Sallie saw nothing strange in this apparent desire of Andy to hang around.  She was rather a pretty little thing, and of course knew it; so that she may have believed the witchery of her attractions had more or less to do with the matter.

Even when Frank asked so many queer questions about the absent boarder, Sallie was not wise enough to understand that the boys Were much more concerned about how Professor Whitesides amused himself, where his favorite lounging places seemed to be, and all that, rather than in her pretty face and merry laugh.

Her mother must have counted on having her assistance in carrying on her task of putting up preserves in the kitchen, for once more she called to Sallie to come and lend a hand for a few moments.

This left the two boys alone again, and gave them a chance for exchanging views, which they were not slow to do.

“I guess he doesn’t keep it around here, in this room, or anywhere close by,” was Andy’s first remark.

Frank chuckled on hearing this.

“Oh!  I see that you’ve got your mind set on recovering what was taken from the bank.  You’re a mercenary fellow, Andy.  But, then, since our fathers have more or less interest in the same bank, which is going to be mighty badly crippled if the cash and securities are not recovered sooner or later, why, I can’t blame you much.  I’d like to run across the loot myself, more than I can tell you.”

“I’m only afraid that if the men are taken prisoners to night, when they come to clean out the pay-car after it arrives in Bloomsbury, they’ll not have this other stuff with them, and will refuse to tell where it’s hidden.  That will be just as bad for the bank as if they’d got away to Canada with the swag, as the Chief calls it.  I wish I knew how we could track this Casper Blue to where the other yegg is hiding near the biplane, and watch them until we saw where they had the cache.  After that we could just hang around, and when they started in a power-boat perhaps for Bloomsbury, with Todd Pemberton at the wheel, we could do something to make the biplane useless to them, and then toward evening put for home ourselves.”

Frank listened while the other ran all of this off, and evidently he was more or less amused at what he heard.

“It’s plain to be seen that you’ve been doing some tall thinking and planning all this while, Andy,” he remarked.

“But you’ll admit, I guess, that if there was any way to carry out my scheme, it would be a jim dandy idea,” the other persisted.

“Of course; but that’s where the trouble lies.  Even if Casper did come back, we never could track him through the woods and around the swamps without his sooner or later discovering that he was being followed, because we’re not clever at that sort of thing.  And once he got wind of our being after him, chances are he’d lay some trap with his mate, into which both of us would tumble headlong.”