Chased Out
The investigation did not take long. The boys watched Mr. Perry as he
crossed the moonlit deck of the Catwhisker and entered the cabin. A few
minutes later he returned on the deck and with him were two men, whom the
observers on shore recognized as Mr. Baker and the Canadian officer. Then
Mr. Perry called out:
"Come on down here, boys."
A minute later they were on board the yacht with their prisoner. Cub, the
most impatient of their number, was first to speak.
"What's the matter?" he asked.
"Matter enough," growled the officer. "Those scoundrels outwitted us,
locked us in the stateroom, and our prisoner is gone."
The boys were so astonished that not one of them uttered a sound.
"I haven't heard their story yet," Mr. Perry interposed. "We'll all get
it together."
"It won't take long to tell how they did it," Mr. Buckley began. Then he
seemed to hesitate, glancing in some embarrassment at Mr. Baker.
"I'll take all the blame," the latter confessed at this juncture. "In
fact, there's nobody to blame but me. I wasn't asleep at my post, but my
wits must have been slumbering, for one of those fellows stole up behind
me and gave me a rap on the head that put me to sleep sure enough. When I
woke up I was in a pitch dark stateroom, with the door locked. Luckily my
searchlight had not been taken out of my pocket, and soon I had the place
well enough lighted to determine where I was. I also found something
else; I found Mr. Buckley in the same condition that I had been
in--unconscious. Mr. Buckley can tell you the rest."
"There's absolutely nothing for me to tell," Mr. Buckley replied, "I went
to sleep on the cot in the cabin and woke up with a headache in the
stateroom. Mr. Baker was working over me as if I'd been shell-shocked on
the battlefield. I think we both were sandbagged, for there were no
bruises on our heads. We were locked in and probably would have been
driven to the necessity of breaking the door open if Mr. Perry hadn't
come when he did and let us out."
"I found both the stateroom door and the cabin door locked with the keys
on the outside," Mr. Perry explained. "Well, we have this consolation at
least: While we were losing one prisoner, we were capturing another."
"What do you mean by that?" Mr. Buckley; demanded quickly.
"Here's the new prisoner right here," was the other's reply, indicating
the catapult victim who had suddenly found himself able to stand with his
weight on his uninjured leg and aided by two of the Catwhisker boys.
"Who is he--one of that gang?" asked the officer.
"He's a son of one of them, probably the one who was rescued from you."
"Lock him up in that stateroom at once, and I'll have something more to
tell you," Mr. Buckley ordered.
The order was speedily obeyed; then all gathered eagerly about the
government officer.
"The situation is this," the latter began. "When those rascals raided
this boat they robbed me of my gun and I suppose they got yours, too,
didn't they, Mr. Baker?"
The father of the missing freshman slapped his hand on his "pistol
pocket" and then gasped:
"Yes, it's gone."
"I thought so," continued the officer. "Now, we have an armed enemy to
contend with. If they get wind of the fact that we have the son of one of
them a prisoner on this yacht, you can expect a fusillade of bullets
popping through your portholes any time. My advice is to get out of here
as soon as possible."
"Where'll we go?" asked Mr. Perry.
"We'll decide that after we get away. If you want to keep your prisoner,
don't stay here."
"Dad's got his automatic yet," Cub reminded with youthful confidence in a
chamber full of shells.
"And I've got my slingshot," chimed in Bud.
"Tee-hee," laughed Hal.
"Oh you can laugh all you want to, Tee-hee, but if it hadn't been for my
slingshot, we wouldn't have any prisoner at all right now," Bud flung
back with a suggestion of resentment.
"Yes, we must give Bud credit for all he's done," Mr. Perry agreed. "We
owe a good deal to his ingenuity."
"We ought to take our prisoner over to Rockport and put him in jail,"
suggested Mr. Baker.
"On what ground?" asked Mr. Buckley. "What would you charge him with? He
hasn't done anything except spy around your camp here. You couldn't put
him in jail for that and keep him there any time. Besides, his father
claims to own these islands--maybe he does."
"Well, what are you in favor of doing?" asked Mr. Baker.
"I think we ought to move your entire camp outfit to this boat and then
stand off from the shore for a while and keep our eyes on this place with
spyglasses--have you got a pair?"
"Yes," Mr. Perry replied; "two good strong pair."
"Then we'd better get busy at once before they suspect what has become of
this boy we have here."
"All right, let's get busy at once," said Mr. Perry. "The boys, however,
must stay here on the boat. We don't want to run any risk of their
falling into the hands of the enemy."
"Oh, Mr. Perry, let me go along with you and get my radio outfit,"
Hal begged.
The yachtsman looked at the pleading youth for a few moments in
hesitating manner.
"I don't know," he replied slowly. "Still, I suppose we could protect
one of you if anything happened. Well, inasmuch as we men don't know
anything about disconnecting a radio hook-up. I guess we'll take you for
one trip. Come on; no more delay. Keep a good lookout, Cub and Bud, and
set up a holler if anything goes wrong. And, Bud, be careful not to
mistake us for the enemy when we return; we don't want to be hit by that
sling of yours."
"We ought to have a signal, so we could be sure to recognize each other,"
Bud suggested.
"All right, what'll it be?"
"The Catwhisker ought to have an official signal," said Hal. "Why not
make it 'meow'?"
"Very good; it's adopted."
The first trip was made without incident worthy of special note. Hal and
Mr. Baker brought all of the radio set except the aerial, and Mr. Perry
and Mr. Buckley each carried a load of camp equipment on their return
trip. Then Mr. Perry insisted that Hal remain on the yacht, and the three
men went ashore again for another load.
But from this trip they came back sooner than looked for, and the manner
of their return alarmed the boys, who expected momentarily to hear pistol
shots fired at them from the shore. The three men came down the hill to
the landing almost at a run, and as they reached the deck, Mr. Perry
announced in cautious tones:
"Boys, we'll have to leave that camp as it is for a while. Those men are
up there watching for us. We don't want to get into a gun battle with
them; so we're going to back out of here as fast as we can."