Now, we'll say
the Vick girl was over there waiting for him when Miss Crown came
to the house,--a thing they couldn't have foreseen in view of
the fact that she shunned the place. Our hero comes up and enters
the house as if he owned it. The other girl hangs around outside
till it gets dark enough for her to risk making a getaway without
attracting my attention,--in case she saw me. She beats it back to
the river, and then, being afraid that I saw and recognized her, she
concludes to beat it to somebody's house over in the next county,
so's she'll have an alibi if I go to Miss Crown with the story.
Now, that's one way to look at it. The other angle is that she was
jealous and trailed Thane to his rendezvous, as my old friend Nick
Carter would say. In that case,--By thunder!" He gave vent to a
soft whistle.
"In that case, she may have jumped into the river and--No, that
doesn't hang together. She wouldn't have gone to the trouble to row
back to the other side. Wait a second! Now, let me think. Here's
an idea. We'll suppose somebody waylaid her over there on the other
side of the river, put the quietus on her and chucked her into
the water. Then he rowed across here and started for the turnpike.
Seeing me and also Thane, he turns back. It's a man I see in the
darkness instead of a woman. He goes back to the boat, rows over
to the other side again and--Holy Mackerel! Here's a new one.
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