It is now time that we returned to the island where we left Pudge
Perkins patrolling the beach, and Frank Chester and Billy Barnes wrapped
in slumber. Frank had set the alarm clock for midnight, when it had been
arranged that he and Billy were to turn out on patrol, and its insistent
clamor had only just commenced when he sprang out of his bunk broad
awake and prepared to go on duty. Billy stretched and yawned a bit
before he, too, tumbled out.
"Gee whillakers!" he exclaimed, as he got into his clothes, "it seems to
me that we are making a lot of fuss over nothing, Frank. I don't believe
those fellows will come near the island to-night."
"Perhaps not; but it's our duty to be on guard. If anything happened to
Dr. Perkins' invention now it would be almost impossible to repair it in
time for the tests he wants to make."
Talking thus the two lads got into their clothes, drank some coffee,
which Frank had prepared while they were dressing, and then set out into
the night. They made for the cove from which Harry had started his
eventful swim.
"Best wait here till they come round," said Frank, and he and Billy
found places in the sand and made themselves as comfortable as possible
till they should hear the footsteps of one of the young sentries. They
had not long to wait. Hardly fifteen minutes had elapsed before Frank's
sharp ears caught the sound of some one approaching. A minute later
Pudge joined them. His first words were not calculated to make the
newcomers feel at ease.
"Where's Harry?" he demanded.
"Don't you know?" ejaculated Frank with considerable surprise.
"No. I've been making my patrol regularly, and the last three times I've
been round I haven't met him."
Frank's face could only be dimly seen in the darkness, but all his alarm
was plain enough in his next words.
"What can have become of him?"
"Maybe he took the dinghy and decided to look over the motor boat and
the hulk," suggested Billy.
"That's easy enough to find out," declared Frank, starting for the place
where the dinghy had been beached. A moment later he stumbled over the
anchor and, closely following this, by the aid of a lighted match, he
made the discovery that the rope had been slashed.
"Harry never took that dinghy," he exclaimed apprehensively, "there's
been some crooked work here."
"Thunder and turtles! What do you mean?" gasped Pudge, fully as
anxiously.
"That some one has landed here and stolen the dinghy and taken Harry
along with them. I can't think of any other explanation. Harry would
never have cut that rope."
"You mean he's been carried off?" The question came from Billy Barnes.
"I can't think of any other explanation. Pudge, did you hear anything
that sounded suspicious?"
"Oilskins and onions, no! Not a sound. Let's fire a pistol and see if we
get any answer."
"That's a good idea, Pudge--Great Scott!"
"What's the matter?" demanded Billy Barnes, as Frank broke off short and
uttered the above exclamation.
"Look here! Harry's clothes! Wait till I get a light. There! Now, see
all his outer garments and his pistol lying by them."
"Gatling guns and grass hoppers, if this doesn't beat all."
"He can't have been carried off, then," burst out Billy, "but if he
wasn't, how did that dinghy rope come to be cut?"
Frank made no answer at the moment. The discovery of Harry's clothes on
the beach had put a dreadful fear into his mind. What if the boy had
heard a disturbance on the hulk or on the motor boat and, having swum
off to see what was the trouble, had been seized with a cramp and
drowned?
But Frank firmly thrust the question from him the next minute. Such
thoughts were by far too unnerving to be dwelt on. The others remained
silent. They seemed to be waiting for Frank to speak. Presently the
words came.
"It's too dark to see anything out there," said the boy, in as firm a
voice as he could command. "Let's fire three shots--the signal we agreed
upon--and then if Harry is on the hulk or the motor boat he will be sure
to answer them."
The others agreed that this seemed about the best thing to do, and
Pudge, taking Harry's discarded weapon, fired it three times. Then came
a long pause, filled with an ominous silence.
"Try again," said Frank in a strained voice. Once more three sharp
reports sounded. But again there was no answer.
"That settles it," declared Frank solemnly; "something has happened to
Harry. We must get out to the hulk and to the motor boat."
"How? The dinghy's gone, and----"
"I'm going to swim for it."
Already Frank had thrown off his outer garments. On the beach lay a balk
of timber which they sometimes used to tie the dinghy to. Frank now
ordered his companions to help in rolling this down to the water.
"I'm going to use it as a help in swimming out there," he said; "the
water's pretty cold, and I don't want to risk a cramp."
"Wait till daylight, Frank," urged Billy; "it won't be long till dawn
now, and----"
But Frank cut him short abruptly.
"My brother's out there somewhere," he said in a sharp, decisive voice,
"and I'm going to find out what's happened to him."
A minute later Frank was in the water pushing the balk of timber before
him and heading, as nearly as he knew how, for the spot where the hulk
and the motor boat had been moored.
It was more than half an hour before Billy and Pudge saw him again. Then
he reappeared, chilled through and shivering in every limb. His first
words almost deprived his companions of breath.
"They're gone!" he exclaimed.
"What!" the exclamation came from both Billy and Pudge simultaneously.
They guessed by some sort of intuition what Frank referred to.
"Yes, they're both gone," repeated Frank; "the _Betsy Jane_ and the
motor boat."
"Are you sure you're not mistaken, Frank?" inquired Billy, unwilling to
believe the extent of the catastrophe that had overtaken them.
"I'm as sure that they're gone as I am that I am standing here," was the
reply. "I cruised about on my log for quite a radius, and couldn't
discover a sign of them. I found the motor boat's buoy, though. She had
been untied by some one."
"But the _Betsy Jane_? Schooners and succotash! The _Betsy Jane_!" broke
in Pudge.
"Gone, too," Frank's voice broke, "but I wouldn't care about either if I
only knew what had become of Harry."
"Come on up to the hut and we'll have some hot coffee and talk it over,"
said Billy, who saw that Frank, besides being almost numb with cold, was
half crazy at the mystery of Harry's fate.
Frank suffered himself to be led up to the hut and the rest of the night
was passed in speculation as to the fate of the missing boy. All three
of the lads were pretty sure that the two Daniels had had a hand in the
night's work somehow, but they were far from guessing what had actually
occurred.
Soon after daylight the wireless began working. Dr. Perkins notified
them from Portland that he expected to arrive that afternoon at
Motthaven, and wished them to meet him. Frank found some relief for his
wrought-up feelings in informing the inventor of what had occurred.
"Will charter fast boat and be there with all speed," came the reply
through the air; "make the best of it till I come. Am confident that
everything will come out all right."
And with this message the "marooned" trio on the island had to be
content. The day was passed in making a careful survey of the island to
discover, if possible, some trace of the marauders. But none was to be
found. The tide had even obliterated any footmarks they might have left
in the damp sand. Thoroughly disheartened and miserable, the boys ate a
scanty lunch and then sat down to await the arrival of Dr. Perkins.
It was sundown when a fast motor boat appeared to the southward,
cleaving the water at a rapid rate. A quarter of an hour later Dr.
Perkins was hearing from the boys' own lips the strange story of their
adventures of the past day and night.