"The hold-up men may be in that boat," remarked Orme. "Hardly." A laugh accompanied the answer. "Well, why not? She came north an hour or so ago and either was beached or lay to until just now." "You may be right." Then, before Orme knew what was happening, the young man opened the door and called into the station: "Hey, there! Your robber is escaping on that motor-boat out there." "What's that?" The policeman strode to the door. "Don't you hear that boat out there?" asked the life-saver. "Sure, I hear it." "Well, she came up from the south an hour or more ago and stopped a little north of here. Now she's going back. Mr. Holmes, here"--he grinned as he said it--"Mr. Holmes suggests that the hold-up man is aboard." The reference to the famous detective of fiction was lost upon the policeman. "I guess that's about it, Mr. Holmes," he said excitedly; and Orme was much relieved to note that the life-saver's humorous reference had passed for an introduction. The policeman would have no suspicion of him now--unless Maku---- There was an exclamation from within the room. "What's the matter?" asked the policeman, turning in the doorway. The voice of Asuki replied: "He say the robber came in a bicycle--not in a boat." "But I thought he didn't see the fellow coming." "He remember now." The policeman started. "How did he know what we were talking about out here?" he demanded. "He understand English, but not speak it," replied Asuki readily. To the policeman this explanation was satisfactory. Orme, of course, found in it a corroboration of his guess. Maku evidently did not wish suspicion directed against the motor-boat. The policeman re-entered the station, eager to avail himself of the information which Maku was now disposed to give him. Orme turned to the life-saver. "The Jap is lying," he said. "Think so?" "Of course. If he understands English so well, he certainly knows how to make himself understood in it. His story of the bicycle is preposterous." "But what then?" "Doesn't it occur to you that perhaps the Jap himself is the robber? His intended victim may have got the better of him." "Yes," said the young man doubtfully, "but the fellow ran." "That would be natural. Doubtless he didn't want any notoriety. It's possible that he thought he had killed his assailant, and had an unpleasant vision of being detained in the local jail until the affair could be cleared up." The life-saver looked at Orme searchingly. "That sounds pretty straight," he said at last. "I guess you know what you are talking about." "Perhaps I do," said Orme quietly. "In any event I'd like to see who's in that boat out there." "There isn't a boat nearer than Chicago that could catch her. They have run her several miles out into the lake before turning south, or she would have been pretty close to Chicago already. She's going fast." The roar of the motor was indeed becoming a far-off sound. "Why not telephone the Chicago police to intercept her?"