"Where"s the lake?" asked Sanford, when they had been riding about two hours.
"O, the road don"t go near the lake, till we get to the place where we cross," replied Ole, who was carrying out in good faith the arrangement he had made with the cashier.
"How shall we cross the lake?"
"In a steamer which goes at seven o"clock in the morning."
"All right," replied the unsuspecting Sanford.
"We shall come to a large town at noon; and we musn"t stop a minute there, or those fellows will find where they are. We can tell them it is Kongsberg, you know," added the wily waif.
"Just so," laughed Sanford; "we"ll tell them it is Kongsberg, and they won"t know the difference."
"I don"t think they will."
At noon, agreeably to the promise of Ole, the travellers arrived at the large town, where they were obliged to change horses.
"This is Kongsberg, Burchmore," said the c.o.xswain.
"Is it, really? or are you playing some trick upon us?" replied the cashier.
""Pon my word this is Kongsberg. Isn"t it, Ole?"
"Yes, certainly," answered the waif, winking slyly to Burchmore.
"All right, Sanford; if you are satisfied, I am."
"I know it is Kongsberg. I have been here before," added Clyde, wishing to give his testimony in carrying out the deception.
It was quite true that he had been in Kongsberg, but Ole took care that he should not go to the part of the town he had visited before.
The road looked familiar to him; but as he rode alone, he had no opportunity to state the fact to others. Before night the party arrived at Drammen, where a regular line of steamers runs to Christiania.
"That"s the lake--is it?" said Sanford, pointing to the Drammen River, which, below the town, is nearly two miles wide.
"That"s it."
"What does Burchmore say? Does he know where he is?"
"Not yet; I shall tell him this is Drammen, and he will believe me."
"Good! and we will all stick to it that this is Drammen," added Sanford.
"But suppose we should meet some one here who knows about the ship?
This is a large town--bigger than that other which we called Kongsberg."
"Whom can we meet?"
"I don"t know."
"I should hate to have any one tell the princ.i.p.al that we have been to the Rjukanfos."
"Some of the officers may come up here."
"We must keep out of sight, then."
Others thought this would be good policy in a large town. As they were fatigued, they retired early, and did not come down the next morning till it was nearly time to leave in the steamer. They all went on board, and were soon moving down the river.
"Are we going across the lake, Ole?" asked Sanford.
"This is a kind of arm of the lake, about a dozen miles long. We shall come to the lake in a couple of hours," replied the waif.
"All right; but it must be a very large lake."
"The biggest in Norway."
In a couple of hours the steamer arrived at Holmsbo, on the Christiania Fjord.
"Now you can see that this is a large lake," said Ole.
"But where are we?" demanded Burchmore. "Is this the way to Christiania?"
"Certainly it is," replied Sanford, who did not yet recognize the fjord, though the truth could not be much longer concealed. "Don"t you know this water?"
"No, I don"t."
"This is Christiania Fjord."
"Is it, really?"
"Yes, it is; you can bet your life upon it."
"I am satisfied then."
In another hour the steamer was fairly in the fjord; Sanford and Stockwell began to rub their eyes; for the scenery looked strangely familiar, though they could not fully identify anything.
"What place is that ahead?" asked Sanford. "I am almost sure I have seen it before."
"So am I," replied Stockwell.
"That place?" added the cashier.
"Yes; what is it?"
"If this is Christiania Fjord, that must be Drobak. I have a map here," said Burchmore, producing his book, and displaying the map.
"Here we are; there"s Holmsbo, and this must be Drobak."
"I don"t understand it," replied the perplexed c.o.xswain.