All at once, with astonishing suddenness, he came out into the opening and there before him was the grave, the headstone gleaming gray in the dim light.
Frank paused. Involuntarily he listened. He had not forgotten how, on his other visit to the spot, both he and Browning had seemed to hear a mysterious whisper in the air, had seemed to hear a rustle down in that grave, as if the murdered man turned restlessly. Without knowing why he did so, Frank listened again.
"Look!"
He started, for it seemed that he had heard that whisper. He glanced all around.
Silence in the woods. Not even the rustle of a leaf. How lonely it was!
"Look!"
Again that word, coming from he knew not where.
At what should he look? What did it mean?
Then he told himself that it was all his imagination--he had heard no whispered word. He advanced toward the grave; he stood beside it.
"Look!"
Was it imagination? This time the whisper sounded amazingly clear and distinct.
"Look at what?"
In spite of himself, he spoke the words aloud. He did not expect an answer, and he gasped for breath when it came:
"The stone!"
A quiver ran over Frank Merriwell"s body. Of all the mysteries on this island, the mystery of this black whispering glade in the woods was the greatest.
He bent forward and looked at the stone. There were fresh chips on the mound, and at a glance he saw that the name "Rawson Denning" had been chiseled out. Below it another name had been cut into the stone, so that the inscription now read:
"Sacred to the Memory of Frank Merriwell."
CHAPTER XXV.
SEARCHING FOR FRANK.
As time pa.s.sed and Frank did not return, the boys began to grow restless and anxious.
"I don"t like it," declared Diamond, pacing the beach, upon which the tide was washing higher and higher as it came in. "I did not think much of letting him go away alone. We all know what happened to him once when he was alone on this island."
"He knows it himself," said Hodge; "and it is mighty hard work to catch him twice in the same trap."
"Oh, he"s shrewd enough, but he can be overpowered by numbers. What do you think about it, Browning?"
Bruce was stretched on the sand, his head pillowed on his coat, which lay on a rock.
"I"m not going to think for an hour," he grunted. "Too much trouble."
"Oh, your laziness makes me disgusted!" snapped Diamond.
"Huah!" came in a puff from the big fellow. "Something seems to be gnawing you still."
"Poys," broke in Hans, who still looked sad and weary of living, "I made der biggest mistook uf your life ven I let Vrankie go avay alone all py himseluf to chase dot liddle defil mit der saucy mouth--you heard me vawble!"
"If he had fallen into trouble, he would have done some shooting to let us know."
"But should we have heard it, Hodge?" asked Diamond.
"The island is not very large."
"I think it is pretty large, and I do not believe we could hear a gun fired on the other side even under favorable circ.u.mstances, and the circ.u.mstances are not favorable now."
"Why not?"
"Wind is blowing the wrong way."
"Didn"t think of that."
The boys soon concluded that the shooting on the farther side of the island would not be heard by them, and straightway their anxiety increased.
Diamond was for starting out at once to look for Frank. He did not believe in waiting till the hour was up; but Hodge, who in his heart was the most anxious man of the party, objected to disobeying Merry"s plain command.
"He told us to stay here an hour, and I shall stay here," said Bart.
"I suppose you would stay if you heard him shouting for help?" said the Virginian, hotly.
Bart flushed, for he did not fancy being spoken to in that tone of voice.
"I have always found it best to do just as Merriwell directs," said Hodge, stiffly. "If you wish to go search for him, you may go. I remain here twenty minutes longer."
Browning grunted his approval of the stand taken by Bart, and Jack gave them both a savage look.
Hans, who had refused to partake of the clams while the man in gray was present, was feeling very hungry, and that made him still more miserable.
"Oxcuse me, poys," he said. "I must made a raid der ship"s brovisions ubon. I vill peen pack britty soon, if nod before."
Then he took the boat and rowed off to the yacht, where he lost no time in satisfying the cravings of his "inner man."
As the Dutch lad appeared on deck to row ash.o.r.e again, Browning suddenly straightened up from his rec.u.mbent position. He had his watch in his hand, and the Dutch lad heard him say:
"The hour is up, Hodge."
Immediately Bart turned toward the yacht and shouted to Hans: