“No?  Are you sure?  He’s been in Lanesport lately, hasn’t he?”

“Oh, yes.  That’s where he lost the ‘Hoppergrass.’”

“That’s the man!” said he, “that’s the man.  Now, I tell you what.  He isn’t here now, but I expect he will be here tomorrow.  You’ve heard about the excursion, of course?”

“Yes,—­I read the hand-bills.”

“Well, I understand he is coming here tomorrow.  Now, have you got to go back to Lanesport tonight?”

“Just a second,—­excuse me just a second, Professor,” put in the tall man, “I’d like a word with you just for a second.  You’ll excuse me, young man, if I confer with the Professor for a second.  An important matter of business, you know.”

He drew the Professor, as he called him, some little distance up the wharf, where they whispered together for three or four minutes.  The tall man kept his hand on the Professor’s shoulder and seemed very earnest in what he was saying.

Then they came back to me.

“Were you going back to Lanesport tonight?” asked the Professor.

“Yes,” I replied, “if I didn’t find Captain Bannister.”

“I don’t believe you can now,” said he, looking at his watch.  “It’s half past four, and the last car leaves the Cove at four.  Besides, your surest way to find this Captain Bannister is to stay right here.  He’ll be here tomorrow, sure.  Then you can go back on the steamboat at noon, if you want to.  We’ll fix you up for tonight, and make you comfortable.  What do you say?”

There didn’t seem to be any way out of it.  If it had been the tall man alone I would have walked all the way back to Lanesport rather than stay.  I never saw anyone whom I disliked so much, from the very first instant.  But the Professor seemed perfectly straightforward.  The cars had stopped, and I was left here on Rogers’s Island, and might as well make the best of it.  Besides if Captain Bannister were coming in the morning it was foolish to lose this chance of finding him.

I decided to stay, and told them that I would do so.

CHAPTER IX

THE GOLD COMPANY

Two minutes later I had begun to regret my decision, and to wonder if it was a mistake to stay on the island.  I reflected that I was alone, with two strangers.  Yet they were posting advertisements, and asking everybody in Lanesport to come to the island tomorrow.  They would hardly do that if there was anything shady about them.  From the very first, I had no fault to find with the Professor.  The trouble with the other man was that he seemed to be so very, very good.

“Now, James,” said he, “we’ll leave the Professor to finish some work here, while you and I go up to the house. ...  Wonderful man, the Professor!” he continued, after the latter had vanished down the trap-door, and we had started up the hill,—­“wonderful man!  How future generations will bless his name!  That is it,—­that is all that induced me to become connected with this great enterprise,—­the blessedness of it!  I would never have anything to do with any work unless it was for the good of my fellowman.  I asked the Professor if his work was going to be for the benefit of all mankind.  He told me that it was.  Then I consented to come in with him.  He has a marvellous brain.”