CHAPTER VII.--A PUZZLING PROBLEM.
It is now time that we returned to the island where we left PudgePerkins patrolling the beach, and Frank Chester and Billy Barnes wrappedin slumber. Frank had set the alarm clock for midnight, when it had beenarranged that he and Billy were to turn out on patrol, and its insistentclamor had only just commenced when he sprang out of his bunk broadawake and prepared to go on duty. Billy stretched and yawned a bitbefore he, too, tumbled out.
"Gee whillakers!" he exclaimed, as he got into his clothes, "it seems tome that we are making a lot of fuss over nothing, Frank. I don't believethose fellows will come near the island to-night."
"Perhaps not; but it's our duty to be on guard. If anything happened toDr. Perkins' invention now it would be almost impossible to repair it intime 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 intothe night. They made for the cove from which Harry had started hiseventful swim.
"Best wait here till they come round," said Frank, and he and Billyfound places in the sand and made themselves as comfortable as possibletill they should hear the footsteps of one of the young sentries. Theyhad not long to wait. Hardly fifteen minutes had elapsed before Frank'ssharp ears caught the sound of some one approaching. A minute laterPudge joined them. His first words were not calculated to make thenewcomers 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'vebeen round I haven't met him."
Frank's face could only be dimly seen in the darkness, but all his alarmwas 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 andthe hulk," suggested Billy.
"That's easy enough to find out," declared Frank, starting for the placewhere the dinghy had been beached. A moment later he stumbled over theanchor and, closely following this, by the aid of a lighted match, hemade the discovery that the rope had been slashed.
"Harry never took that dinghy," he exclaimed apprehensively, "there'sbeen some crooked work here."
"Thunder and turtles! What do you mean?" gasped Pudge, fully asanxiously.
"That some one has landed here and stolen the dinghy and taken Harryalong with them. I can't think of any other explanation. Harry wouldnever 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 anythingthat sounded suspicious?"
"Oilskins and onions, no! Not a sound. Let's fire a pistol and see if weget any answer."
"That's a good idea, Pudge--Great Scott!"
"What's the matter?" demanded Billy Barnes, as Frank broke off short anduttered the above exclamation.
"Look here! Harry's clothes! Wait till I get a light. There! Now, seeall 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 hewasn't, how did that dinghy rope come to be cut?"
Frank made no answer at the moment. The discovery of Harry's clothes onthe beach had put a dreadful fear into his mind. What if the boy hadheard a disturbance on the hulk or on the motor boat and, having swumoff to see what was the trouble, had been seized with a cramp anddrowned?
But Frank firmly thrust the question from him the next minute. Suchthoughts were by far too unnerving to be dwelt on. The others remainedsilent. They seemed to be waiting for Frank to speak. Presently thewords came.
"It's too dark to see anything out there," said the boy, in as firm avoice as he could command. "Let's fire three shots--the signal we agreedupon--and then if Harry is on the hulk or the motor boat he will be sureto answer them."
The others agreed that this seemed about the best thing to do, andPudge, taking Harry's discarded weapon, fired it three times. Then camea long pause, filled with an ominous silence.
"Try again," said Frank in a strained voice. Once more three sharpreports sounded. But again there was no answer.
"That settles it," declared Frank solemnly; "something has happened toHarry. 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 balkof timber which they sometimes used to tie the dinghy to. Frank nowordered 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; "thewater's pretty cold, and I don't want to risk a cramp."
"Wait till daylight, Frank," urged Billy; "it won't be long till dawnnow, 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 beforehim and heading, as nearly as he knew how, for the spot where the hulkand the motor boat had been moored.
It was more than half an hour before Billy and Pudge saw him again. Thenhe reappeared, chilled through and shivering in every limb. His firstwords 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 themotor boat."
"Are you sure you're not mistaken, Frank?" inquired Billy, unwilling tobelieve 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 thereply. "I cruised about on my log for quite a radius, and couldn'tdiscover a sign of them. I found the motor boat's buoy, though. She hadbeen untied by some one."
"But the _Betsy Jane_? Schooners and succotash! The _Betsy Jane_!" brokein Pudge.
"Gone, too," Frank's voice broke, "but I wouldn't care about either if Ionly 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, washalf crazy at the mystery of Harry's fate.
Frank suffered himself to be led up to the hut and the rest of the nightwas passed in speculation as to the fate of the missing boy. All threeof the lads were pretty sure that the two Daniels had had a hand in thenight's work somehow, but they were far from guessing what had actuallyoccurred.
Soon after daylight the wireless began working. Dr. Perkins notifiedthem from Portland that he expected to arrive that afternoon atMotthaven, and wished them to meet him. Frank found some relief for hiswrought-up feelings in informing the inventor of what had occurred.
"Will charter fast boat and be there with all speed," came the replythrough the air; "make the best of it till I come. Am confident thateverything will come out all right."
And with this message the "marooned" trio on the island had to becontent. The day was passed in making a careful survey of the island todiscover, if possible, some trace of the marauders. But none was to befound. The tide had even obliterated any footmarks they might have leftin the damp sand. Thoroughly disheartened and miserable, the boys ate ascanty 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 theiradventures of the past day and night.
Boy Aviators' Flight for a Fortune Page 7