"He is not here."
"No."
They lost little time in hastening up the stairs and getting out of the old building. As soon as they were in the open air they drew deep breaths, for they had been stifled and oppressed.
"Where next?" asked Bart.
"The house," said Bruce. "We must not go away without looking through that."
"Can we get in?"
"We will find a way--or make it!"
CHAPTER XXVI.
AGAIN AT THE GRAVE.
The door of the house would not open for them. Bruce threatened to burst it in with his shoulders, but Bart advised him not to do so, unless as a last resort.
Then a window was found that would open, and soon they had clambered in.
There was some furniture in the house, but still the place had the same dreary, deserted air of the big building they had just left.
Browning began by shouting Frank"s name, to which cry there was no answer. The rising wind rattled a loose window.
It did not take them long to go through the house, to which there was no cellar, and they found nothing to indicate that a human being had entered the place for months.
As they stood outside, after getting out of the window and closing it behind them, they looked at each other in a helpless manner.
"What has become of him?" asked Bart, huskily.
"That is what I would like to know," confessed Bruce. "He seems to have disappeared completely."
"And the man in gray----"
"Is gone, too."
"Browning, I am afraid Merry was lured into some sort of a trap."
"So am I."
"Why should they take him in particular, and not harm any of the rest of us?"
"Perhaps their motto is one at a time."
"No. I believe Frank was selected out of our party as the one to get out of the way. He was determined to solve the mystery of this wretched island, and he was the leader of our party. The ruffians fancied that they would put an end to all trouble by getting him out of the way, for they fancied we would run at once."
Browning grunted, and Hodge went on swiftly and fiercely:
"By the eternal skies, they made a big mistake! I"ll not leave this island till I know what has happened to Frank Merriwell, or I am dead!"
"Nor I," nodded Bruce. "I"m with you, old man."
"If he has been harmed," Bart went on, "the wretches who did the dirty work shall suffer! I swear it!"
"I"m another."
"We will bring them to justice!"
"Or kick the bucket trying."
They shook hands on it, and they were in deadly earnest.
They decided not to return to the yacht by the path, but to go over the island and through the woods. Thus, by chance, they followed almost directly in Frank"s footsteps.
As they drew near to the dark woods, Browning felt a tightening at his heart--a sensation similar to that he had once before experienced as he stood beside the lonely grave in the dark glade. He sought to throw it off, but could not do so.
"Come," he said.
"Which way?" asked Bart.
"This way."
He seemed to feel something drawing him toward the grave in the glade, and Bart followed without another word.
Unconsciously the big Yale man stepped softly, as if he feared to alarm somebody or something. The moss beneath his feet gave no sound. Not even a twig snapped. Without knowing that he did so, Hodge imitated Browning"s stealthy manner.
The wind soughed through the pines and cedars in a fitful manner. There seemed to be strange rustlings in the air.
At the edge of the glade Bruce halted. There was the grave, with the gray headstone. He stood there staring at it. Somehow he was possessed by a feeling that the grave had something to do with the vanishing of Frank Merriwell, although his reason told him that such a thing was folly.
"What is the matter?"
Hodge almost whispered the question, for he was beginning to feel the uncanny air that overshadowed the place.
"There is the grave," said Bruce.
"What grave?"
"Why, the one we told you about--the grave of the Boston man who disappeared in such a mysterious manner. It is supposed that he was murdered on this island and buried there."
Bart shivered.
"You act as if you half expected to see another grave beside that one,"