“well, what’s the first thing to be done?” asked andy, after he had assisted frank to pull the boat up on the beach beyond high-water mark.
“there’s plenty to do,” declared his brother. “in the first place we’ve got to decide whether we’ll stay on shore over night, or sleep on the boat. if we stay on land we’ve got to bring our grub ashore. then, the next thing is to map out a plan so we can search the island, and not go over the same ground twice.”
“my! you’d think you had done this sort of thing all your life, and had it down to a science,” declared andy with a laugh.
“well, if it’s going to be done at all, it might as well be done right. this thing is getting serious, and i want to clear it up if possible. for our sakes as well as for paul’s.”
they talked the matter over at some length, and decided that it would be more fun to camp on shore instead of going back and forth to the boat to sleep and eat.
“the weather is warm,” said andy, “and we can sleep out in the open, especially as we have plenty of blankets. and it will be jolly to build a fire on shore and sit around it nights. just like some old sea pirates. wow!”
“easy!” cautioned his brother. “this isn’t a joy-picnic. we’re here on serious business, and there may be some danger.”
“but we might as well have some sport along with it,” argued andy, who could not help seeing the funny or bright side of everything. frank, though more serious, did not despise a good time by any means, but he went at matters more determinedly than did his brother.
“to my notion, the first thing to do is to go at this search with a system,” went on the older lad. “we’ll climb up to the top of the cliff, and see if we can make out anything from there. if that man is here he may have set up a camp, and built a fire. if he has, we can easily see it from the cliff. then we will know where we’re at.”
to this andy agreed, and soon they were toiling to the top of the high land that ran lengthwise of the island, roughly dividing it into two parts. it was no easy matter to reach the summit, and several times the boys had to stop for a rest. but finally they were at the goal.
below them, on all sides, washing the rocky shores of the island were the heaving waters of the great bay. they could take in most of the shore line, irregular and indented as it was, but, look as they did, there was no sign of life.
they saw no curling smoke from a campfire. they saw no figure of a man—the man whom they had so fruitlessly pursued. nor was there any vestige of a big motor boat half-burned.
“well, nothing doing so far,” remarked frank, after a pause. “now we’ll go down and begin a circuit of the shore and see what is in some of the caves.”
slipping and sliding over the loose stones and gravel, they reached the bottom of the slope near where they had drawn up their boat. the sight of this craft gave frank an idea.
“suppose while we’re on one side of the island that man—or someone—should happen to come along?” he suggested. “he’d make off with our boat, sure.”
“probably,” agreed andy. “but we can prevent that.”
“how?”
“by hiding the oars. we’ll shove ’em under some bushes quite a distance back, so they can’t be found.”
frank agreed that this was a good idea, and though there was a chance that someone might land in a motor boat and tow off their rowing craft, still they had to take that risk.
then began a systematic search of the island. they went along the shore, and looked into many small caves. the interior of these was dark, but they had each provided a pocket portable electric flash lamp, so that they were able to illuminate the caverns.
“nothing here,” announced frank, after an inspection of the first one. and that was the result in all the others that they penetrated before dusk. by nightfall they had covered perhaps a quarter of the shore line and then they turned back.
a roaring blaze was kindled on the sand from the plentiful supply of driftwood that strewed the beach, and at the cheerful fire they sat and talked as they ate their supper.
“jolly fun, isn’t it?” asked andy.
“it sure is, even if we don’t discover anything. i wish paul was along.”
“perhaps it’s just as well he’s home,” commented the younger lad. “i have an idea that this man keeps informed of our movements, and i don’t fancy having him sneak up on us during the night, which he would be very likely to do if paul was with us.”
“that’s so. but, speaking of night, what are we going to do about sleeping?”
“under our boat, with our blankets spread out on the sands,” said the younger lad. “it’s plenty warm enough.”
it was not a half bad way to spend the night, especially as the overturned rowboat kept off the chilly dew. soon the two brothers were soundly sleeping. they did not bother to keep a watch, and even allowed the fire to die out, taking the precaution, however, to put some wood under the boat, where it would be dry in case of rain in the night.
“well, now for another try at the mysterious man!” called frank, as he crawled out from under their shelter the next morning. “maybe we’ll have better luck to-day.”
they set off directly after breakfast, and took with them their blankets and a supply of food. for they intended to make a half circuit of the island that day, and they figured that night would find them too far away from their camp to make it practical to return.
“we’ll eat and sleep wherever we are when it’s dark,” decided frank.
their search that day was as fruitless as before. not a vestige of the man or boat was to be seen. they made a sort of shelter of driftwood and seaweed before darkness fell, and built a rousing fire in front of it, where they sat and talked until it was time to turn in.
“i don’t like the looks of the weather,” remarked frank as he wrapped up in his blankets.
“why not?” his brother wanted to know.
“it looks like rain, and if it does we’re going to get wet.”
“oh, i guess not,” said the younger lad easily. he never looked for trouble.
it was along toward morning when frank awoke from a troubled dream that he was standing under a shower bath. he found it to be almost a reality, for it was raining and the water was coming in through the flimsy roof of their shelter.
“what’s the matter?” asked andy sleepily as he heard his brother moving about.
“it’s raining a flood! i’m drenched and so must you be.”
“that’s right, i am pretty wet. what had we better do; make for the gull?”
“what, in this storm and darkness? no, but i think there’s a cave near here. we can go in that and keep dry, at any rate.”
“go ahead, i’m with you.”
they were fortunate in finding a small cavern, and in it was a supply of dry wood. they made a fire, though the smoke was almost as bad as the dampness, but it served to get rid of that chilly feeling.
it was still raining when morning came, but the boys were more cheerful with the appearance of daylight, though they had to breakfast on cold food, for all the wood was wet, and the supply in the cave had been burned.
“oh, well, we can go back to our first camp, and row out to the gull pretty soon,” remarked frank. “let’s hurry on with our search now.”
“i’m afraid it isn’t going to amount to anything,” declared andy. “that man isn’t here, and he hasn’t been here. captain trent’s theory was all right, but it didn’t work out.”
“oh, i’m not going to give up yet,” insisted frank. “we have a good part of the island to explore yet.”
but, as they went farther on, it became more and more evident that there was no one on the island but themselves—that is, unless the mysterious man was hidden somewhere between them and their first camp—a distance of about a mile.
“we’ll cover that, and then all there is to do is to sail back home,” proposed andy, as they started on the last lap of their search, after eating a hasty lunch. it had stopped raining, for which they were very thankful.
there was one more cave to explore, and this was soon proved to contain nothing but a colony of bats, which they disturbed with their flashing light.
“i hope our boat’s safe,” mused frank as they headed for the place where they had left it “i don’t fancy swimming out to the gull.”
“oh, it will be all right,” asserted andy confidently. “there she is,” he added a moment later, as he made the turn around a jutting rock. “she hasn’t been moved since we slept under her.”
together they approached their boat. as he neared it frank looked critically at some marks in the wet sand—a series of footprints all about the craft.
“look!” he exclaimed, pointing to them.
“well, what about it?” asked andy calmly. “you and i made them.”
“it rained since we were here night before last,” said frank in a low voice, as if afraid someone would hear him, “our footprints would have been washed away. someone has been here since—a man—”
he paused and looked down the beach. an indefinable something had attracted his attention. the next moment he grasped andy by the arm.
“there he is!” he exclaimed.
and there, about a quarter of a mile away was a man, standing beside a big wrecked motor boat that was drawn up on the beach. it was the mysterious personage for whom the racer boys were searching.
