It was arranged that Van should drive him over in the gig. If Ralph made any important discoveries that required active attention, he was to remain on the scene. If not, he promised to return to "headquarters" on his way back to Stanley Junction.
Ralph reached Dover about noon, and put in four hours' time. He located Jacobs, the man to whom the stolen fittings were to have gone, he saw the local police, and he gathered up quite a few facts of possible interest to Matthewson, but none indicating the present whereabouts of Ike Slump, his tramp friend, or the load of plunder.
"Did you find out much?" Van inquired, as they started homewards about five o'clock.
"Nothing to waste time over here," replied Ralph. "I imagine the Great Northern has seen the last of its two thousand dollars' worth of brass fittings, and Stanley Junction of Ike Slump, for a time at least."
The Gibson habitation was more accessible from this end of The Barrens than from the point at which Ralph and Van had four days previously entered it.
There was a road for some ten miles, and then one along a winding creek for half that distance. Beyond that lay the jungle.
The sun was just going down when they forded
