Dick.
“I’ll be with you in a jiffy,” Ned called after them as he paused at atelephone booth. “I’ll just shoot a word to the folks that we’re O.K.and will be home in the a.m.”
It took Ned several minutes to complete his call, and then, as he wasabout to step from the booth, he halted suddenly at the sound of a voicein the telephone compartment next to his own. There was a familiar noteto the harsh growl. As Ned paused in surprise, the words came clearly tohis ears.
“Sure, I made it on time and Miller was there, too. Where was _you_?”Silence a moment; then the voice continued. “Local _nothing_! I told youI’d be in on the express—stop or no stop. As a matter of fact I gotthere ahead of time—never mind how. Now listen.”
For a moment the heavy voice rumbled on but in a lower tone so that noword reached Ned’s ears; then the door of the booth was jerked open andits occupant crossed the hotel lobby with a rapid stride. He was joinedby a tall, red-faced man and the two disappeared through the doorleading to the street. For the second time within half an hour, NedBlake found himself staring after a short, thick-set figure in a furcoat. There was no doubt of it. The growling voice in the telephonebooth had been that of his mysterious passenger on the _Frost King_.Hurrying to the grill room, Ned acquainted his companions with what hehad learned.
“Then that yarn about wanting to catch the Detroit express was allbunk!” exclaimed Dick.
“Evidently,” agreed Ned. “But also it’s sure that he had some importantdate that coincided with the arrival of the train. That red-faced man‘Miller’ showed up on time but somebody else missed out. I wonder whatthe game is.”
“We should worry about him or his business,” was Tommy’s cheerfulcomment as he eyed with huge satisfaction the nicely browned steak,which at the moment was being placed before him on the table. “Right nowI’m for enjoying this feed that he’s paying for. Afterwards, I’ll_wonder_—if you insist,” and Tommy helped himself lavishly to the savoryfried onions that accompanied the steak.
Long exposure to the biting wind had induced appetites which required adeal of satisfying, but at length even Tommy’s splendid yearnings hadbeen appeased and he sank back in his chair, the picture of well-fedcontentment. Hardly had the boys left the dining-room, when drowsinesscame upon them as the natural reaction to long hours in the open airsupplemented by a heavy meal.
“Can’t keep my eyes open,” mumbled Dick after a prodigious yawn. “Me forlittle old bed-o, even if it is only seven-thirty.”
The idea was accepted unanimously and the boys lost no time in seekingtheir room and making ready for bed. But now the puzzling questionregarding their unknown passenger recurred to Ned with redoubled force.Before his mind’s eye there passed countless faces and figures of men hehad known or seen. He was groping painfully in an effort to place onethick-set figure in a fur coat.
“What’s the matter, Ned? Do you see a ghost?” grinned Dick at his friendwho sat on the edge of the bed, shoe in hand, staring blankly at theopposite wall.
“Not unless ghosts wear fur coats,” muttered Ned, flinging the shoeunder the bed. “Hang it all! I’m sure I’ve seen that fellow—or at leastsomebody a whole lot like him. I wish I could remember when or where!”
“While you’re _wishing_ you might as well wish for that _roll_ hepacked,” chuckled Tommy. “Gosh! I’ll bet there was half a thousanddollars in it—and that fur _coat_!” Here Tommy rolled up his eyesenviously.
“One thing I _am_ sure of,” continued Ned, “whoever he is, he probablydoes at least a part of his business in Canada. That last bill he gaveme was Canadian money. I noticed it when I paid the dinner charge.Luckily, they accept Canadian money here.”
“What do you suppose he had in that suitcase he was so fussy about?”queried Dick. “It was darned heavy—from the way he handled it.”
“That’s another question I’d like answered,” admitted Ned, “also, whatwas he doing in Truesdell, when all the time he was so anxious to get toCleveland that he was willing to risk his neck on the _Frost King_, justto save half an hour or so?”
“Heigh, ho! I’ll give it up,” yawned Tommy and, with a sigh of unalloyedsatisfaction, the plump youth rolled over luxuriously and buried hisface in the pillow.
Dick was only seconds behind Tommy in his plunge into the depths ofsleep; but long after his companions were sunk in blissful oblivion, Nedlay racking his brain in what proved to be a futile effort to find somereasonable solution of the puzzle. Weariness at last closed his eyes,but through his troubled dreams there persisted these tantalizing,half-formed questions, always on the point of being answered but evereluding his grasp.
The sharp rattle of icy particles on the window awakened Dick Somersnext morning. Springing out of bed, he roused his companions and theystared out at a world rapidly whitening under a driving storm of snow.
“This will never do!” cried Ned. “We’ve got to get a move on or we’ll besnowed in down here!”
After a quick breakfast of bacon, eggs, rolls and coffee, the boyshastened down to the lake. The snow was, as yet, only about two inchesdeep, but it was whipping out of the north with a power that warned ofmuch more to come. Sails were quickly hoisted and the _Frost King_ shotaway, homeward bound.
Holding close enough to the shore so that its dim outline served as aguide, Ned kept his bearings; and although slowed somewhat by the fastgathering snow, the ice-boat made fair speed. Constant wind pressure hadclosed the shoreward end of the big crack and a cautious crossing wasmade without difficulty. Th
rough a six-inch depth of snow, the _FrostKing_ plowed to a stop beside the dock at Truesdell, where the crews ofother boats were busily engaged in removing the canvas from their craft.
“That’s what we’ve got to do right now,” declared Ned. “This storm feelslike a genuine blizzard that will probably put an end to ice-boating forthe rest of the winter.”
As rapidly as possible the sails were removed, the stiffened canvasfolded up and stored in a safe place and the boat itself hauled as farup on shore as possible, pending the time when the boys would return herto her former place of storage.
“Well, we’ve had a bully time and a swell feed and have fifteensimoleons to divvy up among the crew of the _Frost King_,” chortledTommy Beals as they trudged homeward. “I’ll say that’s good enough foranybody.”
“Yes, it’s O.K.,” agreed Ned, “but I’m going to keep my eye out for thatfellow in the fur coat, and the next time I get a look at him, I’ll tryto find out who he is or whom he reminds me of.”
As it transpired, however, many months were to pass and many strangehappenings were to take place before Ned Blake again found himself faceto face with the mysterious stranger.