WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BOYS
"What can have happened to the boys?" murmured Belle. "I am afraid
they are drowned."
"All of them?" and Cora could not repress a smile. "It would take a
very large sized whale to gobble them all at once, and surely they
could not all have been seized with swimming cramps at the same
moment. No, Belle, I have no such fear. But I am going right out
to investigate. I know Jack would never stay away if he could get
here, especially when he knew this would be your first evening at
the lake. Why, the boys were just wild to try my boat," and she
threw her motor cape over her shoulders. "Come on girls, down to
the steamer landing. There may have been some accident."
Belle and Bess were ready instantly. Indeed the twins seemed more
alarmed than did Cora, but then they were not used to brothers, and
did not realize how many things may happen and may not happen, to
detain young men on a summer day or even a summer night.
"Oh dear!" sighed Belle, "I have always dreaded the water. I did
promise mamma and Bess to conquer my nervousness and not make folks
miserable, but now just see how things happen to upset me," and she
was almost in tears.
"Nothing has happened yet, Belle dear," said Cora kindly, "and we
hope nothing will happen. You see your great mistake comes from
what Jack calls the 'sympathy bug.' You worry about people before
you know they are in trouble. I feel certain the boys will be found
safe and sound, but at the same time I would not be so foolhardy as
to trust to dumb luck."
"You are a philosopher, Cora," answered the nervous girl, her tone
showing that she meant to compliment her chum.
"No, merely logical," corrected Cora, as they walked along. "You
know what marks I always get in logic."
"But it all comes from health," put in Bess. "Mother says Belle
would be just as sensible as I am if she were as strong."
"Sensible as you are?" and Cora laughed. Bess had such a candid way
of acknowledging her own good points. "Why, we have never noticed
it, Bess."
"Oh, you know what I mean. I simply mean that I do not fuss," and
Bess let her cheeks glow at least two shades deeper.
"Well it is sensible not to fuss, Bess, so we will grant your
point," finished Cora as they stepped on the boardwalk that led to
the boat landing. "Why, I didn't suppose they would light up with
that moon," she said. "That's the old watchman over there."
A man was swinging a lantern from the landing. He held it above his
head, then lowered it, and it was plain he was showing the light to
signal someone on the water.
Cora's heart did give a quickened response to her nerves as she saw
that something must be wrong. But she said not a word to her
companions.
"What are they after?" asked Belle timidly.
"Probably some fishermen casting their nets for bait," Cora answered
evasively. "You stay here, while I speak with old Ben."
Bess and Belle complied, although Bess felt she should have been the
one to ask questions. What if anything had really happened to the
boys! Jack was Cora's brother.
"Have you seen anything of some boys in a canoe?" Cora asked of the
man with the lantern. "They set out this afternoon, and have not
yet returned."
"Boys in a canoe?" repeated Ben, in that tantalizing way country
folk have of delaying their answers.
"Yes, my brother and two of his friends went out toward Far
Island--"
"Fern Island?" interrupted the man.
"No, when we last saw them they were going away from Fern and toward
Far Island," said Cora.
"Well, if they're on Fern Island at night I pity them. There ain't
never been anyone who put up there after dark who wasn't ready to
die of fright, 'ceptin' Jim Peters. And the old boy hisself
couldn't scare Jim. Guess he's too chununy with him," and the
waterman chuckled at his joke.
"But you have not heard of any accident?" pressed Cora.
"I saw them young fellers myself. They was in a green canoe; wasn't
they?"
"Yes," answered Cora eagerly.
"Well, I asked Jim Peters if he had sawed 'em, and he said--but then
you can't never believe Jim."
"What did he say?" excitedly demanded Cora, as Bess and Belle
stepped up to where she was talking.
"He said they had tied their boat up at the far dock, and had gone
on the shore train to the merry-go-'round."
"But they were in their bathing suits!" exclaimed Cora.
"There! Didn't I tell you not to take any stock in Jim's news! I
knowed he was fibbin'. But--say miss. There's this about Jim. He
don't ever take the trouble to make up a yam unless he has a motive.
Now I'll bet Jim knows something about them lads."
"Where does this man live?" asked Cora.
"He don't live no place in particular, but in general he stays at
the shanty, when he ain't on the water. But he's a regular fish.
The young 'uns calls him a fish hawk."
"How could we get to his place? Do you think he is at the shanty
now?" went on Cora, determined to find out something of the man, for
she had reason to believe that the dock-hand knew what he was
talking about.
"Bless you, child! It ain't no place for young girls like you to go
to any time, much less at night. But I'll tell you what I'll do.
I'll jest take a look around myself. I sort of like a girl who
knows how to talk to old Ben without being sassy."
"Thank you very much, Ben, but I really must hurry to trace the
boys. I suppose you have no police around the island?"
"Wall, there's Constable Hannon. He is all right to trace a thing
when you tell him where it is, but Tom Hannon hates to think." Ben
raised the lantern above his head and then, as if satisfied that the
signaling was all finished, he placed the lantern on a hook that
hung over the edge of the dock.
"Oh, Cora," put in Bess, "it is almost eight O'clock. We must hurry
along."
"I know, Bess dear, but I had to find out all this man knew. Now I
am satisfied to start for the other end of the lake."
Cora's voice betrayed the emotion she was feeling in spite of her
outward calm. The matter was now assuming a very serious aspect.
"One thing seems certain," she said to all who were listening, "they
could not all have been drowned. They were all expert swimmers.
Nor would they go to any merry-go-'round and leave us waiting for
them. The question now is, what could have detained them?"
"Well, here comes Jim now," said Ben. "Just you keep quiet, and
I'll pump him."
A man came slouching along the dock. He had the way of seeming much
younger than he pretended to be--that is he walked with his head
down although his shoulders were straight and broad as those of any
well trained athlete. The three girls instantly decided that this
man had some strange motive in his manner. He was shamming, they
thought.
"Hello there, Ben," he called to the dock hand jokingly. "How's the
tide?"
"Not much tide on this here lake," replied Ben sharply. "Never
knowed much about them tides, as I've lived at this hole most all my
born days. But how was business to-day? That was quite a fleet.
How'd you make out?"
"Oh, same as usual," and Jim Peters looked from under his big hat at
the girls. "Got company?"
"Yes, a couple friends of the old lady's. They're camping here."
"Oh," half-growled the man understandingly as he made his way to the
water's edge.
"Where're you goin' now?" asked Ben.
"Up the lake," replied the man.
"Oh, say," spoke Ben as if the thought had just occurred to him,
"where did you say them young fellers went? The ones who started
out in a canoe?"
Now Cora saw that this was the man who had come down the lake with
the canoe trailing behind his rowboat. He stepped into the
lantern's light, and both Bess and Belle must also have recognized
him, for they shot a meaning glance at Cora.
"What fellows?" drawled the man in answer to Ben's question.
"The ones I asked you about. You said they went to the
merry-go-'round. Did they?"
"Yep," replied the man sententiously.
"Where is that?" asked Cora, unable to restrain herself longer.
"At the Peak," he said vaguely. Then he stepped into his rowboat
and before anyone could question him further he was pulling up the
lake.
"Well, I'll be hung! Excuse me ladies, but I am that surprised,"
said Ben apologetically. "Say, that fellow knows about the kids,
and we've got to follow him. But how?"
"In my motor boat," proposed Cora quickly. "We could overtake him
in that before he had any idea we were following him!"
"Have you a motor boat? Good! Where is it? Here, I'll call Dan.
He kin run faster than a deer. Dan! Dan! Dan!" shouted the old
man, and from a nearby rowboat, where, evidently, some boys were
having some sort of a harmless game, Dan appeared. He was a tall
youth, the sort that seems to grow near the water. "Hey Dan, I want
you to go where this girl tells you, and fetch her boat," said Ben.
"Quick now, we've got something to do."
"It's up at the new camp," said Cora. "It's the new boat you must
have seen come up this afternoon."
"Oh, yes'm, I know it, and I know where it is," replied the lad, and
then he was off, his bare feet making no sound. He called back
through the darkness "Got any oil or gas?"
"Yes," replied Cora, and away he ran.
"Ain't he a regular dock rat," said Ben with something like pride in
his voice.
"I hope we do not lose sight of that man," remarked Cora.
"Oh Jim can't pull as hard as he thinks, especially on a lazy day
when he has been out some," affirmed Ben. "Now suppose you girls
just sit on this plank while you wait? 'Twon't cost you nothin'."
He dusted off the big plank with his handkerchief, and upon the
board, Cora, Bess and Belle seated themselves.
"I suppose Dan will haul the boat down," said Cora. "It isn't
locked, but he may not want to start the motor."
"Oh, you can trust to Dan to get her here. When he isn't a dock rat
he's a canal mule. There! Ain't that him? Yep, there he comes and
he's got her all right," said old Ben proudly.
The boy could now be seen walking along the water's edge, as he
pulled the motor boat by the bow rope. The girls were quick to
follow Ben to the landing, and there all three, with Ben, got
aboard.
The girls helped Cora light the port, starboard and aft-lights; then
they were ready to start.
"Better let me run her," said the man, "as I know all the spots in
this here lake. Besides," and he touched the engine almost fondly,
"there ain't nothin' I like better than a boat, unless it's a fish
line."
"This is a very simple motor," explained Cora, showing how readily
the gas could be turned on and how promptly the engine responded to
the spark.
"It's a beauty," agreed Ben, as the "chugchug" answered the first
turn of the flywheel.
Belle and Bess sat in the stem and Cora went forward. It was a
delightful evening and, but for the urgency of their quest, the
first night sail of the Petrel on Cedar Lake would have been a
perfect success.
"Isn't that a light?" asked Belle, loud enough for Cora to hear.
"Yes. Ben see, there is a light. Do you suppose that is on Jim's
boat?" asked Cora.
"Never," replied Ben, "he's too stingy to light up on a moonlight
night when the water's clear. Of course the law says he must, but
who's goin' to back up the law?"
"Which way are you going?" she questioned further.
"See that track of foam over yonder? That's Jim's course. We'll
just pick his trail," said Ben. "Now there! Watch him turn! He's
headin' for Far Island!"
At this Ben throttled down, and, a few minutes later he turned off
the gas and cut out the switch.
"We'll just drift a little to give him a chance to settle," he said.
"We don't want to get too close--it might spoil the game."
Belle and Bess were both too nervous to talk. It seemed like some
pirate story, that they should be following a strange fisherman to a
wild island in the night, in hopes of finding the boys--possibly
captured boys!
Cora listened eagerly. She, too, was losing courage--it was so
slight a hope that this man would lead them to where the boys might
be.
"There! See that!" exclaimed Ben. "He's talking to some one on
land."
"Yes, I heard Jack's voice," exclaimed Cora. "Oh, I am so glad they
are safe!"
"But how do we know?" asked Belle, her voice trembling.
"Jack's voice told me," replied Cora, "for if they were in distress
he would not have shouted like that!"
"But he was mad," said Ben, and in this the old fisherman made no
mistake, for the voices of the boys, in angry protest, could be
heard, as they argued with some one, who succeeded in keeping his
part of the conversation silent from the anxious listeners.