offered a chance of
greater speed than Captain Benson could make at a walk, so he quickly
engaged the rig and was driven to the place where the Secret Service
men were stopping.

"You've brought us the only thing like a real clue that we have,"
declared Mr. Trotter, very frankly, after he had heard Jack's story.
"Wait a moment, and I'll have Packwood get busy over the telephone."

Within the next twenty minutes not only had the jail been telephoned
to; Packwood also talked with all the nearby railway stations in that
section of the country.

"If those rascals can be found," declared Trotter, "I think we shall
have gone a long way in clearing up the matter. As you say, the fellow
Gaston has more reason than any of the rest of the crowd to want a
complete revenge against you."

Then Mr Packwood left to walk through the little town around Spruce
Beach, to see whether he could encounter any two worthies who answered
to the description of Leroux and Stephanoulis.

Before half-past nine, however, word came that local constables at a
little railway town a dozen miles away had arrested a couple of suspects
and were bringing them to Spruce Beach. The prisoners had been taken
while waiting for a north bound train, and had tickets all the way
through to New York.

Then Jack hastened back to Messrs. Farnum and Pollard to report what was
in the air.

"By Jupiter, Jack, I knew you had some thing strong in your mind when
you left us," gasped the shipbuilder. "But I didn't imagine you'd run
down the wretches as swiftly as that."

"We don't yet know that we've got the right hair," replied Captain Jack.

"I'm willing to wager money on it, if it comes to that," retorted Mr.
Farnum.

Before noon the two prisoners were brought into Spruce Beach. Trotter
and Packwood stopped, in a 'bus with the prisoners, to show them to Jack
at the hotel.

"That pair look rascally enough to do any dirty trick," declared Jacob
Farnum, in high disgust, as he looked over Leroux and Stephanoulis.

The prisoners were, indeed, "hard hooking." Both were men below average
size, with sullen, defiant eyes. Both were dressed roughly, like
laborers. Yet, when taken, each had been found to have a considerable
sum of money about him.

"We can't make either of the fellows talk, but maybe they will later,
when we begin to employ some of the third degree on them," whispered
Mr. Trotter to Jack. "My boy, I think you've put us on the real trail.
If