“Not long now,” he said, as the vehicle bounced and jounced over the ruts and stones of the little-used thoroughfare.

“This is a funny direction for your partner to live in,” said Roy at length.  “There are not many dwellings out this way, nothing but a big swamp, as I recollect it.”

“My partner, he poor man,” was the rejoinder.  “He live with cousins out here.”

The answer lulled Roy’s rousing suspicions.

“It must be all right,” he thought.  “There can’t be any trick in all this.  It’s quite likely that Mortlake does want to play us a mean trick.  I can’t forget the look he flashed at me the day we took Lieut.  Bradbury away from him in that meadow after we had made our first sea trip.  Wow!”

Roy could not forbear smiling at the recollection.

They chugged along in silence for some little distance farther, and then the man beside him laid a detaining hand on Roy’s arm.

“Almost there now,” he said.  “Better slow up.”

Roy did so.  The brakes ground down with a jarring rasp.

At the same moment a dark figure stepped from behind a tree trunk.  The man beside Roy held up a hand.

“This is the young gentleman,” he said.

Through the gloom the other figure now approached the automobile.

“Do you mind getting out?” it said.  “We can talk better in the house.”

“Where is the house?  I don’t see one,” said Roy, his suspicions rousing a little.

“It’s just behind that knoll.  The path is just ahead,” said the newcomer.

Roy got out.  He was determined to see the adventure through now.  If Mortlake was plotting against him, he wanted to know it.

As he reached the ground, the newcomer extended his hand, as if offering to shake Roy’s palm.

Roy put out his hand, which was instantly grasped by the other.

“Your friend tells me that you have something interesting to tell me——­” began Roy.  “I—­here, what are you trying to do?  Stop it!”

The other had seized his hand in a clutch of steel, and, before the astonished boy could offer any resistance, had wrenched it over in such a manner that, without exactly knowing what had occurred, Roy found himself sprawling on his back.

The lad was helpless in this lonely place with two men who had now shown themselves in their true and sinister character.

CHAPTER XIII.

PLOT AND COUNTERPLOT.

The spot was fearfully lonely.  Roy realized this to the full.  Brave as the lad was, he felt suddenly chilled and creepy.  Besides, the utter mystery that enveloped the affair was gruelling to the mind.

“Now be still,” pleaded the late guide, as Roy, full of fight, jumped to his feet and flung off the detaining hold which had been laid on him.

“Yep.  We don’t want to hurt you,” chimed in another voice, the voice of the powerful, stockily-built man who had thrown him, “be reasonable and quiet now, and you’ll come to no harm.  If not——­” he drew a pistol and presented it at the boy’s head.