Tom looked rather sober at this. He hesitated a moment. He wanted to ask his pettish sister a question, but evidently did not know how to go about it.
"It can"t be helped now, I suppose. They will be back after a while.
Where were they going besides to that crazy fellow"s island?"
"Just there. That"s all."
"Come on and watch me eat. I"m starved."
"Thanks! I watched the pythons fed at the zoo once," said Helen with unwonted sharpness. "I will sit here till the scene of savagery is over.
You can come back."
"You are in a fine mood, I see," observed Tom, and went off chuckling.
Nevertheless, he was not feeling very happy himself over the thought that Ruth and Chess Copley were out on the river together.
"Looks mighty fishy," muttered Tom Cameron. "I could punch "La.s.ses" head, the way I feel."
These thoughts seemed to take Tom"s appet.i.te away. To his sister"s surprise, he returned in a very few minutes to the front porch of the bungalow.
"I told you that you had boa-constrictor habits," she gasped. "Why, Tom Cameron! you must have swallowed your supper whole."
"I didn"t swallow as much as I expected," returned the young man, smiling. But he grew serious again. "How long was Chess going to stay out in his boat?" he asked.
"You don"t suppose that I saw him go?" asked Helen, with surprise.
"Do you know that it is after eleven o"clock?" said her brother. "If they went no further than that crazy man"s island, what do you suppose is keeping them?"
"Mercy"s sake! is that the time, Tommy-boy? Why, the crazy man himself must be keeping them! Do you suppose the King of the Pipes has captured Ruth and Chess?"
"Don"t try to be funny," advised Tom. "It may be no laughing matter."
"Well, I like that!"
"I don"t think that Chess would keep her out so late if everything was all right. Sure they were not going to Copley Island?"
"Sure. The girls have gone away. There"s no fun going on there."
"Well, of course the motor-boat may have broken down. Such things happen," said Tom reflectively.
"Now you have got me stirred up," cried Helen. "I had no idea it was so late. And Ruthie does not believe in late hours."
"She would not stay out on the river with me half the night, that is sure," grumbled Tom.
"Oh, Tommy-boy!" exclaimed his sister, "I don"t believe she cares so much for Chess. I really don"t."
"Well, that is not here nor there. What"s to be done? Where"s Mr.
Hammond--or Willie?"
"They haven"t got back from Chippewa Bay with the _Gem_."
"This clumsy old _Tamarack_ is too big for me to handle alone. And the boys have all gone to bed by this time."
"The canoes aren"t too big for us to handle," Helen said.
"Us?"
"Yes. I insist on going, too, if you start out to look for the _Lauriette_. And it will look better too. If we are simply paddling about, there being nothing the matter with Chess and Ruth, they won"t be able to laugh at us. Come on!" exclaimed Helen, picking up her sweater.
"I am a loyal sister, Tom Cameron."
"Right-o!" he agreed, more cheerfully. "I suppose there really is nothing the matter. Yet, whatever else Chess Copley is, he"s not the sort of fellow to keep a girl out till midnight on the river when there is n.o.body else along."
"Humph! Do you think Ruth is a mere chit of a flapper? You are old-fashioned, Tommy-boy. The day of the chaperon is about over."
"You know it isn"t over in our set, and never will be," he returned. "You girls have a lot of freedom, I admit. But there are limits."
"Baa!" was Helen"s utterly impudent remark.
They ran down to the sh.o.r.e and got out one of the canoes. Helen was familiar with the use of the paddle and served her brother as a good second. They drove the canoe out into the open river, but only just for a look up its expanse.
There was no motor-boat in sight or hearing--not even the distant lights of one. The current was so strong that the Cameron twins went back among the islands where the water was smoother. Besides, it was much more romantic, Helen said wickedly, among the islands, and Chess and Ruth were more likely to remain in the tortuous pa.s.sages.
The two laid a pretty direct course, however, for the Kingdom of Pipes.
As they spied it, and drew nearer, Tom suddenly stopped paddling and held up his hand.
"What"s the matter?" demanded his sister, likewise raising her paddle out of the water.
"Listen," warned Tom.
Faintly there came the noise of a motor-boat to their straining ears.
"Here they are!" shrilled Helen.
"Will you be still?" demanded her brother. "That"s not Copley"s boat.
It"s a deal bigger craft. She"s on the other side of the island."
Helen leaned forward and caught at his sleeve. "Look there!" she whispered. "There is the _Lauriette_."
She had been the first to see the outline of the Copley launch moored close to the sh.o.r.e of the island at its upper end.
"They"ve gone ash.o.r.e," said Tom. "Where can they be? If that other boat is approaching this island----"
"Oh, Tom! The pirates!"
"Oh, fudge!"
"The smugglers, then. Chess said he believed there were smugglers here."
"What do they smuggle?" demanded Tom with some scorn.