"In my motor boat," proposed Cora quickly. "We could overtake him in that before he had any idea we were following him!"
"Have you a motor boat? Good! Where is it? Here, I"ll call Dan.
He kin run faster than a deer. Dan! Dan! Dan!" shouted the old man, and from a nearby rowboat, where, evidently, some boys were having some sort of a harmless game, Dan appeared. He was a tall youth, the sort that seems to grow near the water. "Hey Dan, I want you to go where this girl tells you, and fetch her boat," said Ben.
"Quick now, we"ve got something to do."
"It"s up at the new camp," said Cora. "It"s the new boat you must have seen come up this afternoon."
"Oh, yes"m, I know it, and I know where it is," replied the lad, and then he was off, his bare feet making no sound. He called back through the darkness "Got any oil or gas?"
"Yes," replied Cora, and away he ran.
"Ain"t he a regular dock rat," said Ben with something like pride in his voice.
"I hope we do not lose sight of that man," remarked Cora.
"Oh Jim can"t pull as hard as he thinks, especially on a lazy day when he has been out some," affirmed Ben. "Now suppose you girls just sit on this plank while you wait? "Twon"t cost you nothin"."
He dusted off the big plank with his handkerchief, and upon the board, Cora, Bess and Belle seated themselves.
"I suppose Dan will haul the boat down," said Cora. "It isn"t locked, but he may not want to start the motor."
"Oh, you can trust to Dan to get her here. When he isn"t a dock rat he"s a ca.n.a.l mule. There! Ain"t that him? Yep, there he comes and he"s got her all right," said old Ben proudly.
The boy could now be seen walking along the water"s edge, as he pulled the motor boat by the bow rope. The girls were quick to follow Ben to the landing, and there all three, with Ben, got aboard.
The girls helped Cora light the port, starboard and aft-lights; then they were ready to start.
"Better let me run her," said the man, "as I know all the spots in this here lake. Besides," and he touched the engine almost fondly, "there ain"t nothin" I like better than a boat, unless it"s a fish line."
"This is a very simple motor," explained Cora, showing how readily the gas could be turned on and how promptly the engine responded to the spark.
"It"s a beauty," agreed Ben, as the "chugchug" answered the first turn of the flywheel.
Belle and Bess sat in the stem and Cora went forward. It was a delightful evening and, but for the urgency of their quest, the first night sail of the Petrel on Cedar Lake would have been a perfect success.
"Isn"t that a light?" asked Belle, loud enough for Cora to hear.
"Yes. Ben see, there is a light. Do you suppose that is on Jim"s boat?" asked Cora.
"Never," replied Ben, "he"s too stingy to light up on a moonlight night when the water"s clear. Of course the law says he must, but who"s goin" to back up the law?"
"Which way are you going?" she questioned further.
"See that track of foam over yonder? That"s Jim"s course. We"ll just pick his trail," said Ben. "Now there! Watch him turn! He"s headin" for Far Island!"
At this Ben throttled down, and, a few minutes later he turned off the gas and cut out the switch.
"We"ll just drift a little to give him a chance to settle," he said.
"We don"t want to get too close--it might spoil the game."
Belle and Bess were both too nervous to talk. It seemed like some pirate story, that they should be following a strange fisherman to a wild island in the night, in hopes of finding the boys--possibly captured boys!
Cora listened eagerly. She, too, was losing courage--it was so slight a hope that this man would lead them to where the boys might be.
"There! See that!" exclaimed Ben. "He"s talking to some one on land."
"Yes, I heard Jack"s voice," exclaimed Cora. "Oh, I am so glad they are safe!"
"But how do we know?" asked Belle, her voice trembling.
"Jack"s voice told me," replied Cora, "for if they were in distress he would not have shouted like that!"
"But he was mad," said Ben, and in this the old fisherman made no mistake, for the voices of the boys, in angry protest, could be heard, as they argued with some one, who succeeded in keeping his part of the conversation silent from the anxious listeners.
CHAPTER IV
GETTING BACK
A few minutes later the rowboat of Jim Peters came out from Far Island, and in it were the boys!
"If we have to bale her out all the way" Ed was saying, "I can"t see why we should pay you a quarter a piece. Seems to me we are earning our fare."
They were now almost alongside the drifting motor boat.
"Jack! Jack," called Cora. "We are here, waiting for you. What ever happened to you?"
"Well," exclaimed the boys in great surprise. "Glad to see you girls--never gladder to see anyone in my life. Can you take us on?"
"Of course we can," replied Cora. "My! We thought you were lost."
"Not us, but our boat," answered Walter. "Some one stole our canoe and left us on the island, high and dry."
"There," said Ben, "didn"t I tell you?"
"Well, you fellows owe me just the same as if you went all the way,"
growled Jim Peters. "I"ve lost my night hire waitin" fer you."
"How"d you know about them, Jim?" asked Ben, in a joking sort of tone. "Wasn"t it luck you happened up this way to-night?"
The other man did not reply. Cora had stepped down to the seat in front of the engine where Ben sat.
"Do you think that man stole their canoe?" she asked.
"Hush! "Taint no use to fight with Jim. He"d get the best of you sure, and besides, then he would be your enemy. Just make a joke of it, and I"ll tell you more later," and Ben prepared to start as soon as the boys, who were climbing into the motor boat, were ready.