All left the cab and hurried after Jesse Pelter, who was now all but out of sight. He passed between two buildings and the boys followed him slowly.
"Wait!" cried Dick presently. "Look!"
"Why, it's Crabtree!" exclaimed Sam, as another figure came into view—that of a heavily-bearded man with a slouch hat.
"Exactly," returned Dick. "Now keep back, or we may spoil everything," he continued, cautiously.
The three boys saw Pelter and Josiah Crabtree converse earnestly for several minutes. The man who had escaped from jail pointed to a big bundle he carried and Pelter nodded. Then both walked slowly across the railroad tracks to a dock jutting out into the Hudson.
At the dock lay a rowboat, with a man who looked like a sailor at the oars. Pelter and Crabtree climbed down into the boat, which was quickly shoved away. Then the sailor took up the oars and commenced to row out into the broad river.
"Now we are stumped!" murmured Tom, as he and his brothers watched the departure of the rowboat from behind a shed at the inner end of the dock.
"Let us watch that rowboat as far as we can,"
