As soon as they had lifted Dory to his feet, one of them gave a prolonged whistle upon some instrument. There were two of them at the shore, and the prisoner was confident there had been no more than two in the office. If there had been three who passed over the road, he could not have failed to discover their tracks. He had looked in several places, and always with the same result; and he concluded that one of the party had remained with the boat while the others went to "make the break." By this time it was perfectly evident to Dory that the lantern in the road was a decoy,--a trick to make the pursuers believe that the robbers had returned to the vicinity of Beech Hill. Unhappily for him, the plan had been successful, and he had fallen into the trap. But the marauders had reached the shore where their boat awaited them, and there had been nothing to prevent them from embarking. In the darkness they could easily have made their escape. Dory was unable to explain the action of his captors in this respect. "We are all right now," said one of the burglars, when they had bound the prisoner. "Do you suppose Mack heard that whistle, Angy?" "Of course he did, Chuck," replied the one addressed as Angy. "The wind makes a tremendous noise," suggested Chuck. "I will walk up to that road, if you like, and see if he is coming." "We are in no hurry, for we can't get out of this bay. It is blowing a hurricane," added Angy. "But Mack may get into hot water if he goes too far in that direction. They have rung an alarm-bell, and the whole town will turn out: there will be a crowd of them this way before long." "All right, then: go up to the road, for that light may give them a clew to us," added Angy. Chuck started up the cart-path, and there was now light enough for him to see his way so that he could move at a rapid pace. Dory looked about him, and strained his muscles a little to ascertain the strength of the cords with which he was bound. It was still too dark for him to see the face of the robber remaining with him; and if he had seen him, he would not have recognized him, for he had not seen him face to face before. Chuck was not gone ten minutes before he returned with Mack, who had used the dark-lantern in the road. They came back in a hurry, and both of them seemed to be in a flurry. If they were professional burglars, they certainly lacked the coolness of long practice. The dark-lantern had been put out, and Dory could not see the faces of any of the trio. "They are after us!" exclaimed Mack, with no little trepidation in his manner. "Of course they are after us," replied Angy, who appeared to be the chief of the party. "The whole neighborhood will be out, for they rung that bell long enough and loud enough to wake the dead. But we are all right now, and you needn't vex your gizzard about any thing." "But it is daylight, and it will soon be light enough to show us up to all the world," added Mack.