"
"I am afraid you'd see more than enough of it," replied White, "for
they'll be keen on getting us this time. So we'd best be starting.
Hold on a minute, though; I want to leave proof behind that we haven't
gone off with either of the schooners."
With this he ran down to the oil house, in which their well-nigh
forgotten prisoner was still confined. Flinging open the door, he
said, in a tone of well-feigned regret:
"It is too bad, Monsieur Delom, that you should have been kept so long
in this wretched place, but I dared not attempt your release while
those terrible Yankees were here. Now, however, they are gone and you
are once more free. Also, as I realise that I can no longer maintain
my factory here, you are at liberty to make what use you please of its
contents. Accept my congratulations on your good fortune, monsieur.
As for me, I must now leave you to prepare for my journey to St. Johns."
With this White bade the bewildered Frenchman a mocking adieu, and left
him still blinking at the sunlight from which he had been so long
secluded.
A few minutes later the Baldwin house again stood, closed and
tenantless, while a cart driven by Cola, and accompanied by the two
young men on foot, climbed the hill back of the village by a road
leading to the nearest railway station. Monsieur Delom witnessed this
departure, as did many others, but no one saw the cart leave the
highway a little later and turn into a dim trail leading through an
otherwise pathless forest.
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