“Yes, sah,” was the reply, and the man readily pocketed the quarter that the oldest Rover tossed to him.

The boys ran to the tavern by a side entrance which was not far from the shed.  They walked along a porch until they came to some windows opening from a dining room.

“Look in there!” cried Tom, coming to a halt.

The others did as directed and saw, at one of the tables, the man they had seen on the deck of the Ellen Rodney.  “It’s Captain Rodney,” went on Tom, who had learned the name from the schooner’s mate.

“And he is alone, which proves that the others were in that auto with dad,” returned Sam.

“I’m going to interview him!” cried Dick.  “And maybe I’ll have him arrested.”

All three boys walked into the dining room of the tavern and took seats at the same table with the master of the schooner.  He started, and was about to spring to his feet, when Dick stopped him.

“Sit where you are,” said the oldest Rover boy, sternly.  “If you attempt to leave I’ll call the police.”

“What do you—­ er—­ mean?” stammered the man, and he looked decidedly uncomfortable.

“I reckon you know who we are, Captain Rodney,” said Tom.

“I don’t.”

“We are Anderson Rover’s sons,” said Sam.

“Never heard of that man,” faltered the captain.

“You had him a prisoner only a short while ago.”

“Oh, you mean that crazy man who was aboard my schooner?  I thought his name was Brown.”

“See here, Captain Rodney, you can’t fool us, so you had better not try,” said Dick, sternly.  “You know the game those men are trying to play.  They are going to prison for it,—­ and you’ll go, too, if you are not careful.”

“What! you threaten me!” roared the man, growing red in the face.

“I do.”

“I can have the law on you for it.”

“Go ahead, the sooner the better,” responded Dick, coolly.  “Those men are rascals and you know it.  Now, I am going to give you one chance—­ just one,” went on Dick, looking the master of the Ellen Rodney squarely in the eyes.

“What do you mean?”

“As I said before, those men are rascals.  They abducted my father, and you aided them.  I can prove it.  As soon as we rescue my father we are going to prosecute those rascals.  If you want to save your own skin you had better help us all you can.”

At these plain words the face of Captain Rodney became a study.

“They told me he was a crazy man—­ a brother to one of the others—­ and they wanted to get him to some sanitarium.”

“If that was so, why did they run away?”

“I didn’t know they ran away—­ until just now.”

“You started to go down the river,” said Tom.

“Why did you change your mind and come here?”

“They chartered the schooner for a week—­ I was under their orders.”

“Where were they going at first?”