CHAPTER V.
THE MYSTERIOUS POWER BOAT.
“Jerusalem! if I owned that engine, George, do you know what I’d do with it?” Nick was heard to say, as the others drew near. “Why, I’d take the first chance, when in touch with a town, and sink her miles deep. Hang it, I’d be willing to contribute half the money I’ve got saved, to help get a new engine for the old shaker.”
“All right, I take you up on that offer, Nick,” George made answer, as quick as a flash; “because, to tell the honest truth, I’m getting weary of the cranky thing myself. But that isn’t going to help us any now. Lend a hand here, and let’s see what we can do to mend matters.”
“Hold on there, fellows,” called out Jack.
“Hello! here’s the commodore arrived,” George sang out, with a nervous little laugh. “Same old story, Jack; and blessed if I can say how long it’ll take to fix her up again, so she’ll do business. Might be ten minutes; and again I’m afraid it may be something serious this time, that will keep me busy hours.”
“Well, we can’t stay out here all that time, with a storm in prospect,” said Jack.
“Thunder! what’s that you say?” broke from the perspiring skipper of the stalled Wireless, as his head again bobbed up into view, and he swept an anxious look in all quarters.
“There’s a bank of clouds poking up over yonder that may mean trouble,” Jack went on to say. “So just get your stoutest cable hitched to a cleat forward, and pass me the other end.”
“What for?” asked George.
“I’m going to tow you, that’s all,” Jack replied.
“Shucks! is that necessary?” demanded the proud George, with a slight frown.
“It sure is, for every furlong we cover now brings us that much nearer a safe harbor; and if those clouds are out for business, we’ll need all we can gain,” Jack went on to insist.
“Then I suppose I’ll just have to,” the other continued; “here, Nick, get out the hawser, and I’ll clamp it on to this cleat. But see here, Jack, after you get started, Nick can keep watch while I work at the engine, can’t he?”
“Nothing for him to do but hold the wheel and keep straight after me. Perhaps when the little Tramp does her prettiest, the two of us can keep going as fast as the Comfort goes; and so nothing will have been lost after all, George.”
“That’s true; only I don’t like it one little bit,” grunted George, as he commenced to fasten one end of the hawser to the stout little cleat—for, to tell the truth, George was a mighty poor loser.
Once Jack had the other end of the line, he made it secure to the stern of his own staunch boat.
“Here goes now; look out!” he warned, as he started forward once more.
The three boats had been wallowing on the heaving seas while power was shut off; but no sooner did they pick up their course again, than this sickening motion gave way to that of progress.
George took off his coat, and got busy. He was considerable of a mechanic, and at least possessed the commendable trait of persistence. Once he had started to do a thing he never rested satisfied until it was accomplished.
“Seems like you’re doing just as well pulling that wreck as we are alone!” called Herb from the Comfort, which was not more than fifty feet away.
George’s head came into view above the gunwale of the speed boat, but somehow this time he was feeling quite too bad to take up cudgels in defense of his craft. Besides, there was truth in calling her a wreck just then. So he ducked down once more and pretended not to have heard the sarcastic allusion.
“Just what I expected when I proposed to tow George,” Jack answered; and then he turned the glasses ahead to a point that seemed to interest him considerably.
“Think that can be the place?” asked Herb, still watching him closely.
“I believe it is, yes, and hope so, too,” came the reply, together with a significant glance upward to where the clouds were beginning to shut out the sun, now on its way down the western sky.
“I see you’re edging in more?” Herb continued.
“That’s right,” answered Jack; “we’d better be as near land as we dare go. It may mean a heap to us sooner or later.”
They went on for some time, with things seeming to be no different, only the clouds kept covering the sky, making the water look dark and forbidding. Indeed, all of the boys were now considerably alarmed. The storm seemed to be getting closer, and their haven had not as yet hove in sight.
“That’s because we’re coming down from the north,” explained Jack, when Nick called out to mention this distressing fact. “You see, the trees all run together, and it’s next to impossible to tell where the mainland ends off and the key begins. But I think I get the dividing line through the glasses. Anyhow, I’m heading straight for it right now.”
Ten minutes later and Josh called out, to say that he could see the opening all right; and the others added their evidence to what he said.
“There’s the new breeze coming, Jack!” called Herb.
“Yes, and the harbor is so close too,” George put in, as he arose from his lowly position. “But I reckon my engine will go now, Jack. If you hear her crackle, please cast off that hawser, will you?”
“Sure!” sang out Jimmy, as he climbed forward, Jack having taken the wheel himself some little time previous, so as to be prepared for any emergency that might arise.
A moment later and there was a merry popping from the mended motor of the Wireless, and immediately Jimmy heard this he cast the rope loose.
“Better make a plunge for it, George; I’ll stand by Herb!” sang out Jack.
“But that wouldn’t look right,” objected George, though doubtless he would feel better satisfied if given a chance to make use of the great speed his boat could show under special conditions, in order to get in a harbor before the blow struck them.
“Rats! get along with you. We understand what your feelings are; but we also know what a cranky boat you’ve got. Hit her up now, and skedaddle!” called Jack.
“Are you saying that as a chum, or as the commodore of the fleet?” asked George.
“As the commodore; and see to it that you obey orders,” answered the other.
Accordingly, George did put his motor to its best speed, and rapidly left them in the lurch. Jack would never desert the steady going old Comfort, and that wide-beamed craft was already working her full limit of nine miles to the hour, so nothing could be done but keep moving, and hope for the best.
The wind increased. Luckily it was dead ahead; and while it might retard their progress to some extent, at the same time it did not kick up half the tremendous sea that would have been the case had it come from the wide ocean at their back, or the port side.
“Do ye be thinking we can make it?” asked Jimmy, who looked a little peaked as he squatted there, watching the tumbling waves, and eying wistfully the shores now close at hand, where houses were to be seen.
“I don’t doubt it for a minute,” answered the resolute skipper of the Tramp, who always refused to be downcast when face to face with danger. “We’re hitting up a pretty fair pace, and if nothing happens to prevent, in ten minutes we’ll begin to get the benefit of the shelter of the land.”
“Anyhow, George has gone through the opening,” declared Jimmy, hopefully.
“Why, yes, there he is beyant, and in calm water; I do believe he’s waiting for us right now. Bully for George! And we ought to be with him soon.”
Although the storm increased, they were by now so well in that it had little terror for them. And presently they ran into calmer waters, where the other boat waited for their coming.
After that it did not take the boys long to pick out a nook where they could be sheltered to a great extent from the blow. And here they anchored, very thankful because of their safe arrival near Miami, after making such a record run outside, where their boats looked like tiny chips on the wide, heaving sea.
All of them were tired, and welcomed the coming of night, when they could partake of supper, and perhaps gather around a camp-fire ashore.
Jack had seen that there were quite a number of other boats of all kinds scattered around the bay. Some were anchored off cottages, while others scudded for the home port before the storm increased to violent proportions. Although the time for West India hurricanes was long since past, any blow along the coast may mean peril to small craft, and they considered it safer to get into shelter before the worst came.
Jack was doing some little work aboard the Tramp when a boat scraped alongside.
“Hello!” he exclaimed, as George climbed aboard; “what brings you over here?”
“Let me have your glasses, won’t you, Jack?” asked the other, mysteriously.
“That sounds mighty like you thought you had made some discovery, George. Say, three to one it’s about that power boat that is a ringer for the Tramp?”
“Go up head, Jack, because you’ve guessed it the first clat out of the box. Good for you! Now I’ll satisfy my mind about one thing, and find out whether they are watching us every time we happen to run together.”
“So that’s the boat anchored away over yonder, is it?” Jack mused. “For all we know it may belong to the Biscayne Bay Yacht Club, and be at home right now.”
“Huh! just as I thought,” grunted George.
“What’s that?” demanded the other.
“There’s a feller sitting on deck right now, and I’ll be hanged if he hasn’t got a pair of marine glasses in his hands, leveled straight at us. Didn’t I tell you, Jack, there’s something mysterious about that boat? They are keeping tabs on us right along. Perhaps they’re down here to follow us, though what for I declare if I can guess. There, I guess he saw I had a pair of glasses leveled at him, for he dodged inside the cabin like a flash. Jack, whatever can it mean?”
“You’ve got me guessing, George, and I’ll have to pass,” laughed the other, although admitting to himself that the circumstances were beginning to savor more of mystery than up to now he had been willing to acknowledge.
CHAPTER VI.
NICK TRIES AGAIN.
“Jimmy, strike up a bar of ‘Nancy Lee,’ or the ‘Larboard Watch,’ while we’re moving at this snail’s pace along this shallow shore, looking for some nice place to camp.”
“That’s right, Jimmy, just as Jack says; it would sound right to hear music, for this is by a long shot the dreariest place we’ve struck yet. Tune up your lyre, then, or your banjo—I don’t care which—and give us a song.”
Accordingly, when thus pressed by the skipper, not only of his own boat but Herb as well, Jimmy reached in the cabin, and taking hold of his never far distant banjo, commenced to plunk away.
He had a fine mellow voice, and the rest of the boys never tired of hearing him sing. All of them joined in the chorus, though Josh squeaked so that he would have killed the whole melody, only that the volume of sound was so great the discordant vein could not easily be detected.
The three motor boats were almost drifting along among the many keys bordering the extreme southern shore of Florida; and the time was just three days after we saw them reach the vicinity of Miami.
They had passed from Cards Sound into Barnes Sound, and marveled at the wonderful construction of the concrete railway arches, by means of which the East Coast Line expected in the near future to reach far distant Key West, passing from key to key the entire distance, often over wide stretches of open sea.
Cape Sable lay not a great distance ahead. Once the little flotilla had rounded this tip end of the peninsula, they would begin their northward voyage.
The prospect for a camp ashore did not look any too brilliant, and as the afternoon waned, even sanguine Jack began to despair of finding any solid ground. In all directions could be seen the interminable mangrove islands, where swamp abounded, and landing was next to absurd.
When the wash of the sea proved too heavy they had managed to keep some key between, and thus far had come on without any accident. Even George’s eccentric motor had been upon its best behavior, but none of them placed much reliance upon it any longer.
“The tricky thing just seems to know when to lay down and quit,” grumbled Nick, when George mustered up faith enough to actually say a good word for the engine again. “It bides its time, and when we need it most of all, it flunks. I’m going to hold you to your word, George, when we get to Tampa, where there’s a chance to pick up another machine to put in here.”
“Oh, all right!” declared the other, “since you agreed to stand for half the expense, why should I have any kick coming? Only I hope the new engine can walk her along as good as this one, when she feels like it.”
“Hang the speed part!” cried Nick, again rubbing himself as though his muscles were becoming sore in a chronic way; “if only the plagued thing won’t prove a quitter. I hate anything that lies down on you, when you’ve gone and soaked your trust in it, that’s what.”
“I think I see a place ahead that looks fairly promising, mates,” sang out Jack, at this point in the discussion.
“Good for you, Jack; take us to it right away. I’d give a heap just for a chance to get out and just stand, without feeling my foundation heave and wabble under me. Oh! if only I had money enough to coax George to buy a boat that would let a poor feller part his hair on the side, like he used to do.”
A short time later, and they ran in as near the shore as was deemed advisable. Here they anchored, with a friendly key protecting them from any heavy sea that might come up from the south.
“Here’s where the homely little dinky is worth its weight in gold,” remarked Jack, as he prepared to go ashore to look around.
“Yes, only for that we’d have to do the great wading act right along; and it ain’t always convenient to get wet up to your waist,” Herb observed, in a satisfied tone.
Having taken in the prospect ashore, Jack came back again.
“It’s all right, fellows,” he announced. “High ground for half a mile inland, and if the bugs allow, we can even sleep ashore tonight.”
“Hurrah! that’s grand news you’re bringing us, Commodore!” cried Nick, looking happy again. “Now won’t I get the kinks out of my system, though? Last night aboard nearly did for me, and that’s no lie, either.”
“Huh!” George gave vent to one of his odd grunts, adding: “I reckon it was nearly the end of me, for you kicked like a steer, and came within an ace of smothering me the time you rolled over, crowding me to the wall.”
While they were thus joshing each other, all hands were busily engaged getting such things aboard the little tenders as they knew they would need for cooking supper ashore. If it were later on decided to remain there during the night, they could come out again to the anchored motor boats, and secure blankets, mosquito nets, and what other things were required.
As usual, they commenced doing various things, each according to his taste.
George had gone back again to his beloved boat, doubtless to tinker with her eccentric engine, which he always found a puzzle. Nick wandered off along the shore, as though looking for shells. Jimmy was pottering with some of his strong fishing tackle as though he had designs on the scaly denizens of Barnes Sound, and intended putting out several night set lines, if Jack could secure any mullet for bait. Herb was stretching himself on the sand, while Jack and Josh built a little fireplace for cooking, making good use of some blocks of coquina rock, a mixture of shells and what looked like cement, and which underlies much of the eastern shore of Florida.
Presently Jack saw Nick come breathlessly back. He did not say a word to any one, but, putting off in one of the dinkies, went aboard the Wireless. Two minutes later he appeared again, and Jack saw to his surprise that he was trying to hide a piece of stout rope under his coat.
Of course, his curiosity was aroused, but he did not say anything either to Nick or the others. The fat boy, casting a suspicious glance around, and with a wide grin on his face when he looked at Jimmy in particular, again sauntered off. Jack noticed that when he thought he had passed beyond their range of vision, Nick actually started on a run. No wonder he had seemed breathless when he came in, if that was what he had been doing.
“What can the sly fellow be up to?” Jack said to himself. “I believe I’d better keep an eye open, for he’s always so ready to tumble into trouble.”
So as he worked alongside Jimmy, he kept his eyes and ears on the alert. Perhaps fifteen minutes passed. Then those in camp heard a husky call that caused them to look up the shore.
It chanced that there was a clump of mangroves at the nearby point, and around this Nick hove in sight. He seemed to have harnessed himself in some fashion with the rope, and was tugging with might and main.
“Now, what under the sun can he be doing?” ejaculated the surprised Herb.
“He’s got something along, and seems to be dragging it through the shallow water!” Josh declared.
“And look at it splash, would you?” Herb went on. “Say, d’ye suppose, now, Nick’s gone and caught a turtle, one of those big loggerheads they were telling us about?”
“Turtle nothing!” laughed Jack; “that’s a fish!”
“A fish!” cried Jimmy, turning pale; “do ye mane to till me he’s gone and caught a whale?”
Evidently Jimmy feared for his laurels; he had held the position of top-notch in the competition almost from the start, and was beginning to believe that he might never be ousted by the slow-moving fat boy. And hence the sight of Nick deliberately dragging that immense bulk behind him gave Jimmy a bad sensation.
As the puffing Nick arrived alongside, it was seen that he had indeed been dragging a tremendous fish after him. The rope was twisted under its gills in such a way that it could not come loose.
“What in the dickens is it?” demanded Herb.
“Blest if I know; but it’s a fish, and that’s enough for me!” announced the red-faced captor.
“Be afther listening to him, now, bhoys,” observed Jimmy, looking dismayed; “by the pipers if he doesn’t mane to claim he caught it!”
“Of course, I do!” exclaimed Nick, instantly; “and I’d like to know how you’re going to knock me out of this, like you did that shark. Here I go fastening on to all sorts of big game, and you always want to question my right.”
“What kind of a fish is it, Jack?” called George, who was coming ashore to take a closer look at the squirming victim.
“It looks squatty, like a big sea bass, the kind we caught several times along the coast. I rather think it’s what they call a jewfish down here,” Jack replied, after looking the prisoner over.
“Good to eat?” asked Nick, hungrily.
“Oh, yes; they say so; and we’ll take a chunk out of him to try,” was Jack’s answer. “Where did you get him, Nick?”
“Up the shore a little ways. Do I have to tell just how, Jack?”
“See him try to back out,” jeered the envious Jimmy, as his eyes took in the enormous bulk of the prize, and he mentally figured that it must weigh all of two hundred pounds, against which his bass of fifteen must look like a baby.
“Yes, we want to know everything, so begin,” declared George.
“Well, when I was walking along, I discovered this silly thing splashing like Sam Hill close to the shore. He must have been left by the tide, and was half stranded between two bunches of coquina rock. I had a sudden wild idea, and hurried back here to get a rope.”
“So that’s why you wanted it, was it?” cried George. “I was a little afraid you might be thinking of hanging yourself; but then I expected the rope would break if you tried that. But go on, Nick.”
“Oh, there ain’t much to tell, for I just harnessed the old chap up like you see, worked him loose from the rocky wedge, and dragged him to camp. But I hope now, after all my hard work, you ain’t going to say I didn’t catch that fish. Anyway, our rules read so long as a feller gets the game by fair means, and without help. Here he is, and you can rig up some sort of scales to weigh him. What’s a few pounds, more or less, among friends? But what do you say, Jack, Herb, Josh and George?”
“Why, according to the letter of the rules, you win,” Jack remarked.
“That’s correct,” ventured Josh.
“He lost one whopper because he had to have help; but that can’t be said about this prize. Nick, you certainly take the cake,” Herb chuckled.
“I agree with the rest; he deserves all he gets,” said George.
Jimmy shrugged his shoulders, and made a grimace, as he observed:
“Sure, I do belave the lot of ye are set agin me; but, honest to Injun, in me own hearrt I do be thinkin’ the same. Which laves me a bad second in the race. But I do not despair of batin’ him out yet. Just give me toime, bhoys, give me toime to get me wits together.”
Jack busied himself rigging up a crude scales, whereby two of them could stand out against the big fish; and in this way it was finally estimated that Nick’s latest capture weighed about two hundred and thirty pounds.
The fat boy was in high glee over his adventure, and burst out into frequent boasts. He took especial pains to let Jimmy know that the one who laughed last always laughed hardest.
“Just wait, and say how that same turns out,” declared the Irish lad, seemingly only the more determined to exceed Nick’s big score.
So the afternoon passed away, and it came on toward evening.
“Hello! how’s this?” remarked Jack, who had been out with George for some time, taking a look at his motor, and consulting as to the wisdom of making a radical change when they reached the city of Tampa; “it’s coming on night, and I don’t see any signs of supper in sight. And by the way, where is Josh; I don’t happen to set eyes on him around?”
The others stared at each other.
“Why, I remember now, that he asked me for the loan of my gun some little while back, and said he’d like to take a stroll down the beach, thinking there might be a bunch of those nice little shore birds on some mud flat, that he could bring back with him,” Herb said, looking perplexed.
“How long ago was that?” Jack demanded.
“I guess all of an hour; just after you went out when George called.”
“Has anybody heard a shot?” asked Jack.
But nobody had; and, as the night came on, the five boys began to realize that something must surely have happened to their lengthy chum.
CHAPTER VII.
THE LOST CHUM.
Uneasiness increased as the shadows of night began to fall around them; and the motor boat boys cast many anxious glances toward the gloomy patches of mangroves along the shore, as well as the denser sawgrass, dwarf palmetto and trees that covered the mainland.
“I don’t like this at all,” Jack finally declared. “We’ve shouted enough for any one with ears, within half a mile, to have heard us.”
“And never had a peep from Josh, that’s a fact,” declared Nick, whose cheeks had lost some of their customary color, in the face of this mystery; for he was very fond of the absent chum.
“Whatever could have happened to the lad?” asked Jimmy.
“It seems hard to believe that he could have lost himself, and wandered so far away that he couldn’t fire his gun, or hear us yell,” Herb observed, frowning.
George plucked at the sleeve of Jack, as he remarked in a low, nervous tone:
“Now, you don’t believe they could have had anything to do with our chum’s disappearance, do you?”
“What in the wide world are you speaking about?” demanded the other, startled for the moment by the grave way in which George said this.
“Why, you know, that queer lot in the boat that was a ringer for the Tramp,” was what George added, quickly.
“Oh! come now, what put that silly notion in your head?” asked Jack; though at the same time he could not but weigh the startling proposition advanced by George in his mind, and find himself impressed more or less by its possibility.
“I suppose,” George went on, “because, for the life of me, I just can’t imagine any other reason why the fellow wouldn’t do something to let us know he was alive. If he discovered that he was lost, I’m dead sure Josh would have sense enough to holler, and fire his gun several times in succession.”
“And we never heard the first sign,” declared Herb.
“Well, I’ve just stood it as long as I mean to,” declared Jack.
“Yes; let’s get busy and do something,” George burst out with, for he was ever an impetuous fellow, eager to be accomplishing things, and getting to his intended goal by a short-cut, if possible.
“Jack, say what, and we’ll stand by you,” Herb spoke up, with a look of grim determination on his face.
“Them’s my sentiments!” affirmed Jimmy.
“Say the word, and we’ll all back you up, Commodore!” Nick put in, puffing his cheeks out, and looking very fierce—for him.
“Well, there’s an old saying, you remember,” Jack remarked, “to the effect that if the mountain won’t come to you, the next best thing is to go to the mountain. And if Josh hangs fire about returning to camp, why, some of us have got to get a hustle on, and look him up. That’s plain enough, I hope.”
“It sure is; and we expect you to be the one to lead the rescue party, Jack,” George declared.
“All right; and as there’s no time to be lost, let’s get busy. Somebody has to stay here, and guard the camp; and I appoint Nick as the fellow to take that duty on his shoulders.”
When Jack made this declaration, Nick started, and seemed to shiver a little; but, realizing that all eyes were turned toward him, he braced up again.
“Oh! all right, Jack, just as you say,” he expressed himself.
“Understand,” Jack explained, seeing that the fat boy felt hurt; “it isn’t because there’s any doubt about your courage and all that; but none of us can say how far we may have to tramp, or what swamps we’ll have to wade through; and you admit, Nick, that you’re not fitted for campaigning in that line as well as some of the rest of us.”
“Sure, I know that,” said Nick, heaving a sigh.
“But,” continued Jack, as though he had had a second thought, “as three of us ought to be enough, I guess I’ll leave a second guard behind. Herb, would you mind staying, to keep Nick company? It’s just as much a post of honor as going with George, Jimmy and myself. And you’ll have to keep watch all the time.”
“Oh! I’m ready to do just what you say, Jack. I believe you know best; and while of course I’d rather be with the hunting party, count on me holding up the other end with Nick here,” Herb hastened to declare.
“Then that’s settled,” Jack went on, relieved to find that his plans were meeting with next to no opposition. “Of course you’ll have your gun, while each of us will go armed; for there’s no telling what we may meet up with. I’ll take the rifle, while George and Jimmy have the scatter-guns.”
“Yes, and if you find Josh, how will you let us know?” Herb asked.
“I’ll fire six shots at regular intervals of about two seconds apart. Be sure to count them carefully if you hear any firing, because in case we meet up with a prowling panther, or anything like that, the shooting would be more rapid.”
When Jack mentioned that one word “panther,” it might have been observed that Nick’s mouth opened, as if sudden dismay had seized hold upon him. However, once more he summoned his nerve to the fore, and shut his teeth hard together. It was Herb, fortunately, who advanced the proposition that must have been buzzing in the brain of the more timid Nick.
“After you’ve gone, Jack, perhaps it would be just as well for Nick and myself to go aboard the boats, and hold the fort there. We’ll make sure to keep the fire burning all the while, so you’ll have a signal on the shore, to tell where we are. Is that right, fellows?” he remarked.
“Best thing you could do; and I was just going to say something like that,” was the way Jack put it.
George had made haste to secure the guns, and each of the three now held a weapon in his hands. They looked very warlike and grim, as the camp-fire shone on the polished steel; and Nick could, after all, be pardoned for showing signs of excitement as they prepared to start off. For Nick was in the main a peaceable lad, who liked not strife under any conditions.
“Perhaps we’d better give one more halloo before we go?” suggested George; for the idea of tramping into that mysterious wilderness, with its swamps and unknown perils, was not to be treated lightly as a picnic, by any means.
So they all raised their voices, and sent out a series of whoops that might have made any Indian warrior envious.
“Listen!” cried Jack, after this had gone on for a full minute.
The last echo had died away, and complete silence followed.
“Never a thing!” exclaimed George.
“Oh! hark! what is that?” cried Nick, eagerly.
“Only an owl far away, answering us,” Jack declared, promptly.
“Must think we’re trying to give him the laugh,” Herb remarked; although he was feeling in anything but a joking mood, with the strange disappearance of Josh weighing on his mind so heavily.
“Come on, boys,” Jack called out. “I’ve got the lantern lighted, and we’ll try our luck following his trail as long as we are able to see it. Oh! and Herb, if you and Nick want, you might as well eat something while we’re gone.”
“Nixy for me,” Herb made answer. “My appetite seems to have gone up the flue. But we could be cooking something, in case you found Josh, and all came in hungry.”
“Sure, that’s right,” Nick hastened to add. “It’ll give us something to keep our minds busy, and that means a whole lot. Good-bye, boys; and the best of luck!”
“We sure hope you find our chum, safe and sound,” Herb added, feelingly.
“One thing more,” Jack went on to say; “If Josh should happen in while we’re gone, you’ll want to let us know.”
“That’s right; I hadn’t thought of that,” said Herb.
“Then listen. Fire both barrels of your gun, about two seconds apart. Then repeat the volley twice more, making six shots in all. We’ll understand what you want to tell us, and that we’re needed here. That’s all. Come on, George and Jimmy.”
Nick watched them pass away, and the face of the fat boy told that his soul was troubled. Yet it was not so much of himself he thought, but the strange mystery hovering over this vanishing of Josh.
Jack knew where the long-legged would-be hunter had last been seen, and accordingly he made direct for that spot.
Evidently he had no especial trouble in discovering the tracks left by the heels of Josh’s shoes, for those left behind saw the trio move directly away. Soon the flitting glimmer of the moving lantern vanished entirely among the thickets covering the land in places.
Josh had headed down the shore when he went forth to try and add to the camp larder by knocking down a bunch of the tasty little snipe and other shore birds, flocks of which were seen whenever the tide changed, and the mud flats became partly bare.
That meant he had gone west, for the boys had fallen into the habit of saying “down” as long as they were headed south; and until they turned up the coast it would continue that way.
Jack led with his lantern, and carrying the rifle in his other hand. For some little time the three boys kept on this way. When the tracks became harder to see, Jack used his judgment, and managed to pick up the trail again every time.
All the while George and Jimmy were casting uneasy looks ahead. The moon being past its prime, would not rise for some time; and as a consequence all was pitch darkness around them. It was easy to imagine all sorts of perils lurking in that gloom beyond. Every simple little sound, such as a stray ’coon scampering away at the coming of the swinging light, caused them a new quiver.
George could not get that strange motor boat out of his mind. He believed that it had left Miami ahead of them, for it was gone on the morning after their arrival. And the chances were that it had come down here ahead of them.
Having more or less of a vivid imagination, George was picturing all sorts of strange things as happening. He even looked back along the career of their chum, Josh, trying to figure out some romantic reason for these people on the strange craft to want to kidnap the long-legged youth.
Despite his best efforts, however, this was pretty much a failure. There never was a fellow with more of an ordinary every-day past than the said Josh. George had known him since they were kids together, first starting in to school. His father was one of the substantial men of the town; and, so far as George knew, there had never been even the faintest rumor of anything singular attaching to the Purdue family.
So George, baffled in this respect, had to give it up, and confess himself altogether at sea. But if Josh had simply gone and lost himself, then why had he not answered their shouts?
They had now been following the trail of the missing chum quite some time, and found themselves at a considerable distance from camp. Every now and then, apparently, Josh had made his way to the shore, to find out whether there were any flocks of birds in sight; but as he still kept moving on, he evidently met with disappointment.
That he continued to wander on was evidence of a determination to find some sort of game. Josh was not much of a hunter, and he did hate to be unmercifully guyed by Jimmy and Nick, whenever he came back empty handed.
“It can’t be long now, before we make some sort of discovery,” George finally remarked.
“I agree with you,” Jack said, over his shoulder.
“How far are we from camp now, Jack?” continued the skipper of the Wireless.
“Perhaps a mile, more or less,” answered the pilot of the expedition.
“But not so far as to be beyond the sound of the yell we put up, eh?” continued George.
“Unless Josh suddenly became stone deaf, he must have heard us,” replied the other.
“See here; you’ve got something on your mind; why not share it with us, Jack? You’re bothered about something, too. If it don’t take in those queer acting fellows on the power boat, what does ail you?” and George caught hold of his chum as the other arose from examining the trail once more.
“Oh! I don’t know as there could be anything in it,” Jack admitted, slowly, as if loth to air his secret fears.
“But tell us what you do think, even if it does seem impossible, Jack.”
“Only this, that if our chum chanced to slip into some muck bed, he might have been sucked down in the slimy stuff before he could even shout for help,” was the gruesome remark to which Jack gave utterance.
CHAPTER VIII.
TRACKED TO THE BAYOU.
“Oh! I hope it won’t turn out as bad as that, Jack!” gasped George.
“The poor spalpeen!” whimpered Jimmy, apparently shocked by what their leader had just remarked.
“Now,” Jack hastened to say, “don’t make up your minds, boys, that Josh has run against that sort of a hard deal, just because it flashed into my mind. You wanted to know why I was in such a sweat, and I told you. But, honest Injun, after I’ve spoken my mind, I just can’t bring myself to believe it. We’ll find our chum, sooner or later. Perhaps, after all, it’ll turn out that he had a bad tumble, and hurt himself so he wasn’t able to let us know.”
“Well, as long as we’re able to follow his trail, we hadn’t ought to give up in despair,” George asserted, very sensibly.
“Sure, we’ve shown in the past that we’re not built that way,” Jimmy thought fit to remark, firmly.
“Then let’s be going on,” Jack wound up the conference by saying.
For the fifth time the trail approached the water again. Josh evidently hated to give up the idea that had been in his mind when he left camp. If there were any of those dainty little shore birds to be had, he wanted to get a crack at the same; though by this time he must have become aware of the fact that he was wandering much farther away than he had intended doing in the start.
This time there happened to be quite a deep-seated cove, with a point of land running out that would completely shut out all sight of the spot where the three motor boats were anchored, with the camp-fire ashore.
Jack noted this fact; somehow it was impressed on his mind, though he could not have exactly explained why this should be so, had he been asked.
The tracks grew fainter, so that it was only by pushing the glowing and useful lantern down close to the sand that Jack was able to follow the line by which Josh had pushed his way along.
“Here is where he dropped on his knees, the better to crawl forward,” whispered the guide; and both George and Jimmy could make out the deeper impressions that undoubtedly must have been made by a pair of knees pressing down.
There was a screen of saw palmetto in front of them, hiding the water. Perhaps Josh had discovered a flock of the coveted birds on a bar, and was making his way to a point he had in mind, where he might suddenly rise, and fire. But something must have prevented his carrying out this plan, then, for certainly the sound of a heavy shotgun charge could have been heard at the camp, had he pulled trigger. “Wait here for me, and keep quiet,” whispered Jack, as, leaving the lantern on the ground, he started away.
His two companions were rendered almost speechless by his strange action. They could only stare at each other, and nod their heads, as though striving in this way to communicate their fears.
In two minutes Jack came back. He looked disappointed as he stooped to pick up the lantern again.
“Nothing doing, boys,” he said, quietly.
“They don’t seem to be, and that’s a fact,” mumbled Jimmy, much depressed.
“See here, what did you expect to find when you went on there?” demanded George, immediately suspicious. “Was it anything about that bally old boat, the one that’s been dogging us all the way down from Jacksonville? Tell me that, Jack, old top!”
“H’m! perhaps it may be the people aboard that same boat have come to the conclusion we’re doing the dogging. They run across us in all sorts of unexpected places. And if you stop to remember, George, it’s the other boat that has always slipped away secretly, not us!”
“You’re right, it was,” George flashed up; “but you didn’t answer my question, Jack.”
“Well, I did have your pet hobby in mind when I went on just now, to take a look at this fine little lagoon; because, with that point of land standing in a half-moon curve, it looks like a splendid harbor for small boats. And, to tell you the truth, I picked up the butt end of a cigarette just back there five feet, one that was thrown away recently, because no rain or dew had fallen on it!”
“Whew! now, that does look suspicious, I must say,” George exclaimed, in a low and cautious voice.
“But there isn’t a sign of any boat in the bayou, as far as I could see,” Jack went on. “Of course, it’s so dark now that I wasn’t able to take in the whole bay; but, anyhow, there isn’t a light visible.”
“And now, what nixt?” asked Jimmy, eager to get at the solution of this perplexing problem, which was thrilling their nerves more and more as they made progress.
For answer, Jack moved forward, this time using the friendly lantern as before. Brushing through the screen of saw palmettos, they could see the water lapping the shore of the lagoon, though there were still bushes and tall grass between.
“Hello!”
Uttering this exclamation half under his breath, the leader of the trio suddenly came to a halt. Jimmy half raised the gun he was carrying, as though under the impression that they were about to be confronted by something, either a human enemy or one in the way of a wild beast, that would bar their further progress.
Then he saw that Jack, instead of showing signs of preparing for battle, was on his knees, eagerly examining certain marks in the sand.
“What have you found?” asked George, in an awed tone.
“As near as I can make out, there are tracks that seem to tell of a scuffle!” was the ready reply, as Jack pointed here and there.
“By the great horn spoon, but I believe you’re right!” gasped George.
“It’s either that, now, or else the gossoon’s been and had a fit,” Jimmy declared, though he could not remember that Josh had ever been addicted to such things.
“No; there have been two men here,” said Jack.
“Glory be!” ejaculated the Irish lad.
“Tell us how you know that, Jack?” asked George, his face struggling between a grin and a look of alarm.
“Why, it’s as plain as print; and if you look here, you’ll see the marks of their shoes. Both seem much larger than Josh ever made, and yet they are different, for one had heels, and the other must have been wearing some sort of moccasin, perhaps the kind I’ve got, to be used aboard a small, varnished decked boat, so as to avoid scratching.”
“Didn’t I say so?” burst out George, unable to hold in any longer. “After this you won’t think I’m off my base when I mention my suspicions about fellows who run away in the night, peek through marine glasses at us every chance they get, and just act like a parcel of sneaks. Jack, that fly-up-the-creek power boat must have been in this bayou when our chum came crawling through these bushes, and took a look out.”
“That’s about what I’m thinking, now,” admitted the other.
“Some of the men happened to be ashore, and saw him spying on the boat? Is that in line with what you think, Jack?”
“It looks that way. Two unknown parties certainly dropped down on Josh while he was lying here. He put up as good a fight as he could, but they were too much for the poor fellow,” Jack went on, looking as though he might be reading all these things from the marks upon the sand.
“But you don’t say any signs of blood, do ye, Jack darlint?” asked Jimmy, with a plain vein of horror in his quavering voice.
“No, I’m glad to say I don’t,” replied the other. “So, on that account it would seem that the fellows haven’t actually hurt Josh, only made him a prisoner.”
Jimmy gave a bleat, not unlike the pitiful sound a distressed goat might emit.
“Och! thin the bally rascals have carried him away wid them, and we’ll niver set eyes on our chum agin. Whirra! whativer will Nick do about his rations, if the cook of the bunch be lost, strayed or stolen?” he whimpered.
“Nick be hanged!” said George, vehemently, though in a low tone; “never fear but he’ll get all he wants to eat. What we have to find out is where they’ve gone, and why they dared carry Josh Purdue away with them. And we’ll just do that same, if it takes the whole of the winter. You hear me speaking, don’t you? Oh! what did you do that for, Jack?”
This last sentence was caused by a sudden action on the part of Jack. He had raised the lantern, and with a quick, downward motion caused the light to go out—a trick readily learned by any one who will take the trouble to experiment. And thus they were left standing there in the dark.
“How under the sun did it happen that none of us saw it before?” Jack was softly saying, in a vexed tone, as though he had made a discovery that agitated him.
“Saw what?” asked George.
“Bend your head this way, and look yonder through the bushes,” Jack told him.
“Great governor!” whispered the Wireless skipper, hoarsely; “it is a light, as sure as shooting! And on the water, too, Jack. Say, that power boat must be over there, in another bayou just beyond. There’s a neck of land runs out, and it’s covered with trees and scrub. That’s why we didn’t glimpse that light before.”
“You’ve hit the nail on the head, George, for that’s just the way the land lies,” Jack went on, trying to control his voice, which would tremble a little despite his utmost endeavors. “But perhaps that light wasn’t shining a bit ago. There, look! it’s disappeared again.”
“That’s what it has,” Jimmy observed, having been an interested observer all the while; “just for all the worrld loike a windy had been opened, and shut again. I do be thinking mesilf that somebody was afther coming out of the cabin to take a look around, and lift the door open the while, that’s all. Now he’s gone in again, by the same token.”
“I hope, then, he didn’t just catch a glimpse of our light moving, before I doused the glim,” was the fervent wish expressed by Jack.
“I hardly think he did, Jack,” George said, nervously. “You see, it was standing on the ground up to the time you grabbed it up again. But what ought we do now?”
“Make our way around that tongue of land the best way we can, and see how things are there,” Jack replied, without the slightest hesitation.
“Why not follow the beach around?” George suggested.
“Now, that wouldn’t be a bad scheme. It’s so dark that if we kept low, they couldn’t see us moving. And, besides, it’ll save a lot of scrambling through that brush, without the help of the lantern. All right; come along then, boys. And let’s remember to keep as quiet as an owl in the daytime.”
Saying this in a whisper, Jack led the way, the others following along in Indian file at his heels. Whenever he halted for any reason, both George and Jimmy would also draw up instantly. And no doubt, on every occasion of this sort, their excited pulses would cause their hearts to beat like trip-hammers.
Just as they had guessed, there was a point of land running out all of seventy feet into the water, and hiding the next bayou. Sometimes these extend from the main Florida shore around Barnes Sound like the fingers of a human hand. Again they will be in the form of reefs, composed of small, sharp-edged ’coon oysters, that stick up out of the salt water at low tide, but are entirely submerged when the flood comes on.
Before reaching the extreme point, Jack concluded that it would be wise for them to pass over here, rather than risk discovery by going to the limit of the cape; where, with the white sand to serve as a background to their darker bodies, some one on the watch might discover their approach, and give warning.
“Jack, I see it!” whispered George, presently.
“The boat, you mean,” replied the other, in the same guarded tone. “Yes, I’ve caught her, too. But everything seems to be dark around.”
“I wonder now, have they deserted the ould craft,” suggested Jimmy.
“Not so loud, Jimmy; we’ve got to find that out for ourselves,” Jack went on.
“By going aboard, you mean, don’t you, Jack?” from eager George.
“There’s no other way; and if these people are holding our chum a prisoner, we’ve just got to let them know we object to such a high-handed business. Are you both willing to stand back of me, George, Jimmy?”
“Every time,” George replied; and Jack could easily imagine how his excitable chum must be nerved up to the highest tension.
“Ye c’n count on me, through thick and thin, sink or shwim, survive or perish,” Jimmy put in, as solemnly as though he might be holding up his hand, and subscribing to the oath before the court.
“Then come on, and we’ll take the bull by the horns,” said Jack, moving forward through the thin growth that marked the spit of land near its terminus.
“And don’t let’s forget, fellows, that we’re armed to the teeth,” whispered George, as he set out to trail close behind his leader.
In this manner, then, the three motor boat boys crawled across to the shore of the other little bayou, bent upon making a bold move looking to rescuing their comrade, if so be Josh were found to be a prisoner in the hands of the strangers.
CHAPTER IX.
FOR THE SAKE OF CHUM JOSH.
It seemed to Jack Stormways that all his senses must be on the alert as never before. Even the slightest sound caught his attention—the rustling of a prowling ’coon through the saw palmetto scrub; the splash of some fish jumping out of the water of the lagoon; and from a distance came strange, querulous noises which he guessed must proceed from some bird roost, situated in the depths of a swamp, although Jack knew very little about such places from actual experience.
Having passed partly over the point of land, they could just begin to make out the boat that lay in the next bayou. And George’s imagination worked overtime, so that he was positive he could recognize the familiar outlines of the craft that looked like the Tramp.
Once Jack came to a stop. Possibly he only meant to take an observation, in order to make sure that the coast was clear; but the other boys at once jumped to the conclusion that he had seen some sign of trouble ahead.
“What is it?” whispered George, making a nervous forward thrust with his gun, as though eager to mix up, if so be one came along; while Jimmy edged up on the other side, quivering with anxiety, too.
Jack bent his head lower before making a reply; for he knew the danger of allowing his voice to rise above the faintest murmur. The lapping of the waves on the sandy beach close by, together with those strange sounds from the interior, might go far toward muffling speech, but if suspicious ears were on the alert it were folly to take unnecessary chances.
“Nothing. I was only looking. All seems quiet, boys, so come on,” he said; and no doubt the throbbing hearts of the other lads eased down in the strain.
So once more they started to advance, with the border of the lagoon now close at hand. All of them could by this time make out the fact that the boat must be anchored in shallow water near the shore. Perhaps those aboard had neglected to provide themselves with a dinky; and in consequence had to rely upon finding some place where they could push the power boat in, by loosening the anchor cable.
The light breeze that caused the waves to gently roll up on the sand was coming from the southwest. Hence it was that the boat lay almost stern on, showing part of her starboard quarter.
When they had reached a point close to the water’s edge, the three boys again instinctively came to a halt, to once more scrutinize the craft.
No lantern hung there to serve as a riding light; it was not needed, as would have been the case in a crowded harbor. Faint, indeed, the chance of any other boat running them down here in this secluded spot.
George had unconsciously laid a hand on the arm of Jack as they thus crouched and gazed. His fingers suddenly tightened their hold.
“Oh!” he exclaimed, “did you see that?”
“’Sh!” breathed Jack, hastily. “Yes, I was watching. Some one brushed aside the curtain that covers the cabin bullseye, and light shone through. That settles one thing, George.”
“That they’re aboard!” echoed the other.
“Yes.”
“But, we go on, don’t we, Jack?” begged the impetuous George.
“I should say, yes; for we believe our chum is being held a prisoner on that same boat. Make your mind easy, both of you; it isn’t going to get away from us now. We’ve gone too far to hold back.”
“That’s the stuff!” whispered the delighted George; while Jimmy muttered his assent, which was none the less fervent because the words were inaudible.
Once before, on a cruise the motor boys were making on the waters of the faraway North, they had had a stirring encounter with some lawless men who were fleeing from officers sent to apprehend them. On that occasion Jack and his chums had managed to give considerable assistance to the legal authorities; and it was largely through their work that the fugitives were finally apprehended.
No doubt this circumstance must have loomed up large in the memory of George right then and there. He had long ago made up his mind that the mysterious persons on board the boat that looked like the Tramp were a couple of rascals, who felt afraid of the cruisers for some reason or other. And now, that it seemed they had set upon poor Josh, making him prisoner, and carrying him aboard, the conditions became darker than ever.
It was the greatest mystery the boys had ever struck. Even Jack, with his usual keen intellect, was utterly unable to determine what these men could want with the missing crew of the Comfort; Josh, a fellow who seldom made enemies among his companions, and simply devoid of evil intent.
Perhaps they had discovered him creeping through the scrub, either to get a shot at some shore birds or to examine the anchored power boat, in which he knew George at least was deeply interested. If they were men fleeing from the sheriff, his actions might have looked so suspicious to them that they were impelled to pounce on him without giving warning.
Many were the explanations that surged through the excited brains of the three lads in the brief space of time occupied in reaching the shore of the second lagoon.
As they stood there, George and Jimmy content to follow the lead of Jack, no matter what that might mean, a low murmur came to them. It was as if those inside the cabin of the boat might be conversing among themselves.
Jack listened intently. Perhaps he even entertained a faint hope that he might hear the high-pitched voice of Josh above the rest; for the tall boy had a way of using the rising inflection when in the least excited. But the fact of the cabin being closed prevented his discovering any marked difference between the tones of those who were speaking.
George and Jimmy were waiting to see what means their leader would adopt, in order to gain the deck of the little craft. The boat lay at a distance of perhaps twenty feet from the edge of the water. Judging from the fact that the beach was sandy there could be no question but what, if they picked their way, they might be able to wade out, without getting in any deeper than hip-high at most.
When Jack hesitated for that half minute, with the little waves crawling up to his feet, it was because he wished to make sure that there was no one upon the stern of the swinging power boat, to discover their advance.
Having made sure of this fact, he would boldly push forward, entering the water, regardless of the fact that their shoes must suffer in consequence.
When he took the first step, the others were alongside. They fancied that the time had gone by for them to follow after Jack; if a battle were imminent, their place must be on the firing line, where numbers would count for something. For did they not grip weapons as well as Jack; and were they not just as anxious to effect the rescue of their missing chum?
Once Jimmy stumbled, and made quite a little splash ere he recovered his footing. It may have been a jellyfish upon which he placed his foot, and which caused him to slide; or some obstacle in the shape of a clump of ’coon oysters. The cause was immaterial; but what splash he made gave them all a thrill, since they fully expected that it would bring about discovery.
At the time it chanced that they had passed over more than half the distance separating them from the boat, and were standing up to their knees in the water.
Jack noted that the murmurous sound which they had decided must be the mingling of voices, had suddenly stopped. From this he imagined that those within the closed cabin of the power boat had heard the splash and were waiting for a repetition of the same, in order to gauge its meaning.
Would they come out to investigate? If so, what should be the programme of the three who stood there in the water? None of them had ever fired a shot at a human being in all their lives; and the mere thought of such a thing was distasteful to them. At the same time, if their comrade were in the hands of unscrupulous men, and heroic measures had to be adopted in order to effect his release, not one of them would hesitate.
Jack often looked back to that strained moment, when he and his comrades stood there, knee deep in the lagoon, within a dozen feet of the mysterious little power boat, keyed up to a condition when their nerves were all on edge, and waiting for whatever might happen. He could feel a sense of amusement over it, too, at some future time; but it was certainly no laughing matter then.
Then there suddenly flashed out a broad beam of light. The door of the cabin had been opened; and, as those standing there in the water were directly behind the stern, the light fell full upon them.
Jack saw a figure push into view. Outlined against the lighted interior of the boat it stood up in plain sight, and they could even make out the fact that the unknown party wore knickerbockers, as though dressed for an outing.
Of course he must have discovered the threatening trio there just as soon as he thus partly emerged from the cabin. They could tell this from the way in which he stood as if riveted to the spot, making no motion either to advance further, or retreat back into the recesses of the boat’s interior.
Jack did not mean to give him a chance to take the initiative. He raised his gun, and immediately covered the unknown party; which action was accepted as proof by his two chums that they were to follow suit, and they proceeded to do so.
If astonishment had held the man motionless up to this moment, a due sense of caution kept him so after he discovered those three menacing guns turned full in his direction. Apparently he must be either stunned by the situation that had burst upon him without warning; or else he kept his head, and knew there was only one thing to do in order to avoid trouble, which was to submit to the inevitable.
“Don’t think of trying to drop back into that cabin,” said Jack, in a voice that was quite stern, even if it did quiver a little; “we’ve got you covered all right, and you might as well surrender!”
“That’s the ticket!” rasped George, trying to seem very formidable, in order to hide the fact that his knees were knocking together just a trifle, with excitement of course, not fear!