A Baffling Situation
The compass worked admirably. Although the principle of the affair was
very simple, Hal must be given credit for having done his work well.
So satisfactory did the device prove from the moment when it began to
take messages from the "island prisoner", that all on board the
Catwhisker became hopeful of success before sun-down. "V A X" kept a
stream of waves leaping from his aerial for their guidance and the motor
boat chug-chugged along like a hunting hound made more and more eager by
the increasing excitement of the hunt.
"I wonder what's become of the fellow who tried to head us off," remarked
Hal as he left the supper table and prepared to relieve Cub at the
wireless. "You haven't heard anything from him, have you?"
"No, not a thing all day," Cub replied. "I guess we've tired him out. Did
you get anything from him, Bud?"
"Not a shiver of the wires," answered the latter.
"Maybe he's given us up as hopeless easy marks," Cub suggested.
"Why, do you think his story is true and 'Bobby Crusoe' is a fake?"
asked Hal.
"I don't know. I wouldn't be surprised to find almost anything--or
nothing--as we get near to the end of our hunt."
"But he must be on the island," Bud reasoned. "And he must have a
wireless set, or he couldn't have sent the messages we got. That much
is certain."
"Not all of it," Hal objected.
"Why?" Bud demanded.
"Maybe he isn't on an island."
"You mean, maybe the whole thing's a fake--eh?"
"Maybe."
"If the whole thing's a fake, then that other fellow who tried to head us
off must 'ave been a party to the game," Cub interposed.
"There wouldn't be much sense in that," said Bud.
"I agree with you," Cub continued. "The scrap between those two hams was
genuine enough."
"But they were holding something back from us," Hal declared.
"Both of them?" asked Bud.
"I shouldn't be surprised."
"Nor I, either," said Cub.
"Then they've put one over on us," was Bud's inference. "Are you
sorry we came?"
"I? No, sir!" Cub emphasized. "It's a dandy adventure, whatever the
result. I didn't swallow that Crusoe story whole at any time."
"Neither did I," said Hal.
"I thought there were some funny things about it," Bud announced
reflectively; "but I didn't know how to put them together or take
'em apart."
"That was my fix," said Cub; "and it's my fix yet."
"I guess we all agree that the whole affair is very strange," Hal
concluded. "We really don't believe we've been told the truth, and yet we
get in worse trouble when we try to make something else out of it."
"I wonder what your father thinks about it, Cub," said Bud.
"Oh, he accepts it at its face value for the sake of the adventure," the
tall youth replied. "But he's wise enough to know there may be a lot of
hocus-pocus in the business."
For nearly two hours the motor boat wound its way at a fairly good clip
among the picturesque islands of the upper St. Lawrence, the radio
compass fixing the course as certainly as the hunter's pursuit is
directed by the nose of his hound. They had no way of telling, at any
time, how far ahead was the object of their search, but they had the
satisfaction of knowing that they were constantly approaching it. At last
an unexpected climax threw their hitherto clear prospect into confusion.
This climax grew out of a series of confounding messages from the "lost
islander".
"I see you coming," was the first of these messages.
"Where is he?" asked Cub and Bud in chorus. Hal was at the table and the
other two boys were listening-in.
"I don't know," replied the operator. "One of you boys go on deck and see
what you can see."
Cub dashed up the companionway two steps at a time. In a few moments he
returned with the announcement:
"There's an open stretch of four hundred yards ahead of us. He's probably
on the island at the other end. I'm going back on deck and watch for
developments."
There was a speaking tube communicating between the pilot house and the
cabin and through this Cub kept his boy friends acquainted with the
progress of the search. They reached the island in question, but not a
sign of human life was discoverable on it. The motor boat passed around
it, and meanwhile the radio-compass found the strength of its receiving
directly down stream. Cub communicated this condition to the cabin, and
Hal dot-and-dashed the following to "VAX":
"Where are you? We can't see you."
"I saw you," was the reply. "I climbed a tree and saw you headed right
for this group of islands."
"No, no," objected Hal. "It must be another yacht."
"Aren't you a white cruiser with awning mid and aft, and pilot house on
bridge deck?" asked "VAX".
"Yes," answered Hal.
"There's somebody calling us," remarked Bud at this point.
"Yes, I get 'im," returned Hal. "Why, it's the mysterious guy who tried
to head us off night before last and yesterday."
Both boys read the "mysterious guy's" first send with eager impatience.
It was as follows:
"He's making sport of you. Mark my word, when you reach the island,
he'll be gone."
"Keep out, you pirate," ordered Hal.
"All right, but you'll call yourselves a bunch of fools."
The next instant the "island prisoner" broke in thus:
"Hurry; they are after me. I think they are the ones who marooned me
here. Their boat looks like yours, I guess."
"See!" exclaimed Bud. "This makes things look bad. If those fellows are
robbers they're armed. We haven't a gun on board, and if we had we
wouldn't want to get in a fight over an affair that looks more like a
joke than a tragedy."
"And yet it may be a tragedy," said Hal.
At this moment Cub reappeared in the cabin and the situation was
explained to him.
"It begins to look like a tragedy," he admitted; "and yet if we treat
it as a tragedy and it proves to be a joke, we'll feel like a comedy
of errors."
"Now, you're getting highbrow, Cub," was Hal's mock objection.
"It's common sense, isn't it?" the youthful philosopher reasoned.
"Yes, but you forget one thing," the sly-eyed Hal rejoined: "With so much
Q R M, it's very hard to pick out common sense in an affair like this."
"That's true," replied the other. "We've had more interference in this
trip thus far than anything else."
"And the big question now is, how're we goin' to tune it out?"
"I confess, I'm stumped," said Cub. "Guess we'll have to refer the
whole matter to father, but I bet he'll be up against it just as much
as we are."
Cub turned toward the companionway with the intention of seeking an
interview with Mr. Perry in the wheel house, but Hal delayed him again.
"Wait a minute," said the operator. "Here's our island friend again."
Cub and Bud donned their phones once more. The message received was more
startling than any preceding.
"They are coming ashore," was dot-and-dashed into the three boys' ears.
"I see four bad-looking men. I am going to run before they see me
and--maybe--swim. Good-bye."
"What in the world shall we do?" exclaimed Bud.
"I'm going to find out," declared Cub, as he dashed out of the cabin.
Hal, meanwhile, was busy again. The mysterious amateur who had
persistently attempted to turn the supposed near-tragedy into a joke was
spitting the Catwhisker's call again.
"Fools!" he flashed spitefully. "Goodnight."