As a flash of lightning illumines a whole landscape, so did the first words of the other instantly recall to Jack why his voice had sounded so puzzlingly reminiscent. “A certain occasion on which you interfered with my plans!”
“Confound you! So you recognize my voice, do you? I didn’t mean you to. But, after all, it doesn’t much matter. By the time you rejoin your friends again I’ll be far away. Take his shoes off, Blinky.”
“What for?” he asked angrily. “What do you expect to find?”
“About five hundred dollars, and a similar sum in your friend’s shoes.”
Jack’s heart sank. How Duke had obtained his information he could not imagine, but it was true. He and Tom had decided to draw that sum each from their substantial deposits in the Camwell bank. Fearful of carrying such a large sum in bills of big denomination on their persons in ordinary fashion, they had decided to conceal them in their shoes.
It was not hard to hide the five one hundred dollar bills, placing three in one shoe and two in the other.
How could the man Duke have guessed where they carried their valuables, and how came he to know the route that they would take home—not the usual one between Camwell and their destination?
As if Duke had guessed the boy’s thoughts, he broke into a harsh laugh. Had it been light, the boy would have been able to see the yellow, puckered skin about the man’s nervous jowls quiver with merriment.
“I don’t forget easily,” he chuckled, “and when I saw you in Camwell, everything came back to me. I’m telling you all this so that any time you feel inclined to get into trouble with me again you’ll think twice.”
“Well?” demanded Jack, face downward in the dusty patch of cleared ground among the rank growth of weeds.
“You don’t recall seeing me at the bank, I guess?”
“I certainly do not. I should otherwise have been on guard against you,” was the indignant reply.
“As if a lad like you could match me in craftiness! Well, I was in the bank to deposit some funds of the Camwell Steel Company. It may interest you to know that I am now their trusted employee and chemical expert. I saw you and recognized you, though you did not, of course, recall me, for since our encounter, you see, I wear a beard.”