TRACKED TO THE BAYOU.
"Oh! I hope it won't turn out as bad as that, Jack!" gasped George.
"The poor spalpeen!" whimpered Jimmy, apparently shocked by what their
leader had just remarked.
"Now," Jack hastened to say, "don't make up your minds, boys, that Josh
has run against that sort of a hard deal, just because it flashed into
my mind. You wanted to know why I was in such a sweat, and I told you.
But, honest Injun, after I've spoken my mind, I just can't bring myself
to believe it. We'll find our chum, sooner or later. Perhaps, after all,
it'll turn out that he had a bad tumble, and hurt himself so he wasn't
able to let us know."
"Well, as long as we're able to follow his trail, we hadn't ought to
give up in despair," George asserted, very sensibly.
"Sure, we've shown in the past that we're not built that way," Jimmy
thought fit to remark, firmly.
"Then let's be going on," Jack wound up the conference by saying.
For the fifth time the trail approached the water again. Josh evidently
hated to give up the idea that had been in his mind when he left camp.
If there were any of those dainty little shore birds to be had, he
wanted to get a crack at the same; though by this time he must have
become aware of the fact that he was wandering much farther away than he
had intended doing in the start.
This time there happened to be quite a deep-seated cove, with a point of
land running out that would completely shut out all sight of the spot
where the three motor boats were anchored, with the camp-fire ashore.
Jack noted this fact; somehow it was impressed on his mind, though he
could not have exactly explained why this should be so, had he been
asked.
The tracks grew fainter, so that it was only by pushing the glowing and
useful lantern down close to the sand that Jack was able to follow the
line by which Josh had pushed his way along.
"Here is where he dropped on his knees, the better to crawl forward,"
whispered the guide; and both George and Jimmy could make out the deeper
impressions that undoubtedly must have been made by a pair of knees
pressing down.
There was a screen of saw palmetto in front of them, hiding the water.
Perhaps Josh had discovered a flock of the coveted birds on a bar, and
was making his way to a point he had in mind, where he might suddenly
rise, and fire. But something must have prevented his carrying out this
plan, then, for certainly the sound of a heavy shotgun charge could have
been heard at the camp, had he pulled trigger. "Wait here for me, and
keep quiet," whispered Jack, as, leaving the lantern on the ground, he
started away.
His two companions were rendered almost speechless by his strange
action. They could only stare at each other, and nod their heads, as
though striving in this way to communicate their fears.
In two minutes Jack came back. He looked disappointed as he stooped to
pick up the lantern again.
"Nothing doing, boys," he said, quietly.
"They don't seem to be, and that's a fact," mumbled Jimmy, much
depressed.
"See here, what did you expect to find when you went on there?" demanded
George, immediately suspicious. "Was it anything about that bally old
boat, the one that's been dogging us all the way down from Jacksonville?
Tell me that, Jack, old top!"
"H'm! perhaps it may be the people aboard that same boat have come to
the conclusion _we're_ doing the dogging. They run across us in all
sorts of unexpected places. And if you stop to remember, George, it's
the other boat that has always slipped away secretly, not us!"
"You're right, it was," George flashed up; "but you didn't answer my
question, Jack."
"Well, I did have your pet hobby in mind when I went on just now, to
take a look at this fine little lagoon; because, with that point of land
standing in a half-moon curve, it looks like a splendid harbor for small
boats. And, to tell you the truth, I picked up the butt end of a
cigarette just back there five feet, one that was thrown away recently,
because no rain or dew had fallen on it!"
"Whew! now, that does look suspicious, I must say," George exclaimed, in
a low and cautious voice.
"But there isn't a sign of any boat in the bayou, as far as I could
see," Jack went on. "Of course, it's so dark now that I wasn't able to
take in the whole bay; but, anyhow, there isn't a light visible."
"And now, what nixt?" asked Jimmy, eager to get at the solution of this
perplexing problem, which was thrilling their nerves more and more as
they made progress.
For answer, Jack moved forward, this time using the friendly lantern as
before. Brushing through the screen of saw palmettos, they could see the
water lapping the shore of the lagoon, though there were still bushes
and tall grass between.
"Hello!"
Uttering this exclamation half under his breath, the leader of the trio
suddenly came to a halt. Jimmy half raised the gun he was carrying, as
though under the impression that they were about to be confronted by
something, either a human enemy or one in the way of a wild beast, that
would bar their further progress.
Then he saw that Jack, instead of showing signs of preparing for battle,
was on his knees, eagerly examining certain marks in the sand.
"What have you found?" asked George, in an awed tone.
"As near as I can make out, there are tracks that seem to tell of a
scuffle!" was the ready reply, as Jack pointed here and there.
"By the great horn spoon, but I believe you're right!" gasped George.
"It's either that, now, or else the gossoon's been and had a fit," Jimmy
declared, though he could not remember that Josh had ever been addicted
to such things.
"No; there have been two men here," said Jack.
"Glory be!" ejaculated the Irish lad.
"Tell us how you know that, Jack?" asked George, his face struggling
between a grin and a look of alarm.
"Why, it's as plain as print; and if you look here, you'll see the marks
of their shoes. Both seem much larger than Josh ever made, and yet they
are different, for one had heels, and the other must have been wearing
some sort of moccasin, perhaps the kind I've got, to be used aboard a
small, varnished decked boat, so as to avoid scratching."
"Didn't I say so?" burst out George, unable to hold in any longer.
"After this you won't think I'm off my base when I mention my suspicions
about fellows who run away in the night, peek through marine glasses at
us every chance they get, and just act like a parcel of sneaks. Jack,
that fly-up-the-creek power boat must have been in this bayou when our
chum came crawling through these bushes, and took a look out."
"That's about what I'm thinking, now," admitted the other.
"Some of the men happened to be ashore, and saw him spying on the boat?
Is that in line with what you think, Jack?"
"It looks that way. Two unknown parties certainly dropped down on Josh
while he was lying here. He put up as good a fight as he could, but they
were too much for the poor fellow," Jack went on, looking as though he
might be reading all these things from the marks upon the sand.
"But you don't say any signs of blood, do ye, Jack darlint?" asked
Jimmy, with a plain vein of horror in his quavering voice.
"No, I'm glad to say I don't," replied the other. "So, on that account
it would seem that the fellows haven't actually hurt Josh, only made him
a prisoner."
Jimmy gave a bleat, not unlike the pitiful sound a distressed goat might
emit.
"Och! thin the bally rascals have carried him away wid them, and we'll
niver set eyes on our chum agin. Whirra! whativer will Nick do about his
rations, if the cook of the bunch be lost, strayed or stolen?" he
whimpered.
"Nick be hanged!" said George, vehemently, though in a low tone; "never
fear but he'll get all he wants to eat. What we have to find out is
where they've gone, and why they dared carry Josh Purdue away with them.
And we'll just do that same, if it takes the whole of the winter. You
hear me speaking, don't you? Oh! what did you do that for, Jack?"
This last sentence was caused by a sudden action on the part of Jack. He
had raised the lantern, and with a quick, downward motion caused the
light to go out--a trick readily learned by any one who will take the
trouble to experiment. And thus they were left standing there in the
dark.
"How under the sun did it happen that none of us saw it before?" Jack
was softly saying, in a vexed tone, as though he had made a discovery
that agitated him.
"Saw what?" asked George.
"Bend your head this way, and look yonder through the bushes," Jack told
him.
"Great governor!" whispered the _Wireless_ skipper, hoarsely; "it _is_ a
light, as sure as shooting! And on the water, too, Jack. Say, that power
boat must be over there, in another bayou just beyond. There's a neck of
land runs out, and it's covered with trees and scrub. That's why we
didn't glimpse that light before."
"You've hit the nail on the head, George, for that's just the way the
land lies," Jack went on, trying to control his voice, which would
tremble a little despite his utmost endeavors. "But perhaps that light
wasn't shining a bit ago. There, look! it's disappeared again."
"That's what it has," Jimmy observed, having been an interested observer
all the while; "just for all the worrld loike a windy had been opened,
and shut again. I do be thinking mesilf that somebody was afther coming
out of the cabin to take a look around, and lift the door open the
while, that's all. Now he's gone in again, by the same token."
"I hope, then, he didn't just catch a glimpse of our light moving,
before I doused the glim," was the fervent wish expressed by Jack.
"I hardly think he did, Jack," George said, nervously. "You see, it was
standing on the ground up to the time you grabbed it up again. But what
ought we do now?"
"Make our way around that tongue of land the best way we can, and see
how things are there," Jack replied, without the slightest hesitation.
"Why not follow the beach around?" George suggested.
"Now, that wouldn't be a bad scheme. It's so dark that if we kept
low, they couldn't see us moving. And, besides, it'll save a lot of
scrambling through that brush, without the help of the lantern. All
right; come along then, boys. And let's remember to keep as quiet as an
owl in the daytime."
Saying this in a whisper, Jack led the way, the others following along
in Indian file at his heels. Whenever he halted for any reason, both
George and Jimmy would also draw up instantly. And no doubt, on every
occasion of this sort, their excited pulses would cause their hearts to
beat like trip-hammers.
Just as they had guessed, there was a point of land running out all of
seventy feet into the water, and hiding the next bayou. Sometimes these
extend from the main Florida shore around Barnes Sound like the fingers
of a human hand. Again they will be in the form of reefs, composed of
small, sharp-edged 'coon oysters, that stick up out of the salt water at
low tide, but are entirely submerged when the flood comes on.
Before reaching the extreme point, Jack concluded that it would be wise
for them to pass over here, rather than risk discovery by going to the
limit of the cape; where, with the white sand to serve as a background
to their darker bodies, some one on the watch might discover their
approach, and give warning.
"Jack, I see it!" whispered George, presently.
"The boat, you mean," replied the other, in the same guarded tone. "Yes,
I've caught her, too. But everything seems to be dark around."
"I wonder now, have they deserted the ould craft," suggested Jimmy.
"Not so loud, Jimmy; we've got to find that out for ourselves," Jack
went on.
"By going aboard, you mean, don't you, Jack?" from eager George.
"There's no other way; and if these people are holding our chum
a prisoner, we've just got to let them know we object to such a
high-handed business. Are you both willing to stand back of me, George,
Jimmy?"
"Every time," George replied; and Jack could easily imagine how his
excitable chum must be nerved up to the highest tension.
"Ye c'n count on me, through thick and thin, sink or shwim, survive or
perish," Jimmy put in, as solemnly as though he might be holding up his
hand, and subscribing to the oath before the court.
"Then come on, and we'll take the bull by the horns," said Jack, moving
forward through the thin growth that marked the spit of land near its
terminus.
"And don't let's forget, fellows, that we're armed to the teeth,"
whispered George, as he set out to trail close behind his leader.
In this manner, then, the three motor boat boys crawled across to the
shore of the other little bayou, bent upon making a bold move looking to
rescuing their comrade, if so be Josh were found to be a prisoner in the
hands of the strangers.