The Deserted Camp
Both the inner island and the surrounding rim of elongated isles were
covered with a thick growth of trees and bushes, a condition that caused
Hal to exclaim:
"I bet this is the place."
"What makes you so certain of that?" inquired Mr. Perry, looking sharply
at the boy.
"Because it's an ideal place for a Crusoe to be hidden so that passing
ships could not see him," Hal replied.
"But might he not swim over to one of these surrounding islands and
attract attention from there?"
"Yes, if there's a place to get ashore after swimming across," said Cub.
"There's nothing but high steep banks all along here, so far as I can
see," Bud remarked.
"That's a good line of observation," was Mr. Perry's commendation. "Now,
let's explore this island and see if your points are well taken."
Even the landing at which the boat now rested was not particularly
attractive as such at first view because of a rather difficult climb
between it and the main level of the island. However, all the members of
the band of "Crusoe hunters" were good climbers and they soon made their
way up the stony steep to the surface land level.
"It's funny somebody hasn't picked this place as a site for a summer
home," Mr. Perry remarked as he took a hurried view of his surroundings.
"The trouble is it doesn't look like a very interesting place from a
view out on the river, and there are hundreds of islands to choose
from," said Cub.
"Yes, I suppose so," his father agreed; "but in my opinion the place
deserves a second look-over. I'm going to keep it in mind as a future
prospect."
"We'll have to put up a radio station here then," said Cub.
"Oh, sure, we can't do without that wherever we go now-a-days," his
father replied.
They skirted the entire shore of the island and found Bud's suggestion
regarding high, steep banks to be true in every quarter. Not another
practical landing place, except with derrick or rope ladder, was
discovered. They estimated the island to be about five acres in extent.
"Well, we haven't found much evidence yet, indicating that this is the
place we were looking for," Cub remarked as they arrived back at the
starting point of their exploration.
"I suppose the next thing for us to do is to explore the interior of the
island, and then perhaps we'll be in a position to form some sort of
conclusion," said Mr. Perry.
"All right, let's finish this job as soon as possible," Bud proposed, as
he started toward a thicket of bushes and small trees a few yards from
the landing place.
All being in harmony with this plan, there was a general move toward the
interior. The thicket, however, proved to be only about twenty feet in
depth, and beyond this was a clear area a quarter of an acre in extent.
"Somebody's had a camp here not many days ago," Cub announced, as he
pressed forward eagerly toward the center of the open area.
"Yes, and a tent has stood right here," said Mr. Perry, indicating
several guy-rope stakes driven in the ground.
"Whoever it was didn't leave more than a day or two ago," Hal declared.
"See how the grass is tramped down around here?"
"What's this?" exclaimed Bud as he ran back toward the thicket through
which they had passed and picked up a pole about ten feet long and two
inches thick.
Mr. Perry and the other two boys rushed forward and made an eager
examination of Bud's discovery.
"This looks interesting," said Bud significantly as he called attention
to several worn places at both ends and the middle of the pole, as if
with iron rings or wire held close around it under a strain.
"There's another just like this one over there," cried Hal, suddenly
darting forward toward a slender pine tree about a hundred feet away and
standing a short distance out from the thicket border of the open area.
Mr. Perry, Cub, and Bud rushed after Hal, who picked up, under the pine
tree, a pole almost the exact duplicate of the one found by Bud. After a
careful examination of them both, Mr. Perry announced:
"It looks to me, boys, as if you had discovered the spreaders of a
demolished aerial."
"No doubt of it," Hal agreed. "Somebody used this tree and that one over
there as masts of an aerial."
"But trees are not supposed to be good for aerial masts," Bud objected.
"They're all right if you have your insulation well out beyond the
branches," said Cub.
"Yes, that's true," Bud admitted. "And look up there--see that wire? The
fellow who took down this aerial didn't do his work very well."
All looked up in the tree and saw a wire hanging down among the branches
and appearing to be attached at the farther end near the top of the pine.
"It was probably done in a hurry," Mr. Perry observed.
"And that is one more point to the argument that this is the island we
were looking for," said Bud.
"Yes, but the fellow we came to rescue is gone and left no trace where
he's gone to," added Cub.
"Still, don't you think the search has been worth while?" the latter's
father inquired.
"I do," put in Hal, who had been noticeably quiet and meditative since
the last very important discovery. "This makes it look as if that last
distress message we got from the island was no fake affair?"
"Why?" asked Bud.
"Why!" flashed Hal. "It's plain enough to me. Those four fellows, he said
were coming to attack him, probably overpowered him and swept away his
camp, radio outfit, and all."
"And what did they do with him?" demanded Cub, eager for the last chapter
of the plot.
Hal seemed about to make answer to this question, but something of the
nature of a "lump in his throat" checked his utterance. His friends read
his mind without difficulty.
"Never mind, Hal," said Cub with his bravest effort at consolation; "if
the prisoner on this island was your cousin, we'll follow those enemies
of his to the end of the world and make them give him up, won't we, dad?"
"Don't you worry too much over this affair, Hal," urged Mr. Perry by way
of response to his son's extravagant assurance. "If the person you got
those messages from was your cousin, I don't believe the fellows who were
after him had reason to do him any serious harm. But you may be sure that
we will not leave a stone unturned in an effort to solve this--this--"
"Mystery," suggested Cub mischievously grasping at the opportunity to
give his father a good-natured dig.
"Call it what you wish," smiled Mr. Perry. "But under any name you may be
pleased to style this problem, we are going to go after it with some more
mathematics--"
"And geography," interposed Cub.
"Yes, and geography, and you boys know what success we have had with
mathematics and geography in this search of ours thus far. Now,
meanwhile, I'm going to make a new suggestion which I hope you boys will
look upon with favor. Let's establish a camp of our own right here on the
spot where the Canadian Crusoe had his camp."