"
"Is that what that fellow told you?"
"I know what I am talking about."
"Vance is to be here to-night?"
"Yes."
"Well, it's time he was here."
The answer caused a laugh.
Rigby saw that the men were not satisfied, and he sought to
change the subject. He said:
"So old Pearce is dead?"
"He is."
"Where's the girl?"
"That's more than we'll tell you."
"I always thought Renie's good looks would bring trouble
to someone sooner or later," said Rigby.
"You don't think any of the gang had anything to do with
bringing harm to the old man?"
There came a general denial of any such suspicion.
The men, however, appeared to be quite restive as to the
identity of the man whom they had found prowling around.
Rigby went inside to report what he had heard to the
detective, and upon opening the door he uttered an exclamation
of astonishment.
"Well, this gets me," he muttered.
The room was vacant--the man had left.
"Where can he be?" muttered Rigby and he commenced a search,
but the man was nowhere to be found.
A curse fell from his lips.
"Have I been fooled, after all?" he muttered. "I'll be
shot if it don't look so."
The tavern-keeper continued his search, but it proved fruit
less; the man was nowhere to be found.
"I daren't go and tell the boys about this," he muttered: "but
it looks as though I had bees fooled."
The real fact was the tavern-keeper had been fooled.
Vance was not the man to depend upon hearsay. He had
followed after Rigby, and had overheard every word that
had passed between the man and his friends.
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