"Why, Clodis carried the papers in a money-belt, and, in undressing him, we found that belt gone."
"Have you looked through the baggage that we brought ash.o.r.e with Mr.
Clodis?"
"I haven"t thought of it. Haven"t had time," replied Mr. Seaton. "But I will now. Mr. Clodis"s steamer trunk is in the room with him. We"ll bring it out, and search."
Tom and Hank brought the trunk out.
"The lock hasn"t been tampered with, you see, sir," suggested Halstead.
"Here are Clodis"s keys," replied Powell Seaton, producing a ring. One of the keys he fitted to the trunk lock, next throwing up the lid.
After rummaging for a few moments, Mr. Seaton brought up a sealed envelope from the bottom of the trunk.
"Dalton _would_ have been glad to get this," he cried, with a near approach to delight.
"Lock it up tight in your innermost pockets then, sir," counseled Tom Halstead. "The contents of that envelope must be what Dalton has come back here for, or sent someone else for. And, until he gets it, he must plan to keep Lonely Island out of touch with the whole world.
We"ll hear from him again to-night, I"m thinking."
"Will we?" flared Mr. Seaton, stepping briskly across the room.
Unlocking a cupboard door, he brought out a repeating shot-gun. From an ammunition box he helped himself to several sh.e.l.ls, fitting six of them into the magazine of the gun.
"Buckshot talks, sometimes," said the owner of the bungalow, more quietly. "I shall be awake to-night, and have this gun always with me."
"Have you any other weapons, sir?" asked Tom.
"Yes; a revolver--here it is."
Powell Seaton held out the weapon, but Halstead shook his head.
"Dr. Cosgrove is the one who"ll want that, since he must stay by Mr.
Clodis to-night. And, see here, Mr. Seaton, impress upon the doctor that he mustn"t take a nap, even for a moment. As for you, you"ll want to be watching the house in general."
"Why, where will you young men be?" inquired Mr. Seaton.
"We couldn"t stay indoors, with our boat gone, sir," Tom answered.
"The first thing we must do is to explore all around the island. Even if we don"t get a sign of the "Restless," we may find out something else. We may be able to catch someone trying to land on this island later to-night."
"Yes; it will be best to have guards outside roaming about the island," admitted Powell Seaton, readily. Then, lowering his voice as he signed to the Motor Boat Club boys to draw closer to him, Mr.
Seaton added:
"Something, of some nature, _will_ be attempted to-night. There is no other sound explanation of the crippling of the wireless and the stealing of the boat. So be vigilant, boys--as I shall also be while you"re gone."
Hank helped himself to a fresh club--a stouter one than that which he had broken over the snubbing post at the dock. Then out into the black night fared the three Motor Boat Club boys.
"Shall we keep together, or spread?" asked Joe Dawson.
"Together," nodded Tom Halstead. "If there are prowlers about, we can"t tell how soon three of us may be even too few. Remember, we have only firewood to fight with, and we don"t know what kind of men we may run up against."
So Tom led his friends down to a point but little south of the dock.
From here, following the sh.o.r.e, they started to prowl slowly around Lonely Island, all the while keeping a sharp watch to seaward.
"If the boat is in any waters near at hand we ought to get some sign of her whereabouts by keeping a sharp enough watch," Tom advised his comrades. "They can"t sail or handle the boat without the occasional use of a light in the motor room. The gleam of a lantern across the water may be enough to give us an idea where she is."
Peering off into the blackness of the night, this seemed like rather a forlorn hope.
"If whoever has stolen the boat intends to land later to-night,"
hinted Joe, "it"s much more likely that the thieves are, at this moment, a good, biggish distance away, so as not to give us any clew to their intentions."
In the course of twenty minutes the Motor Boat Club boys had made their way around to the southern end of the island.
Somewhat more than a mile to the southward lay a small, unnamed island. It was uninhabited, and too sandy to be of value to planters.
Yet it had one good cove of rather deep water.
Tom halted, staring long and hard in the direction where he knew this little spot on the ocean to stand. It was too black a night for any glimpse of the island to be had against the sky.
"That would be a good enough place for our pirates to have taken the "Restless,"" he muttered, to his comrades.
"If we only had a boat, we could know, bye-and-bye," muttered Hank, discontentedly.
"We have been known to swim further than that," said Joe, quietly.
"But never in such a sea as is running to-night," sighed Tom Halstead.
"Even as the water is, I"d like to chance it, but I"m afraid it would be useless. And it would leave Mr. Seaton and the doctor alone against any surprise."
"I"d swim that far, or drown, even in this sea," muttered Dawson, vengefully, "if I had any idea that our boat lay over that way."
For two or three minutes the boys stood there, talking. Not once did Tom Halstead turn his eyes away from the direction of the island to the southward.
"Look there!" the young skipper finally uttered, clutching at Joe"s elbow. "Did you see that?"
"Yes," voiced Joe, in instant excitement.
"That" was a tiny glow of light, made small by the distance.
"It"s a lantern, being carried by someone," continued Captain Tom, after a breathless pause. "There--it vanishes! Oh, I say--gracious!"
Joe, too, gave a gasp.
As for Hank b.u.t.ts, that youth commenced to breathe so hard that there was almost a rattle to his respiration.
Immediately following the disappearance of the distant light, four smaller, dimmer lights appeared, in a row.
"That"s the same light, showing through the four starboard ports of the motor room," trembled Joe Dawson. "Starboard, because the lantern was carried forward, before it disappeared briefly in the hatchway of the motor room."
"That"s our boat--there isn"t a single doubt of it," cried Tom Halstead, enthusiastically. "And now--oh, fellows! We"ve simply got to swim over there, rough sea or smooth sea. We"ve got to get our own boat back unless the heavens fall on us on the way over!"
"Humph! What are we going to do," demanded Hank b.u.t.ts, "if we find a gang aboard that we can"t whip or bluff?"