CAPTAIN ROYAL
When the three boys reached the cave where they had last seen Frank
Hardy they piled the driftwood in a heap close by one of the pits in
the floor.
They were surprised at the number of holes and crevices they had
discovered.
"It's a wonder we weren't all killed," said Chet. "We were all prowling
around this cave without any idea of the danger."
"It's a good place to stay out of," Joe remarked. "But first of all
we'll try to get Frank out of it too."
He was trying to be hopeful, but it was difficult. The ominous silence
since his brother's disappearance had been none too encouraging.
They lit the fire. In a short time, the flames flared high and a
flickering radiance illuminated the cave, revealing the damp ceiling
high above, the clammy walls in the distance, and the rough floor,
seamed and pitted with cracks and holes in the rock.
Methodically, they resumed their search, investigating each of these
gigantic crevices. But in spite of all their shouts, in spite of the
fact that they were enabled to make a more thorough search now that the
cave was not as dark as it had been, in spite of the fact that Joe even
descended one of the shallower pits on the chance that Frank might be
lying unconscious at the bottom, their search was in vain.
"I'm afraid it's no use," said Biff finally.
"I hate to give up!" declared Joe. "And yet--we've done all we can."
"Better have some sleep and try again to-morrow," Chet suggested.
"Frank is either unconscious or--or dead. Some of these pits seem
terribly deep."
Joe realized that the advice was reasonable. They were all very tired
and in no condition to continue the search. As Chet said, if Frank were
alive or conscious, he would have shouted to them.
"All right," agreed Joe. "We'll go back to the other cave. But I'm
afraid I'll never be able to sleep."
"We'll have a rest, anyway. Then we'll come back. If we still can't
find him we'll go back to the village and get some men to help us with
ropes and big searchlights. We'll never go back to Bayport until we
find out what has happened to him."
Disconsolately, the boys turned away.
They were almost at the entrance of the second cave when they heard a
faint sound.
Joe wheeled about.
"What was that?"
They listened. The sound was repeated. It was like a distant cry.
"Somebody calling!" declared Biff excitedly.
"It must be Frank!"
The boys stood quite still and listened for a repetition of the call.
It came again, muffled and far away, but unmistakably a human voice.
With one accord, they turned and ran back into the cave.
"It's Frank!"
They hurried across the treacherous floor in the direction of the
sound. It was clearer now.
"Joe! Joe!"
They recognized Frank's voice.
The call came from a part of the cave that they had not searched
carefully. Joe shouted back excitedly:
"We hear you, Frank! Call again, so we'll know where to find you!"
Again came the faint shout. It guided them toward a pit that was almost
hidden from view by a huge boulder. It was one of the few pits that
they had overlooked.
Evidently Frank had seen the reflection of their searchlights, for he
shouted weakly:
"Right over here."
At the edge of the pit, they looked down.
There, just a blur in the gloom, they distinguished a figure. Frank was
standing up, leaning against the side of the rocky shaft, just a few
yards below.
Chet had brought with him a length of stout rope and he quickly flung
one end of this down into the pit.
"We'll have you out of there in no time. Boy, but it's good to hear
your voice again!" There was heartfelt relief in his tones.
Frank explained that the sides of the pit were too steep to enable him
to make his way to the surface without assistance. However, with the
aid of the rope, and with Joe and his chums pulling lustily, he was
soon hauled to the top.
[Illustration: HE WAS SOON HAULED TO THE TOP.]
As he scrambled up out of the pit, the others noticed, in the glow of
the fire, that he had a nasty gash across his temple.
"You're hurt!" said Joe, when the first exclamations of enthusiasm and
delight had died down.
"I'm all right now," Frank assured them. "I'm a little dizzy yet, and
weak, but it isn't serious."
"What happened?"
"I fell down the pit, and I struck my head against the rocks. It must
have knocked me out for a few minutes but when I came to, I began to
shout."
"A few minutes!" exclaimed Chet. "We've been hunting for you over an
hour."
Frank looked incredulous.
"An hour! Why, I thought I had been unconscious only a little while."
The others then told him of the search they had made and of their
anxiety on his account. However, they were so relieved at seeing him
safe and sound again that they soon forgot the serious side of the
affair and Chet remarked that Frank had been lucky in having an hour's
sleep while the rest had been shouting their lungs out. They trooped
out of the cavern back toward their own cave, and Joe told his brother
about the missing supplies.
"That's queer," said Frank. "Were they stolen while we were in the big
cave?"
"It looks like that."
"But the man who woke us up went into the big cave ahead of us."
"He may have hidden and we might have passed him."
"That's possible. Perhaps it wasn't a man at all. The thief might have
been an animal."
The others had not considered this explanation.
"No use crying over spilled milk now," declared Frank. "We'd just
better go back to sleep and hunt for our supplies in the morning."
When morning came, a diligent search of the cave failed to reveal any
clues that would help the boys trace the thief, whether man or animal.
"We're out of luck, that's all," concluded Frank finally. "Our friend
must have fooled us nicely. Perhaps he came into the cave to steal
supplies in the first place, then slipped past us in the darkness when
we went to look for him."
"And helped himself," said Chet gloomily.
"He left something, at any rate. We won't starve to-day, and if our
grub runs out we can go back to the village for more. We'll make the
best of it. Let's start exploring the shore-line. That's what we came
for."
The matter of the stolen supplies was thus dismissed, although Chet
was very gloomy for some time as he thought of the food that had been
taken, notably a tin of strawberry jam, of which he was inordinately
fond.
The storm was over, and from the cave they could see the sun shining
on the blue waters of the sea. They lost no time in eating breakfast
and then hastening down to the beach. Although they were dubious as to
the advisability of leaving their remaining supplies in the cave, they
reasoned that as it was impossible to take the provisions everywhere
with them, they would have to run the risk of further theft.
Out on the beach, beneath the lowering black cliffs, they forgot the
unfortunate beginning of their quest in the delight of the keen, salty
air and the cool breeze from the sea. The sandy shore wound about the
face of a great bluff of black rock and when the lads had skirted this
precipice they were confronted by a dark opening at the base of the
cliff just a few yards away.
"Another cave!" exclaimed Frank.
Chet gave a cheer.
"Let's investigate."
They advanced on the cave, but when they were just in front of the
entrance they halted with exclamations of surprise.
Tacked on a board stuck in the sand beside the cave-mouth was a
tattered fragment of paper. On it, in black letters scrawled with a
heavy pencil, they read:
NO TRESPASSING.
The boys looked at this sign in astonishment.
"By order of the chief of police," murmured Chet, with a grin.
"Looks as if somebody has been here before," Biff observed.
"Perhaps somebody just put up the sign for a joke. Let's take a peep
inside."
Frank advanced toward the cave.
But at the entrance he paused. He peered into the gloomy beyond and
then turned back to his companions.
"The sign isn't a joke," he said quietly. "Somebody lives here!"
"_Lives_ there!" ejaculated Chet incredulously.
"Come and see for yourself."
Curiously, the lads crowded into the entrance of the cave. They saw at
a glance that Frank was right. In the gloomy interior of the cave they
could see a crude table, a mattress with blankets, and on a ledge of
rock was an improvised cupboard consisting of an old soap box. That the
cave had only been recently tenanted they saw by the fact that the box
held some canned goods and some other provisions that had certainly not
been there long.
"Well, I'll be switched!" declared Joe. "We have a neighbor."
"We certainly have. And if I'm not mistaken, here he comes now."
Frank was looking down the beach. The others turned.
"What a queer duck he is!" exclaimed Biff.
"I'll say he is!" ejaculated Chet Morton. "Where do they get 'em like
that?"
Coming around a jutting promontory of rock was a queer old man, clad in
fisherman's garb, with a huge straw hat on his head. He had not seen
them as yet. He was singing, in a high-pitched voice, and even at that
distance they could make out the words:
"I'm Captain Royal, of the King's Navee,
And I want two lumps of sugar in my tea."