Through the gathering gloom and mist she beheld the two men. The younger, whom Mary had addressed as “Bud,” could not have been more than eighteen or nineteen years of age, but his face was that of the hardened criminal. He bore a marked resemblance to Mary, and Nancy correctly judged that they were brother and sister. She had never set eyes upon him before.
“Why, he wasn’t the man I followed to Winchester!” she ruminated. “I wonder who that other man could have been!”
Glancing toward the older man who was following Bud up the path, she gave a little start of recognition. It was the stranger with the hooked nose!
“He must be a friend of Bud’s and happened to be carrying his address,” she reasoned. “That’s why I thought he may have been Mary’s brother.”
In her excitement at the discovery, Nancy unwittingly agitated the leaves of a bush against which she was leaning. She quickly ducked down out of sight, but to her horror Mary had noticed the movement, slight as it was.
“What was that?” she demanded tensely. “I saw those bushes move.”
“Only the wind,” Bud answered indifferently. “Don’t be such a coward.”
“I’m not a coward,” Mary retorted hotly. “But this business we’re mixed up in is beginning to give me the jim-jams!”
“Aw, lay off on the fighting,” the older man interposed bluntly. “It’s going to storm and we’ve got to make our getaway.”
“Yes,” Mary agreed quickly, “we must collect our things and escape before the river becomes rough.”
“We’ll split three ways and settle everything tonight,” Bud added.