"Well, I have something important to tell you," Max continued. "I"m the boy who gave you the radio compa.s.s information that made it possible for you to find Friday Island."
"Gee! I"m glad to meet you," exclaimed Cub, seizing the Canadian youth by the hand and forgetting, in his eagerness, the announcement from the "radio compa.s.s detective" that he had "something important" to communicate.
But the latter, although equally pleased to meet the young amateur from the States, was on his guard against a delay of this sort and soon broke through the effusion of cordiality with which Cub greeted him and continued his communication thus:
"I was just telegraphing with one of the boys on the island, and he told me to tell you to hurry back. There are four men on the island who ordered them away and threatened to make trouble for them if they didn"t get away soon."
"What"s that!" exclaimed Mr. Perry, seizing the youth by the arms. "You say you got that kind of message from those boys?"
"Sure I did," the boy replied; "and they want you to hurry back."
"What kind of men are they--rough characters, bad men?"
"That"s what I understood him to mean."
"Come on, Mr. Baker, Bob; we must hustle along. Thank you, my boy; you"ll hear from me again."
"I"ll hurry back and tell the boys I found you and you"re on your way,"
shouted Max as he ran down the street toward home.
Mr. Perry led the way toward the dock at a rapid pace. Presently they found themselves in front of a hardware store, and the owner of the Catwhisker stopped and said:
"I"m going in here a minute."
He entered, and Mr. Baker and Cub followed, wondering a little as to the motive of the boy"s father. But they were not long left in doubt.
"Have you any fire-arms on sale here?" Mr. Perry asked, addressing the proprietor.
"Small or large?" the latter inquired.
"Small."
"Right this way."
He stepped behind a show case in which was a display of automatics and revolvers. Mr. Perry selected one of the former and a box of cartridges and took out his pocketbook to pay for them.
"I believe I"ll take one, too," interposed Mr. Baker, also producing a purse.
The storekeeper looked somewhat curiously at the two men.
"I"m supposed to exercise care and judgment in selling these weapons," he remarked slowly.
"Of course, of course," returned Mr. Perry. "The situation is this: We belong to a yacht on the river and have run up against some bad characters. I am the owner of the yacht and have decided that we need protection."
"Sure, sure, that"s perfectly satisfactory," said the hardware man. "You can buy out my whole a.r.s.enal on that explanation."
"We won"t need it," Mr. Perry smiled. "These two guns are enough."
The purchase completed, the two men and the boy left the store and hastened on toward the munic.i.p.al docks.
Meanwhile Max arrived at his home and went direct to his radio room.
There the first thing he did was to don his phones, and the result was instantly startling.
He had left the instrument tuned to the Friday Island wave length and the aerial switch in receiving position.
"S O S, S O S, S O S," crashed into his ears in rapid, energetic, excited succession, it seemed to his susceptible imagination.
Quickly he threw over the switch, and called for an explanation. It came as follows:
"Those men have seized my friend, and now are coming after me. S O S, S O--"
That was all--not another dot or dash. Desperately Max appealed for further details, but it was like calling for life in a cemetery. The ether was dead, so far as Friday Island was concerned.
CHAPTER XX
Four Prisoners
When the Catwhisker arrived at Friday Island again, the place appeared to be deserted.
The camp was as they had left it, except that the breakfast dishes were washed and put away. "Friday" had performed his duty, but both boys had disappeared, and there seemed to be only one explanation of their disappearance, namely, the premonition of danger at the hands of the four strange men that the Rockport amateur, Max, had received from the boys on the island. No damage had been done to the tent or any of the camp paraphernalia, even the radio outfit being exactly as it had been when they left it in charge of Hal and Bud a few hours previously.
"This is getting pretty serious," Mr. Perry said, after they had made an unsatisfactory review of the situation. "I confess I don"t know what to make of it."
Cub felt an impulse to brand this new affair as the most puzzling mystery that had yet confronted them, but he checked the utterance wisely enough as entirely too facetious for the occasion.
"We"ve got to get the authorities busy on this case," Mr. Perry added after a few moments" hesitation. "We may be sure now that it"s more than a hazing affair. There must be a retreat of some bad men around here somewhere."
"What authorities shall we ask to help us?" Cub inquired.
His father seemed about to answer, but he hesitated a moment or two, with a puzzled look, first at his son, then at Mr. Baker.
"That"s so," he said presently. "Where are we--in Canada or the United States?"
"I think we ought to apply for help in both New York and Ontario," said Mr. Baker, who was ordinarily a man of quiet demeanor, but now was worked up to a state of nervous worry over the fate of his son.
"It"s going to take some time to make trips to both sides of the river and get the authorities of New York and Ontario busy," said Mr. Perry; "but I suppose that"s the only thing to do, and every minute wasted is an opportunity lost. So let"s go right away."
"Hold on, father," Cub interrupted; "you forget that we have a means of calling help right here."
"It won"t do to depend on your radio messages" his father replied. "You know the experience Mr. Baker"s son had trying to get help that way."
"Yes, but there were conditions that queered his calls," Cub replied.
"Just remember the results we got by calling our new friend, Max, at Rockport, and what he did for us. Unless I"m badly mistaken, we can look for more help from him."
"Yes, you"re right, Bob," Mr. Perry admitted. "But I don"t like the idea of staying here and depending on a few boys to take care of so big a proposition. We need to arouse the whole country around here, including all people along the sh.o.r.es, on the islands and those boating up and down the river."