“Maybe that’s as good a place as any,” the girl admitted, after a moment’s thought.
“Sure it is,” Tom urged. “We can leave her there until we decide what to do with her.”
“If we play our cards right there ought to be some extra money in this deal,” Bud observed slyly. “Old man Drew should come across heavily to save his only daughter.”
“My father won’t pay you a cent!” Nancy broke in furiously. “He’ll track you down and see that you all land in prison!”
“Not much he won’t!” Tom sneered. “He’ll be only too glad to fork over the cash when we get through with him.”
Nancy subsided, for she realized that she only wasted breath by arguing with her captors. How worried her father would be when he learned that she had been kidnapped! She did not doubt that in his anxiety for her safety he would turn over any sum demanded by the conspirators. She felt sick at heart to think that she had brought so much trouble upon her father. If only she had used more caution and had brought the police with her when she visited the Mason house!
“Well, let’s be getting out of here,” Tom Tozzle said to his two companions. “It’s late, and we ought to be on our way.”
Mary Mason glanced anxiously out of the window.
“It’s storming worse than ever,” she announced uneasily. “I don’t like to start now.”
“We’ve got to,” Bud insisted.
“But the river is so high. I can hear the water pounding against the dock.”