A TALK OF IMPORTANCE
“I say, you on the rocks! Come down here and let us talk to you!” shouted
Jerry Koswell.
“Who are you. What do you want?” asked a voice that was strange to the
Rovers.
“We want to know what you are doing on this island?” demanded another
person, Alfred Darkingham.
“What business is it of yours?”
“What business?” shouted Darkingham, wrathfully. “A good deal of my
business. This island belongs to my uncle and you have no right here.”
“Oh, is that so!” exclaimed the stranger. “I didn’t know that this island
belonged to anybody in particular.”
“Well, it does. Who are you anyway?”
“Oh, my name is of no account, since we are not acquainted,” answered the
stranger. “If this is your island, I suppose the only thing for me to do
is to get off of it.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Why—er—only looking around,” stammered the stranger.
“Are you alone?”
“Can’t you see that I am?”
“How did you get here?” asked Larkspur, who had come up. “We didn’t see
you land.”
“Oh, I came in a—er—in a motor boat, run by a friend of mine. He—er—he
said he would call for me later,” stammered the stranger.
The Rover boys listened to this conversation with interest, and gradually
drew closer, as the stranger came from the rocks to talk to Darkingham
and the others.
“Say, are you the fellow who abducted a lady!” cried Larkspur.
At this direct question the stranger started. “Why—er—what makes you
ask—er—that question?” he stammered.
“We know some fellows who are looking for a lady who was abducted—at
least, that is the story they told,” answered Koswell.
“Where did you see those fellows?” asked the stranger, and now he was
plainly excited.
“They were here awhile ago.”
“Here—on this island?”
“At the dock—but they didn’t land—we didn’t let ’em,” said Larkspur.
“Humph!” The stranger was thoughtful for a moment. “No, I don’t know
anything about a lady who was abducted,” he said slowly. “I am just
roaming around a bit. As soon as my friend comes back with the motor boat
I’ll leave the island. If I had known it was private property I shouldn’t
have come ashore at all.”
“Oh, I don’t mind a fellow roaming around a little,” said Alfred
Darkingham, loftily. “But we came here to camp out, and of course we
prefer to have the island to ourselves.”
“I see. Well—er—I shan’t disturb you. I—er—left my fishing outfit on the
opposite shore. I’ll go and get it, and then I’ll be ready to leave as
soon as my friend comes for me.”
“Oh, you needn’t be in such a tremendous hurry, Mr.——”
“Smith—plain John Smith,” filled in the stranger. “I’m stopping at Peak’s
Island.”
“My name is Alfred Darkingham. These are my friends, Jerry Koswell and
Bart Larkspur.”
“Koswell!” cried the stranger, in considerable surprise. “Did you say
Jerry Koswell.”
“Yes.”
“Did you—were you a student at Brill College?” asked the man who had
given his name as John Smith.
“Why, yes,” was the reply. “But I don’t remember you.”
“No, for you never met me. But I have heard of you, and I think I have
heard of your friend, Mr. Larkspur. Didn’t you once have some trouble
with some fellow students named Rover?”
“Yes,” answered Larkspur, and his brow darkened.
“Pretty bad trouble, too, wasn’t it?”
“Bad enough,” growled Koswell. “Are you a friend to the Rovers?” he
added, suspiciously.
“Oh, no, I don’t know them. But I heard of the trouble.”
“It was the Rovers’ fault,” said Jerry Koswell, sourly. “They put it off
on us, but they were to blame. We might have gone back to Brill, but we
didn’t think it was worth while; did we, Bart?”
“No, we had enough of the grind as it was,” answered Larkspur, glibly.
“Great Scott! just listen to that!” whispered Tom to his brothers. They
were behind some nearby bushes and could catch every word that was
spoken.
“Hush! or they may hear you,” was the warning, from Dick.
“Didn’t you once get a letter or two from a party named Tad Sobber?” went
on the fellow who called himself John Smith.
“I did!” cried Jerry Koswell. “Then you know Sobber?”
“Supposing I told you that I did?” And the strange man eyed Koswell
narrowly.
“Sobber wanted me to help him get square on the Rovers,” went on Jerry
Koswell.
“But you didn’t want to help him, is that it?”
“Yes, I did want to help him. I sent him a long letter to that effect,
but he never answered it.”
“A letter that you would help Sobber?”
“Sure. The Rovers treated me dirt mean, and I’d go out of my way a good
deal to get square.”
“So would I!” cried Larkspur.
“I don’t believe Sobber ever got your letter,” went on the stranger. “He
told me he had waited to hear from you but you hadn’t answered.”
“Then the letter got lost,” answered Jerry Koswell. “I am sorry if it
did, for I wanted to fix the Rovers.”
“And so did I,” echoed Larkspur.
“Well, maybe you can fix them yet,” went on the fellow who had called
himself John Smith. “You say you are going to camp out here?”
“Yes.”
“Then I may see you again in the near future. I am going to Peak’s Island
and then to Portland, and I may see Tad Sobber, and if I do, I’ll tell
him what you’ve said.”
“Do it!” cried Koswell promptly. “And tell him I am willing to help him
all I can against the Rovers.”
“And tell him that Bart Larkspur will help him, too,” supplemented that
individual.
“All right,” answered the stranger. “Of course you know it might be
a—er—a little risky, getting the best of those Rovers.”
“Oh, we’ll take a little risk,” answered Koswell. “But, say!” he almost
shouted. “I begin to smell a mouse!”
“Eh?”
“It was the Rovers who were here—looking for that lady who was abducted!”
“Well?”
“Did you and Sobber bring her here? Is she here now?” went on Koswell,
quickly.
“If—er—if Sobber was here, would you like to meet him?”
“Sure I would. And the lady who was abducted——”
“I can’t tell you anything about her. But—well, I might as well admit
it—Tad Sobber is on this island with me. He—er—he came on rather a
peculiar errand and he didn’t want anybody to know it. But I rather
think, as you are going to camp out here, he would like to meet you and
talk to you.”
“Where is he?”
“Up the shore a distance. If you’ll wait for me here I’ll hunt him up and
bring him to you.”
“Bring him down to our camp yonder,” put in Alfred Darkingham. “We are
going down there to get something to eat.”
“All right, I’ll bring him to your camp just as soon as I can locate him.
We’ll be there in less than an hour. So long!” And with a wave of his
hand, the stranger turned and hurried across the rocks and into the
bushes.
“I think I know that man!” whispered Sam, excitedly. “His name is Pally,
Jim Pally. He was one of the freight thieves who was in league with Sid
Merrick and Tad Sobber. He got away when the gang was rounded up,” he
added, referring to a happening, the particulars of which were related in
“The Rover Boys on the Farm.”
“And now he is aiding Sobber again,” said Tom. “Maybe he is the fellow
who helped in carrying Mrs. Stanhope off.”
“I think he is the rascal who got the fortune at the lumber company
office,” whispered Dick. “His appearance tallies with the description
Mrs. Stanhope left. Come on, let us follow him. I think he will lead us
directly to where Sobber and Crabtree are, and Mrs. Sobber and Mrs.
Stanhope, too.”
And Dick led the way with the others at his heels.