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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Boy Scouts of the Air on Lost Island, by 
+Gordon Stuart
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Boy Scouts of the Air on Lost Island
+
+Author: Gordon Stuart
+
+Posting Date: September 3, 2012 [EBook #6827]
+Release Date: November, 2004
+First Posted: January 28, 2003
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BOY SCOUTS ON LOST ISLAND ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Richard Prairie, Charles Franks and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+The Boy Scouts of the Air on Lost Island
+
+BY GORDON STUART
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+I OVER THE DAM
+
+II A HOPELESS SEARCH
+
+III LOST ISLAND
+
+IV MORE THRILLS
+
+V A STARTLING CLEW
+
+VI TO THE RESCUE!
+
+VII THE FLYING EAGLE SCOUTS
+
+VIII A VOYAGE IN THE DARK
+
+IX A RESCUE THAT FAILED
+
+X "TO-MORROW IS THE DAY!"
+
+XI A MID-AIR MIRACLE
+
+XII AN EMPTY RIFLE SHELL
+
+XIII THE GAME BEGINS
+
+XIV PATCHING THE "SKYROCKET"
+
+XV A WILD NIGHT
+
+XVI TRICKED AGAIN!
+
+XVII THE BIG PLAY
+
+XVIII A CLOSE FINISH
+
+
+
+
+The Boy Scouts of the Air on Lost Island
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+OVER THE DAM
+
+
+Three boys stood impatiently kicking the dew off the tall grass in
+Ring's back yard, only pausing from their scanning of the beclouded,
+dawn-hinting sky to peer through the lightening dusk toward the clump
+of cedars that hid the Fulton house.
+
+"He's not up yet, or there'd be a light showing," grumbled the short,
+stocky one of the three.
+
+"Humph--it's so late now he wouldn't be needing a light. Tod never
+failed us yet, Frank, and he told me last night that he'd be right on
+deck."
+
+"We'd ought to have gone down right off, Jerry, when we saw he wasn't
+here. Frank and I would have stopped off for him, only we was so sure
+he'd be the first one here--especially when you two were elected to dig
+the worms."
+
+"We dug the worms last night--a lard pail half full--down back of his
+cabbage patch. And while we were sitting on the porch along comes his
+father--you know how absent-minded he is--and reaches down into the
+bucket and says, 'Guess I'll help myself to some of your berries,
+boys.'"
+
+"Bet you that's why Tod isn't here, then."
+
+"Why, Frank Ellery, seventh son of a seventh son? Coming so early in
+the morning, your short-circuit brain shockers make us ordinary folks
+dizzy. This double-action----"
+
+"Double-action nothing, Dave Thomas! I heard Mr. Fulton tell Tod
+yesterday he was to pick four quarts of blackberries and take them over
+to your Aunt Jen. Tod forgot, and so his dad wouldn't let him go
+fishing, that's all."
+
+"Sun's up," announced Jerry Ring.
+
+"So's Tod!" exclaimed Dave Thomas, who had climbed to the first high
+limbs of a near-by elm and now slid suddenly down into the midst of the
+piled-up fishing paraphernalia. "I just saw him coming in from the
+berry patch--here he comes now."
+
+A lanky, good-natured looking sixteen-year-old boy, in loose-fitting
+overalls and pale blue shirt open at the throat, came loping down the
+path.
+
+"Gee, fellows," he panted, "I expect you're cussing mad--but I _had_ to
+pick those berries before I went, and it took me so long to grouch out
+the green ones after it got light."
+
+"I see you brought the very greenest one of all along," observed Dave
+dryly.
+
+"Oh, you here, too, little one?" as if seeing him for the first time.
+"I didn't know kindergarten was closed for the day. I make one guess
+who tipped over the bait can."
+
+"Ask Frank," suggested Dave with pretended weariness; "he's got second
+sight."
+
+"Don't need second sight to see that worm crawling up your pants leg.
+We going to stand here all day! I move we get a hike on down to the
+boat. Maybe we can hitch on behind Steve Porter's launch--he's going up
+past Dead Tree Point--and that'll save us the long pull through the
+slough."
+
+The boys picked up the great load of luggage, which was not so big when
+divided among four boys, and hustled out of the Ring yard and down the
+dusty road. They were four of a size; that is, Tod Fulton was tall and
+somewhat flattened out, while Frank Ellery was more or less all in a
+bunch, as Jerry said, who was himself sturdily put together. Dave
+Thomas was neither as tall as Tod nor as stocky as Frank; He looked
+undersized, in fact. But his "red hair and readier tongue," his friends
+declared, more than made up for any lack of size. At any rate, no one
+ever offered a second time to carry the heaviest end of the load.
+
+Now, as they walked along through the back streets of Watertown,
+rightly named as it was in the midst of lakes, creeks and rivers, they
+began a discussion that never grew old with them. Tod began it.
+
+"We've got plenty of worms, for once."
+
+"Good!" cried Dave. "I've thought of a dandy scheme, but it'd take a
+pile of bait."
+
+"What's that?" asked Jerry, suspecting mischief.
+
+"You know, you can stretch out a worm to about three inches. Tie about
+a hundred together--allow an inch apiece for the knot--that would make
+two hundred inches, or say seventeen feet. Put the back end of the line
+about a foot up on the bank and the other end out in the water. Along
+comes a carp--the only fish that eats _worms_--and starts eating. He
+gets so excited following up his links of worm-weenies, that he doesn't
+notice he's up on shore, when suddenly Tod Fulton, mighty fisherman,
+grabs him by the tail and flips him----"
+
+"Yes--where does he flip him?" Tod had dropped his share of the luggage
+and now had Dave by the back of the neck.
+
+"Back into the water and makes him eat another string of worms as
+punishment for being a carp."
+
+"You with your old dead minnows!" exclaimed Tod, giving Dave a push
+that sent him staggering. "Last time we went, all you caught was a
+dogfish and one starved bullhead. There's more real fish that'll bite
+on worms than on any other bait. I've taken trout and even black bass.
+Early in the morning I can land pickerel and croppies where a minnow or
+a frog could sleep on the end of a six pounder's nose. Don't tell me."
+
+"Yes," put in Jerry, "and I can sit right between the two of you and
+with my number two Skinner and a frog or a bacon rind pull 'em out
+while you fellows go to sleep between nibbles."
+
+"Bully!" exclaimed Frank. "Every time we go home after a trip, you hang
+a sign on your back: 'Fish for Sale,' with both s's turned backwards.
+I'm too modest to mention the name of the boy who caught the largest
+black bass ever hooked in Plum Run, but I can tell you the kind of fly
+the old boy took, all the same."
+
+"Testimony's all in," laughed Tod, good-humoredly. "And here we are at
+the dock of the 'Big Four.'"
+
+"Yes, and there goes Porter up around the bend. We row our boat to-day.
+We ought to get up a show or something and raise enough money to buy a
+motor."
+
+"I move we change our plans and leave Round Lake for another trip." It
+was lazy Frank who made the proposal.
+
+"What difference does it make to you? You never row anyway. Plum Run's
+too high for anything but still fishing----"
+
+"I saw Hunky Doran coming back from Parry's Dam day before yesterday
+and he had a dandy string."
+
+"Sure. He always does. Bet you he dopes his bait," declared Tod.
+
+"Well, you spit on the worm yourself. The dam isn't half as far as Dead
+Tree, and, besides, we can always walk across to Grass Lake. Jerry
+votes for the dam, don't you, Jerry?"
+
+But Jerry only shrugged his shoulders. Frank and Tod always disagreed
+on fishing places, largely because their styles of angling were
+different and consequently a good place for one was the poorest place
+in the world for the other. So Jerry, who usually was the peacemaker,
+said nothing but unlocked the padlock which secured the boat, tossed
+the key-ring to Dave with, "Open the boathouse and get two pair of
+oars. Tod, take a squint at the sun--five-thirty, isn't it? An hour and
+a half to the Dead Tree, and an hour more to Round Lake. What kind of
+fish can you take in old Roundy after eight o'clock?"
+
+"Oh, I knew we were going to the dam, all right. I give in. But if I've
+got to go where I don't want to, I'm going to have the boat to fish
+from."
+
+"As if you didn't always have it!" snorted Frank. "The only one who
+fishes in one place all day, but he's got to have the boat--and forgets
+himself and walks right off it the minute he gets a real bite. Huh!"
+
+Tod paid no attention to this insult. He and Jerry settled in their
+places at the oars, with Frank at the stern for ballast, and Dave up
+ahead to watch the channel, for Plum Run, unbelievably deep in places,
+had a trick of shallowing at unlikely spots. More than once had the
+_Big Four_ had her paint scraped off by a jagged shelf of rock or shoal.
+
+They were all in their places, the luggage stowed away, and Frank was
+ready to push away from the dock, when he raised his hand and said
+instead: "Understand me, boys, I'm the last one in the world to
+kick--you know me. But there's one request I have to make of you before
+the push of my fingers cuts us off from the last trace of civilization."
+
+"'Sw'at?" cried the three.
+
+"When we have embarked upon this perilous voyage, let no mournful note
+swell out upon the breeze, to frighten beasts and men--and fish--into
+believing that Dave Thomas is once more _trying_ to sing!"
+
+Immediately a mournful yowling began in the bow of the boat, growing
+louder as they drew away from shore. And then, amid the laughter of his
+three companions, Dave ended his wail and instead broke into a lively
+boating song, the others joining in at the chorus. For Dave's singing
+was a source of pride to his friends.
+
+So, Dave singing lustily and Tod and Jerry tugging at the oars in time
+with the music, they swung away from the dock and out in the center
+channel of Plum Run, a good hundred yards from shore. Once in the
+current, they swung straight ahead down stream. Before long the last
+house of Watertown, where people were fast beginning to stir, had faded
+from view. They passed safely through the ripples of the shoals above
+Barren Island, a great place for channel cat when the water was lower.
+Through the West Branch they steered, holding close to the island
+shore, for while the current was slower, at least the water was deeper
+and safer.
+
+A mile-long stretch of smooth rowing lay ahead of them now, after which
+they entered Goose Slough, narrow and twisty, with half-hidden snags,
+and sudden whirlpools. More than one fishing party had been capsized in
+its treacherous quarter mile of boiling length. Then came a so-called
+lake, Old Grass, with the real Grass Lake barely visible through its
+circle of trees. A crystal-clear creek was its outlet to Plum Run, a
+thousand gleaming sunfish and tiny bass flashing through its purling
+rapids or sulking in deep, dark pools. There was good fishing in Grass
+Lake, but waist-high marsh grass, saw-edged, barred the way for nearly
+half a mile.
+
+But just ahead of them Plum Run had widened out once more to real river
+size, its waters penned back by concrete, rock and timber dam, with
+Parry's Mill on the east bank.
+
+"Land me on the other side, above the big cottonwood," decided Frank.
+"There's a weedy little bight up there where I predict a two-pound bass
+in twenty minutes."
+
+"I'll try the stretch just below, working toward the dam, I guess. How
+about you, Jerry!" asked Dave.
+
+"I'll stay with the boat awhile, I reckon. Where away, boatman?"
+
+"Dam," grunted Tod.
+
+"Not swearing, I take it?" inquired Jerry.
+
+"No--fishing there."
+
+Dave and Frank were dropped out at the cottonwood, where they were soon
+exchanging much sage advice concerning likely spots and proper bait.
+Jerry and Tod chuckled as they rowed away. Tod himself was keen on
+still fishing with worms or grubs; he liked to sit and dream while the
+bait did the work; but his quarreling with Dave and Frank was mostly
+make-believe. Jerry, the best fisherman of the four, believed, as he
+said, in "making the bait fit the fish's mouth." His tackle-box held
+every kind of hook and lure; his steel rod and multiple reel were the
+best Timkin's Sporting Goods Store in town could furnish; they had cost
+him a whole summer's savings.
+
+Tod rather laughed at Jerry's equipment. His own cheap brass reel and
+jointed cane pole, with heavy linen line, was only an excuse.
+Throw-lines with a half dozen hooks were his favorites, and a big
+catfish his highest aim. As soon as the boat hit the dam he began
+getting out his lines. Jerry jumped lightly over the bow.
+
+"Shall I tie you up?" he called over his shoulder.
+
+"Never mind, Jerry. I think I'll work in toward the shore a bit first,
+and, anyway, she can't drift upstream." So Jerry went on his way out
+toward the middle of the dam.
+
+It was really a monstrous affair, that dam. The old part was built on
+and from solid rock, being really a jutting out of a lime stone cliff
+which had stood high and dry before the water had been dammed up by the
+heavy timber cribs cutting across the original stream. Concrete
+abutments secured these timbers and linked the walls of stone with the
+huge gates opening into the millrace that fed the water to the
+ponderous undershot millwheel. Just now the gates were open and the
+water rushed through with deafening force. Jerry made his way across
+the stonework section, having a hard time in the water-worn crevices,
+slimed over with recent overflows, for when the millgates were closed,
+Plum Run thundered over this part of the dam in a spectacular waterfall.
+
+He had hardly reached the flat concrete before he noticed that the roar
+from the millrace had ceased; the gates had been closed. All the
+better; this part of the river was shallow; when the water rose, big
+fish would be coming in to scour over the fresh feeding grounds. So he
+moved a little nearer shore and quickly trimmed his lines. He heard a
+hail from the bank as he made his first cast. It was from Dave.
+
+"Mind if I come out and try my luck beside you?"
+
+"Not at all. Water's coming up fast. Best try some grubs or worms,
+though. No good for minnows here now."
+
+"Sure," agreed Dave, settling comfortably beside him. "Water sure is
+filling up, isn't she? Guess the Miller of the Dee dropped a cogwheel
+into his wheat."
+
+"Not wishing anybody any bad luck, but I hope they don't start up again
+all day. This'll be a backwater as soon as the current starts going
+over the dam. Another six inches--say! Look at Tod. If he isn't fishing
+right above the flume. Wonder if he's noticed."
+
+"Noticed? He's got a bite, that's what! Look at him bending to it. It's
+a big one, you bet. Golly, did you see that!"
+
+"I see more than that," exclaimed Jerry grimly, dropping his precious
+pole and starting across the slippery rocks on the run. "If he doesn't
+get out of there in about thirty seconds, he's going over the dam!"
+
+But just as Jerry mounted the last clump of rocks, just as Dave's
+desperate shouts had aroused Tod to a realization of his
+danger,--something happened. You have watched a big soap bubble
+swelling the one last impossible breath; you have seen a camp coffee
+kettle boiling higher and higher till _splush!_ the steaming brown mass
+heaves itself into the fire--the bending, crowding mile-wide surface of
+Plum Creek found a sudden outlet. And right in the center of that
+outlet was a plunging tiny boat.
+
+"Help!" rang out one choked-off cry, as in a great rush of suddenly
+foaming flood, over the dam plunged a boat and a terrorized boy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+A HOPELESS SEARCH
+
+
+In the brief instant that Jerry stood on the slippery point of rock he
+had the queer feeling that it was all a horrible dream, or at least
+only an impossible scene from a motion picture. Where a boat had been a
+second before was now only a seething, tossing down-tumbling wall of
+brownish foam.
+
+But his stunned inaction was quickly gone. Down to the very edge of the
+flood he raced, almost losing his balance and toppling in. At a
+dangerous angle he leaned over and peered into the churning water-pit
+below.
+
+Dave had come hurrying to his side, to miss his footing at the last and
+plunge waist-deep into the current. A precious moment was lost in
+rescuing him. When, both safe on the rocky ledge, they turned to scan
+the depths of the fall, it was to see a dark object suddenly pop up
+full fifty feet downstream. It was the boat--but no Tod.
+
+"Did you see it!" cried Jerry excitedly. "Didn't it look like something
+blackish in the bottom of the boat?"
+
+"She's full of water, that's all. Tod's down there under the fall. He's
+drowned, I tell you! What shall we do? What shall we do!" Excitable
+Dave was fast losing his head.
+
+"Come on!" shouted Jerry, aroused by the helplessness of his companion.
+"We've got to get to the mill and have them turn the water through the
+race. Then we've got to get a boat out there--quick!"
+
+But he had not waited for Dave. Across the river just below the dam was
+a house. If there was a telephone there--Jerry knew there was one at
+the mill--something might yet be done in time. There was of course no
+way of reaching the mill itself across that raging torrent. There _was_
+a telephone at the house, but it seemed hours after Jerry reached it
+before he finally got a gruff "Hello" from the mill manager, Mr.
+Aikens. But, fortunately, Aikens was not slow to grasp the situation.
+In the midst of his explanations Jerry realized that there was no one
+at the other end of the wire.
+
+Out of the house he dashed and down to where in his wild race he had
+seen a boat moored below the dam. The oars were still in place. Barely
+waiting for the panting Dave to tumble in, he pushed off, exultingly
+noting as he strained at the oars that already the volume of water
+pouring over the falls had lessened. Before he reached the main channel
+it had dwindled to a bare trickle.
+
+"Take the oars!" he directed the helpless Dave, at the same time
+stumbling to the bow of the boat and jerking off shoes, shirt and
+trousers. Diving seemed a hopeless undertaking, but there was little
+else to do. Again and again he plunged under, coming up each time
+nearly spent but desperately determined to try again. Two boats put out
+from the mill side of the river, capable Mr. Aikens in one of them. A
+grappling hook trailing from the stern of the boat told that such
+accidents as this were not unusual in treacherous Plum Run.
+
+Then began a search that exhausted their every resource. The ill word
+had speedily gone around among the nearer houses, and in the course of
+an hour a great crowd of men appeared from Watertown itself. The water
+was black with boats and alive with diving bodies. Hastily constructed
+grappling hooks raked the narrow stream from side to side. A big seine
+was even commandeered from a houseboat up the river and dragged back
+and forth across the rough river bed till the men were worn out.
+
+But all to no avail. Every now and then a shout of discovery went up,
+but the booty of the grappling hooks invariably proved to be only
+watersoaked logs or mud-filled wreckage. Once they were all electrified
+at a black-haired body dislodged by a clam-rake, that came heavily to
+the surface and then sank, to be the subject of ten minutes frantic
+dragging, only to be finally revealed as the body of an unfortunate dog.
+
+It was heart-breaking work, and the tension was not lessened with the
+appearance on the scene of Mr. Fulton, Tod's father. He said nothing,
+but his hopeless silence was more depressing than any words of grief
+could have been. Jerry and Dave and Frank, feeling in some queer way
+guilty of their friend's death, could not meet his eyes as he asked
+dully how it had happened.
+
+The dreary day dragged to a weary close, and the sun sank behind heavy
+clouds black with more than one rumbling promise of storm. The boys
+toiled doggedly on, weak from hunger, for their lunches had gone over
+with the boat, and, anyway, they would not have had the heart to
+swallow a bite. Lanky, good-natured Tod Fulton--drowned! It simply
+couldn't be. But the fast darkening water, looking cruel now, and
+menacing, where it had laughed and rippled only that morning, gave the
+lie to their hopes. Hopes? The last one had gone when Mr. Aikens had
+said:
+
+"Never heard of anybody's being brought to after more than two hours
+under water. Only thing we can hope for is to find the body. I'm going
+to telephone to town and tell 'em to send out some dynamite."
+
+It was already dusk when this decision was made, and it was after nine
+o'clock before an automobile brought a supply of dynamite sticks and
+detonating caps. In the meanwhile a powerful electric searchlight had
+been brought over from the interurban tracks a scant mile west of the
+river line, and the millwheel had been shafted to the big dynamo and
+was generating current to flash dazzling rays of light across the water.
+
+Mayor Humphreys, from Watertown, and Mr. Aikens were chosen to set off
+the dynamite, while watchers lined the shores, sharp-eyed in the hope
+of catching sight of the body when it should come to the muddied
+surface of Plum Run after the dynamite had done its work.
+
+Charge after charge was set off, and countless hundreds of fish were
+stunned or killed by the terrific force of the explosive, but no body
+of a hapless sixteen-year-old boy rewarded the anxious searchers. Up
+and down the river combed the dynamiters, and glare and crash rent the
+night for a mile down the stream. It began to look as if other means
+would have to be resorted to--the saddest of all, perhaps--time.
+Sometime, somewhere, after days or even weeks, ten, twenty, fifty, a
+hundred miles down the river, a sodden, unrecognizable body would be
+washed up on sand-bar or mud-bank. It was a sickening thought.
+
+"Have all the river towns been telegraphed?" asked a bystander, of the
+mayor. A nod of the head was his only answer.
+
+"We may as well go home," was the final reluctant verdict. "We can come
+back in the morning." Mr. Fulton alone refused to abandon the search,
+and Mr. Aikens kindly offered to bear him company till daybreak brought
+others to take his place. When all had gone save these two and the
+three boys, Jerry approached and tried to draw Mr. Aikens aside.
+
+"Do you suppose," he began with a kind of despairing eagerness, "that
+he could have stayed in the boat?"
+
+Aikens shook his head. "Not a chance in the world," he declared.
+
+"But I thought----" began Jerry, to be interrupted by Mr. Aikens, who
+finally contented himself with merely repeating:
+
+"Not a chance in the world." They were silent until at last Mr. Aikens,
+moved by some impulse of kindliness, for he could hardly help guessing
+how miserable the boy's thoughts must be, added:
+
+"You thought what, lad?"
+
+"The boat was full of water, of course, but when she popped up, it
+looked like there was something black in the bottom----"
+
+"You saw the boat go over, didn't you! It must have turned over and
+over a dozen times down there in that whirlpool, even if he had stayed
+in till she lit. But he couldn't have. And even if----"
+
+"Yes" urged Jerry, but without enthusiasm.
+
+"If he _was_ in the bottom of the boat he would have been drowned just
+the same, knocked senseless as he probably was by the terrific force of
+the fall and the tons of water plunging on top of him. Mind you, I
+don't think there was one chance in a million but that he was dashed
+out long before the boat hit bottom."
+
+"But where's the--the body, then?" objected Jerry miserably.
+
+"If grappling hooks and seines and dynamite couldn't answer that
+question, don't expect me to. Look here, lad, I know you feel all cut
+up over it, but think of how his poor father feels----"
+
+"I am--that's what makes me feel as if it was partly my fault."
+
+"Now--now--don't take it like that. Man and boy I've lived on this and
+other rivers a good many years over forty, and a drowning I've known
+for every one of those years. The water's a treacherous dame--she
+smiles at you in the sunshine, and the little waves kiss each other and
+play around your boat, but the shadows lurk deep and they're waiting,
+waiting, I tell you. The old river takes her toll. It happened to be
+_your_ friend, that's all. But it wasn't anybody's fault. Mr. Fulton
+would be the last one in the world to think so."
+
+Jerry looked over at Mr. Fulton, who had finally ended his mute pacing
+up and down, and now sat, chin in hand, staring out across the water. A
+sudden impulse made the boy go over and stand for awhile, silent,
+beside the grief-stricken man. He wanted to say something, but the
+words would not come. So, after a little, he walked upstream to where
+Dave and Frank huddled against an overturned boat; the night was
+growing a bit chill.
+
+"Moon's coming up," remarked Frank as Jerry settled down beside them.
+No one answered.
+
+"It's awful to sit around and not move a finger to find him," shivered
+Dave at last. "Seems as if there ought to be something we could do."
+
+"Do you know what I think?" replied Jerry, almost eagerly. "I think I
+was right about that boat. I've been trying to remember what we left in
+the boat that could have looked like--like what I saw when she came up.
+There wasn't a thing in the boat--not a thing. It was Tod I saw--I know
+it was!"
+
+"But he never could have stayed in," objected Frank.
+
+"That's what Mr. Aikens said--and everybody else. But tell me what else
+it could have been I saw. I saw _some_thing, _that_ I know."
+
+"We ought to have gone after the boat," admitted Dave, slowly. "We
+didn't do a bit of good here, that's sure."
+
+"But we didn't know that at the time," Frank argued. "Everybody'd have
+blamed us if we'd gone on a wild goose chase down the river after an
+empty boat----"
+
+"But nobody would have said a word if we'd found him in the bottom of a
+boat everybody else thought was empty. If the moon was only higher----"
+
+"You don't catch me drilling off down Plum Bun at night, moon or no
+moon. There's a rattlesnake or copperhead for every hundred yards!" It
+was Frank who took up Jerry's thought. "Besides, it would be different
+if we hadn't waited so long. Tod--Tod's--he's dead now," voicing at
+last the feeling they had never before put into words.
+
+There was a gruffness in Jerry's voice as he answered, a gruffness that
+tried hard to mask the trembling of his tones. "I know it, but--but--I
+want to do something for Mr. Fulton. Won't you fellows go along with
+me? I guess I--I'll go."
+
+"Down river?" asked both boys, but without eagerness.
+
+"Till we find the boat."
+
+"It's no use," said Frank. "Our folks'll cane us now when we get home.
+Going along, Dave--with me?"
+
+"How far do you s'pose the boat's drifted by now, Jerry?" asked Dave
+instead of answering Frank.
+
+"Can't tell. She's probably stuck on a sandbar or a snag, anywhere from
+five to twenty-five miles down. Don't go along, Dave, unless you want
+to."
+
+"Better come home with me," urged Frank.
+
+"Do you _need_ me along, Jerry?" queried Dave uncertainly.
+
+"No--" shortly--"no _I_ don't. Mr. Fulton does--Tod does."
+
+Jerry rose stiffly to his feet and started slowly off in the faint
+moonlight, without so much as a look behind.
+
+"So long, Jerry," called Frank. "Come on, Dave."
+
+But Dave slowly shook his head and reluctantly followed the footsteps
+of his chum.
+
+"Hold on a minute, old man; I'll stick with you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+LOST ISLAND
+
+
+It was only a thin edge of a moon that now stood barely above the low
+line of tree-covered hills beyond the east bank of the river. The light
+it gave was a misty, watery sort of ray that was a doubtful help in
+walking over the broken shore line. The two boys were too occupied in
+watching their footing to do much talking. Jerry led the way, bearing
+to the water's edge, finally stopping where a light rowboat had been
+pulled well up on the rocky beach.
+
+"We'll have to divide forces, I guess. In this uncertain light we never
+could be sure of seeing the boat if she was on the other side. I'll cut
+across while you go down this bank."
+
+"Why not take the boat and go down the middle?"
+
+"Too hard work getting through the shallows, and, besides, this way
+we're closest to the place where the boat would most likely have been
+snagged. We can go lots faster on foot. We'll keep about opposite each
+other; we can yell across once in a while and it won't be quite so
+lonesome. You go ahead till you get below the riffles, and wait there
+till I catch up with you."
+
+Jerry stepped into the boat and took up the oars. Dave gave the boat a
+mighty shove that almost put the stern under the water.
+
+"Hey! What you kids doing?" bellowed a gruff voice that the boys hardly
+recognized as being that of Mr. Aikens.
+
+"Just duck and say nothing," called Jerry guardedly to Dave. "He might
+try to stop us."
+
+So Dave scurried into the shadows of near-by trees, while Jerry bent
+low over his oars and noiselessly shot the boat out into safe waters.
+It was the work of only a few minutes to push the nose of his boat high
+and dry on the sand of the opposite shore. He was in the heavy shadow
+of a big cottonwood and felt safe from peering eyes, so without wasting
+time to mask his movements he jumped out and scurried along the bank. A
+level stretch of a hundred yards carried him around a bend; he stopped
+for a brief rest and a glance toward the other side, where a great
+crashing of bushes told him that Dave was safely out of sight and well
+on his way toward the riffles.
+
+A chuckle almost escaped Jerry as he listened to the thrashing about,
+but remembrance of their errand killed the laughter. In fact, the
+chuckle turned to a genuine sob, for Tod Fulton was his closest chum.
+So, without an instant's pause, he made his way to the foot of the
+riffles, where their search would really begin. How soon it would end,
+there was no telling; it might be one mile; it might be twenty. But
+Jerry grimly determined that he would carry the undertaking through to
+the end.
+
+The riffles was really a succession of pools of treacherous depths,
+joined by foaming, rock-broken rapids. The bank was lined with great
+boulders through which a day-time path wound a difficult way. Jerry
+wasted no time in trying to follow it, but skirted far around through a
+waist-high cornfield. A barb-wire fence held him prisoner long enough
+to allow Dave to break cover first on the opposite shore and send a
+vigorous but quavery "hello" across the water.
+
+"I'm stuck on the fence!" shouted Jerry in return. "Go ahead. I'll be
+along directly."
+
+But he noticed that Dave stood waiting on the shore when he finally
+managed to release himself and broke through the thin fringe of
+willows. "All right, Dave," he urged. "Let's not be losing any time."
+
+For a while the going was much easier. On Jerry's side a wide reach of
+sand lay smooth and firm in the pale moonlight. On Dave's side a few
+yards of sand lay between a steep bank and the water's edge, but every
+few hundred feet a shallow creek broke through and forced wading.
+
+There was no chance for the boat to have stranded here, and the boys
+hurried along. Within a mile the character of the ground changed. Now
+the water lapped along under high, steep banks, with tiny,
+willow-covered islands alternating with bass-haunted snags of dislodged
+trees barricaded with driftwood. The moon cast queer shadows and more
+than once Jerry's heart felt a wild thrill as he fancied he saw a boat
+hull outlined against the silvered current.
+
+Every few hundred yards the two boys stopped and sent encouraging
+shouts across the widening water. It was a lonesome, disheartening
+task, with every step making the task all the harder. Deep bays cut
+into the shore line; the feeder creeks grew wider and deeper. The night
+air was chill on their dripping shoulders. Plum Run was no longer a
+run--it was a real river, and Dave's voice sounded far off when he came
+out on some bare point to shout his constant:
+
+"Nothing doing--yet."
+
+They were now on a part of the river that was comparatively strange to
+them. Jerry had more than once followed the Plum this far south, but it
+had always been by boat, or at best on the west bank, Dave's territory,
+where a chain of lakes followed the course of the river. Each new twist
+and turn sent a shiver of nervous dread through him. Many the story of
+rattlers and copperheads he had heard from fishermen and campers--and
+the night was filled with unexpected and disturbing noises, overhead
+and underfoot. Of course he knew that snakes are not abroad at night,
+but the knowledge did not help his nerves.
+
+Moreover, they were drawing near Lost Island, and no boy of Watertown
+had ever been known to cast a line within half a mile of that dreaded
+spot. For Lost Island was the "haunted castle" of the neighborhood. It
+was nothing more than a large, weed-and-willow-covered five acres, a
+wrecked dam jutting out from the east bank, and a great gaunt pile of
+foundation masonry standing high and dry on a bare knoll at the north
+end.
+
+It had a history--never twice told the same. The dam had been
+dynamited, that much was sure. By whom, no one knew. The house, if ever
+a house had been built over those rain-bleached rocks, had been struck
+by lightning, hurricane, blown up by giant powder, rotted away--a dozen
+other tragic ends, as the whim of the story-teller dictated. The owner
+had been murdered, lynched, had committed suicide--no one knew, but
+everyone was positive that there was something fearfully, terribly
+wrong with Lost Island.
+
+It was one of the few islands in Plum Run which was not flooded over by
+the spring freshets, and the land was fertile, yet no one had ever been
+known to live there through a season; this in spite of the fact that
+Lost Island was known as "squatter's land," open to settlement by
+anyone who desired it.
+
+And Lost Island lay barely half a mile farther down the river. Jerry
+fervently hoped that their search would be ended before they were in
+the shadow of that forsaken territory. His nerves were not calmed any
+by the tremble in Dave's voice as he shouted across:
+
+"Lost Island's just below us, Jerry. Shall we go on?"
+
+"Sure thing, Dave!" called Jerry with a confidence he did not feel. "It
+can't be any worse than what we've already gone through--and we've gone
+through _that_ all right."
+
+"Supposing," hesitated Dave, "supposing the boat's grounded on Lost
+Island itself----"
+
+"It's the boat we're looking for, isn't it?" But Jerry knew as he
+spoke, that, hard as the going was, he would be well satisfied to
+discover the boat five weary miles farther on.
+
+Once more they plodded along, the dark, forbidding hulk of Lost Island
+looming nearer and nearer. Just before passing behind the northern
+point Jerry came out to the water's edge and had cupped his hands about
+his mouth for a final reassuring shout, when a sudden discovery made
+him pause. A shout, that seemed to split in mid-air, convinced him that
+Dave too had just then caught sight of the astounding object.
+
+It was a gleaming, flickering, ruddy light, and it came from the very
+center of Lost Island!
+
+Jerry's first thought was fright. But that soon gave way to the wildest
+of conjectures. Suppose Tod had been in the boat. Suppose he had come
+to in time, but too weak to do more than remain in the boat till it
+grounded here on Lost Island. A waterproof match-safe easily accounted
+for the fire. Jerry refused to allow himself to reason any further.
+There might be a dozen reasons why Tod had not swum the scant hundred
+yards to shore.
+
+"Do you see it!" finally came a shout from the other side.
+
+"It's a camp fire," called Jerry. "Do you suppose it could possibly
+be----"
+
+"It couldn't be Tod, _could_ it!" came the answer, showing the same
+wild hope that had surged through Jerry.
+
+"Oh--_Tod!_" rang out from two trembly throats on both sides of the
+river.
+
+There was no reply. At least there came no answering shout. But the
+next instant Jerry rubbed his eyes in bewilderment. The camp fire had
+been blotted out as if by magic. Only the deep gloom of thick-set
+willows lay before him.
+
+"The fire's gone!" came in alarmed tones from Dave.
+
+"_Tod--Oh, Tod!_" rang out once more through the still night air.
+
+This time there was an answer, but not the one the boys expected. A
+gruff voice demanded angrily:
+
+"Say, you idiots--what in the thunder you want!"
+
+"We're looking for a boy who was drowned up at----" began Jerry, who
+was closest to the high point where a man was presently seen stalking
+through the fringe of bushes.
+
+"Boy who was drowned? _Calling_ for him! Ye crazy loons!" interrupted
+the man.
+
+"We don't know whether he was drowned or not," answered Jerry hotly.
+
+"Well I'll never tell you," was the surly response. With a disgusted
+shrug of the shoulders the great hulk of a man slouched back toward the
+center of the island, pausing just before he disappeared once more in
+the wilderness to warn:
+
+"Any more of that howling's going to bring a charge of buckshot, and I
+don't care which of you I hit."
+
+"Do you care if we come over and look along the shore of the island?"
+shouted Dave at the retreating figure.
+
+The answer, which was more like a growl than a human response, left no
+doubt of the man's meaning. Neither boy felt the slightest desire to
+swim across to Lost Island. Instead Jerry waved his arms over his head
+and then pointed downstream.
+
+So once more they trudged along, disheartened more than ever, for
+somehow the actions of that weird figure on Lost Island had made their
+search look more of a wild goose chase than ever. The island was soon
+passed, but Jerry found himself peering hopelessly across a sluggish,
+muddy-bottomed slough that promised many a weary minute of wading
+before he could hope to establish communication with his companion
+again.
+
+So it was with a great feeling of relief that, once more on solid
+ground, he heard Dave's call.
+
+"Say, Jerry, we're pretty near down to Tomlinson's wagon bridge. What
+you say that we hustle on down and meet halfway across--and wait there
+for daylight. I'm about woozified."
+
+"Good!" agreed Jerry, pleased that the suggestion had come from Dave.
+"Even the thought of it rests my old legs till they feel like new. I'll
+just race you to it!"
+
+But it was a slow sort of race, for neither boy was willing to take a
+chance in passing the most innocent shadow--which always turned out to
+be a water-soaked log or a back-eddied swirl of foam. Nevertheless, it
+was a spent Dave who sank gasping to the rough plank floor of the
+middle span of the wagon bridge a scant second ahead of another puffing
+boy.
+
+A good ten minutes they lay there, breathing hard. Then both rose and
+walked over to the edge and leaned heavily against the girders as they
+looked gloomily down the river.
+
+"Looks almost hopeless, doesn't it!" admitted Jerry, finally.
+
+"Worst of it is we don't really know whether she's down below yet or if
+we've passed it. She was riding pretty low."
+
+"Wonder what that man was doing on Lost Island?" speculated Jerry,
+crossing wearily to the north edge of the bridge and peering through
+the gray dawn-mist toward the island, barely visible now. A mere
+twinkle of light showed among the trees, and he stood there for a long
+minute. Dave come to his side, and the two waited in silence for the
+dawn. Jerry had almost fallen asleep standing up, when a sudden clutch
+at his arm nearly overbalanced him and sent him tumbling off the dizzy
+height.
+
+"Look!" gasped Dave.
+
+"What is it?" exclaimed Jerry, turning to his companion, all sleep gone.
+
+"I'll swear it's the boat--right under us!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+MORE THRILLS
+
+
+It was only a bare few seconds before the floating object had passed
+within the shadow of the bridge, but there could be no doubt about it;
+it was a boat, riding so low that only her outline showed. Jerry rubbed
+his eyes in disbelief, but for only an instant. Then he sprang to the
+other side of the bridge, shedding hat, coat, trousers, shirt and
+shoes, on the way. So, at least, it seemed to Dave, who caught his
+chum's arm, as Jerry poised himself, his body white and gleaming in the
+moonlight, on the high rail that ran along the edge.
+
+"What you going to do, Jerry? It's a good thirty feet to the water--and
+you don't know how deep it is down there."
+
+"I'm diving shallow, Dave; two feet is all I ask below. We can't take
+any chances of losing her. Carry my clothes along the bank, will you?
+I'll try to make the east side--it looks a little closer."
+
+In the few seconds they had talked, the boat had drifted under the
+bridge and now cut through the silver-edged shadow of the last timbers.
+
+There was a quiver of the flimsy railing, a slender body cut through
+the moonlight, parted the water with a clean _sush!_ and bobbed up
+almost immediately, within three feet of the boat. Jerry Ring did not
+have the reputation of being the best diver in Watertown for nothing.
+
+Now ensued a great kicking and churning as Jerry's legs transformed
+themselves into propellers for the salvaged "_Big Four_." Progress was
+slow; the waterlogged craft lay in the river like so much cordwood.
+More than once Jerry had to stop for a few minutes' rest. But little by
+little he neared shore, encouraged by Dave, who impatiently awaited the
+landing, wading out finally waist-deep to help.
+
+Neither one said a word as the boat was at last beached. No more than
+the barest glance was needed to tell that there was nothing in the boat
+but water. Theirs had been a fruitless chase.
+
+"Well," said Dave, slowly, after a long silence, "I guess that ends our
+last hope."
+
+"I'm afraid you're right," agreed Jerry dejectedly. "But there's one
+thing that puzzles me--do you notice how much water there is in the
+boat? It's a good ten inches from the top--how full would it have been
+when she popped up from under the falls at the dam?"
+
+"She'd have been right up to the top, I suppose. Why?"
+
+"Well, what I want to know is: How did it get out? And, what's more,
+I'd like to know how it would have taken the boat all these hours to
+float those few miles. Plum Run's got a six mile an hour current up
+above, and it's at least four here. There's something mighty funny
+about it all to me."
+
+"But mightn't it just have been snagged or shoaled up above, and
+finally worked loose?"
+
+"Sure, I know that. But I know the boat was drifting about as fast as
+we were walking, and that being the case, she must have cleared Lost
+Island just about three minutes after we talked with that man!"
+
+"You're getting excited, Jerry--over nothing."
+
+"Nothing! You call the water that was _baled_ out of the boat nothing.
+It _was_ baled out, I tell you. And look at that rope--it was _cut_
+loose. Somebody was in too big a hurry to untie knots, that's my guess."
+
+"But, Jerry, what in the world are you driving at, anyway!"
+
+"I don't know. Something about the way that man back there on Lost
+Island acted set me thinking away in the back of my head. I didn't
+realize what it was that was going on in my cranium until I noticed
+this cut rope and say!" Jerry's voice rose in high excitement. "_Dave!_
+Dave--do you remember? The _bucket!_"
+
+Dave only stared at his friend in bewilderment. "Wha--what bucket?" he
+at last managed to gasp.
+
+"You remember last week when we were out, and the storm caught us and
+pretty nearly swamped the boat? Tod said he'd bet we'd never be caught
+without a bailing can again--and he put a lard pail on a snap hook
+under the back seat. It's gone!"
+
+"But what if--why, pshaw, it could easy have worked loose and floated
+away. I don't see what there is to be so worked up about."
+
+"But, Dave, don't you see----" Jerry was trembling with excitement.
+"Suppose Tod _had_ stayed in the boat, and he came to, and he didn't
+have any oars. First off he'd try to bale her out, wouldn't he? He'd
+bale out just enough so she'd ride easy, and then he'd try to get to
+shore. Maybe he landed on Lost Island. Suppose he did, and suppose that
+ruffian we saw didn't want him to get off again. What else would the
+man do but cut loose the boat when we came along!"
+
+"Jerry, don't you think we'd better be getting on home?"
+
+"What's the matter with you, Dave?"
+
+"Why, nothing, Jerry----"
+
+"Then what you talking about going on home when I'm running down a clew
+like that?"
+
+"It's almost morning, Jerry, and you've had a hard day and been up all
+night--and the lonesome chase through the dark----"
+
+"Now look here, Davie! If you think I'm getting soft in the head, just
+forget it. I never was more in earnest in my life. Don't you
+understand? I think Tod's alive--_back there on Lost Island!_"
+
+"But we don't know he was in the boat----"
+
+"Look here, Dave, if you were falling, what'd be the first thing you'd
+do? You'd grab at the nearest thing to you, wouldn't you! And if you
+got hold of that boat-seat, for instance, you'd pretty near hang on,
+wouldn't you? I saw _something_ in the bottom of the boat when she came
+up."
+
+"Yes, but we don't know the boat touched Lost Island----"
+
+"No, of course not. But most always when I see a sign that says 'No
+fishing allowed,' I know there's fish there."
+
+"You certainly talk as if you were out of your head. What's fishing got
+to do with it?"
+
+"The man was not overly anxious to have us come out and make a search
+of _his_ island. I'm going back up there and I'm going to swim across
+or _get_ across and I'm going to find out what he has there he doesn't
+want us to see. Are you game to go along?"
+
+"But supposing there's nothing there, and the man----"
+
+"That island doesn't belong to anybody. We've got as much right there
+as he has. The worst he can do is to kick us off, and there's only one
+of him against _two_ of us. Come on."
+
+Before they left, however, they tipped their boat over and emptied out
+nearly all the water. Then, as they had no oars to row her back, they
+tied her by the short length of rope left, to a stout willow. Jerry
+resumed his clothing, and shivering a bit in the cool morning air, was
+eager to warm up with a good brisk walk.
+
+They were on the east side of the river, and the trail would have been
+hard enough even in broad daylight, but Jerry would waste no time in
+crossing over when a few minutes later they halted at the bridge. Home
+lay on the other side of the river, and Dave, still unconvinced,
+stubbornly insisted on following the west bank, but Jerry soon cut
+short the argument by striding off in disgust. After a minute of
+uncertainty Dave tagged along behind. Neither spoke; to tell the truth,
+they were both decidedly cold, hungry and cross. The damp, fishy smell
+of the river somehow set their nerves on edge, and the long drill
+through swamps and across creeks and sloughs appeared none too enticing.
+
+"I say, Jerry," called Davie finally, "let's stop for a breath of air;
+I'm about petered out."
+
+"Can't," replied Jerry shortly. "Sky's getting gray now. We've got to
+get _there_ before daylight. If we can catch our friend on the island
+asleep it'll make things a lot easier. Pull your belt up a notch and
+see if you can't put the notch into your legs."
+
+Dave grumbled but obediently hastened his gait. In single file they cut
+across the last stretch of knee-deep mud and halted opposite Lost
+Island. There it lay, beyond the narrow stretch of steaming, misty
+black water, dark and forbidding. There was something shivery about its
+low-lying-heavy outline, with nothing visible beyond the border of
+thick willow growth.
+
+"Looks like some big crouching animal, doesn't it?" remarked Dave as
+they stood an instant peering across.
+
+"Well, we know it can't spring--and it won't bite, I guess."
+
+"I'm not so sure. How are we going to get over?"
+
+"Swim it, unless--no, I guess we won't swim--not, at least, if there's
+a pair of oars in that flat-boat I see yonder. Funny we didn't stumble
+over it when we came down."
+
+"Maybe it wasn't here then. Maybe the man came over in it. We better
+not stand here in the open. We don't know what minute he might be back."
+
+"Well, if it is his boat, at least we don't need to worry about running
+onto him over there on the island."
+
+"You're going to swim over, aren't you, Jerry? If the man came along
+and found his boat gone, he'd know _we_ were over there and----"
+
+"And he'd be stranded on this side until we were so kind as to bring
+back his boat. You can bet _he_ isn't going to swim over, and I bet you
+I don't either."
+
+The boat proved to be a cumbersome flat-boat of the type used by
+clam-fishers. In fact the smell that simply swirled up from its oozy
+bottom left no doubt that the boat had been used for that purpose. A
+pair of unbelievably heavy oars, cut from a sapling with a hand-axe,
+trailed in the water from "loose oarlocks." Dave gave a gasp of dismay
+as he "hefted" the rough implements.
+
+"Let's swim it, Jerry," he said disgustedly. "The boat'll never hold up
+the oars and us too. They weigh a ton."
+
+"Pile in," answered Jerry, with the first laugh since that tragic
+moment when he had seen a different boat swept over the dam many weary
+miles up the river. "We'll each take an oar and try some two-handed
+rowing. This craft was built for ocean-going service. Hold tight; we're
+off."
+
+But they weren't. Jerry's mighty push ended in a grunt. "Come on; get
+out here and shove."
+
+"Maybe if we took the oars out we could start her," Dave jibed. "I hope
+you've got a freight-hauling license."
+
+"Get out and push. Your witty remarks are about as light as those young
+tree-trunks we have for paddles. All together now!" as Dave bent over
+beside him. A lurch, a grinding, thumping slide, and the flat-boat slid
+free of shore.
+
+"It's a mighty good thing if that man isn't on the island," remarked
+Dave as he took up his half of the propelling mechanism. "Because when
+our craft took the water she certainly did 'wake the echoes of yon
+wooded glen,' as the poet says."
+
+"Poetry's got nothing to do with this boat. It doesn't rhyme with
+anything but blisters. Let's see if we can move her."
+
+Thanks to some tremendous tugging, the flat-boat moved slowly out from
+shore. Inch by inch, it seemed, they gained on the current.
+
+"The old tub's got speed in her," grunted Jerry, between sweeps of his
+oar.
+
+"Ought to have it _in_ her," returned Dave. "I'll bet you nobody ever
+got it _out_ of her. Ugh!"
+
+"Always grunt out toward the back of the boat--keep your head turned.
+It helps us along."
+
+"I've only got one grunt left; I'm saving it. How far have we gone?"
+
+"All of ten feet. I'll tell you when we hit the island. Lift your oar
+out of water when you bring it back. The idea is to move the boat, not
+merely to stir up the water."
+
+So they joked each other, but their hearts were heavy enough, for
+always in the back of their minds was the thought of their friend, who,
+in spite of the wild hope that Jerry had built up, might--_must_, Dave
+was sure--be lying at the bottom of treacherous Plum Run somewhere,
+drowned.
+
+At last they seemed to be nearly halfway across, and they rested a
+brief spell, for every inch of their progress had to be fought for.
+
+"All right," said Jerry, taking up his oar, "let's give her another
+tussle."
+
+But Dave did not move, although he still hunched over his oar.
+
+"Come on, Dave," urged his friend. "We don't want to lose any time. The
+sun ought to be up almost any minute now."
+
+"Look behind you, old man. Right where we're headed, and tell me what
+you see."
+
+Jerry turned in his seat. He took one quick glance toward Lost Island,
+now less than a hundred feet away, and then gave a low cry of dismay.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+A STARTLING CLEW
+
+
+There was a streak of light in the western sky, whether caused by the
+low-hanging, mist-hidden moon or a freak reflection of the coming dawn.
+Against that patch of brightness the northern headland of Lost Island
+loomed up high and barren save for its one tall tree. But it was
+neither headland nor tree that caught Jerry's attention and caused the
+gasp of dismay.
+
+Standing there, bold and menacing, looking like a giant against the
+queer light, was a man.
+
+Whether it was the same one who had hailed them earlier in the morning,
+the boys could not of course know. But there was no doubt about the
+equal unfriendliness of his attitude, for through the crook of one
+elbow he carried a shotgun, while even as Jerry turned in his seat, the
+other arm was raised and a big fist shaken.
+
+The next instant they were assured that this was the same man as had
+warned them away before. There was no mistaking the voice that bellowed
+across the water. Neither was there any mistaking the meaning of the
+brief sentence:
+
+"Get to thunder out o' here!"
+
+Jerry stood up in the boat and waved a friendly hand in the general
+direction of the angry man, and called pleasantly:
+
+"We were just coming over to see about a boy we think landed on _your_
+island last night or early this morning. We found his boat down at the
+bridge and we figured that he must have----"
+
+As Jerry talked, Dave had been slyly urging the boat closer to shore,
+but at a sudden interruption from the island, both he and Jerry paused.
+
+"You come another foot closer, you young idiots, and I'll fill you full
+of rock salt. I loaded up especial for you when you raised that rumpus
+last night; I knew durned well you'd be coming back."
+
+"Have you seen anything of our friend?" cried Dave anxiously, trying to
+smooth things over by being civil.
+
+"If he's anything like you two, I hope I never do."
+
+"You've got no right to keep us off Lost Island," began Jerry hotly.
+
+"I don't need any right; I've got a shotgun. You two just pick up your
+paddles and blow back to shore--and be sure you tie up that boat good
+and tight or I'll have the law on you. Git, now!"
+
+There didn't seem to be anything else to do. The two boys muttered to
+each other, and neither one was willing to admit believing that the man
+would really shoot, but somehow they were unwilling to put it to the
+test. Reluctantly they took up the oars again and turned the nose of
+the boat back toward the east bank.
+
+Facing the man now, Jerry sent one last appeal across the slowly
+widening space.
+
+"We didn't mean any harm. A friend of ours was drowned yesterday, we
+think. We're looking for him--or his body. All we want is to know if
+you've seen anything of him."
+
+"I told you this morning I hadn't."
+
+"But why don't you let us look on the island? We're almost sure our
+boat was stranded there a long while. He _might_ have been in it. If
+you'd just let us look, we'd be satisfied."
+
+"I guess you'll be satisfied anyway, youngster. Just keep on rowing.
+Where was young Fulton drowned, anyway?"
+
+Jerry made no answer. When Dave undertook to shout a reply, Jerry
+silenced him with a savage look. Then he stood up on his seat. Making a
+megaphone of his hands he yelled derisively:
+
+"Yah! He _wasn't drowned!_"
+
+Then he sat down again and caught up his oar and began lunging
+desperately at the water. "Hurry, Dave, hurry!" he commanded excitedly.
+
+"What's got into you?" exclaimed Dave impatiently. "You've been flying
+off on about forty different angles lately. What new bug has bitten
+you?"
+
+"Bug! Dave, do you mean to tell me you didn't hear what the man said?"
+
+"Course I did--but we're going, aren't we? He didn't say he'd shoot
+unless we kept on coming ahead."
+
+"Oh--_that!_ Well, you've been up all night, so no wonder you're half
+asleep. Didn't you hear him say: 'Where was young Fulton drowned?'"
+
+"Sure."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Well what? What in thunder's got into you? Why shouldn't he ask that?"
+
+"He should have. He should have asked it the first time we talked to
+him. But, gee whiz, Dave, he shouldn't have known it was _young Fulton_
+unless--unless it was young Fulton himself who told him. Dave--Dave!
+Don't you see? We never mentioned his name."
+
+"Great guns!" gasped Dave.
+
+That was all he said, and for that matter, all that either one said.
+The man stood on the point of Lost Island till he was satisfied that
+the boys had tied the boat safely and did not mean to loiter in the
+neighborhood. Then he disappeared among the trees of the lower part of
+the island. But the boys did not pay much attention to their late
+antagonist, save for a bare glance as they topped the high ridge that
+followed the river course.
+
+Miles to the north they could see a big square white building that they
+knew as Carter's Mills, really only a grain storage elevator. Almost
+due west of that was the milldam, which was about the only place they
+could hope to be able to cross Plum Run--and Watertown lay on the other
+side. Of course, they might follow the river bank on the chance of
+meeting some good-hearted fisherman or camper who would row them
+across. But the chance was too slim. They decided to cut across country
+till they reached the mill.
+
+It was a long, hard drill on an empty stomach. Up hill and down dale,
+and every step kept time to by a pang from the inner man.
+
+"Do you think it's a sin to steal?" This from Dave.
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Apples!"
+
+"Apples? A sin? Not if you know where there are any. Lead me to them."
+
+"Oh, I don't know where any are. I just wondered what you thought of
+it."
+
+"Do you think it's wrong to punish criminals?" This from Jerry.
+
+"Put 'em in jail you mean?"
+
+"Well, whatever way seems best."
+
+"No, I can't say as I do. Why, Jerry?"
+
+"I'm going to thump you good and plenty for fooling me about those
+apples, that's why."
+
+"Catching comes before thumping!" and Dave was off with all the speed
+his weary legs could muster. Fortunately Jerry's legs were in no better
+shape, so the race, while exciting enough, was a long, slow one. Before
+Jerry was able to overhaul his chum, he was so tired out that anything
+so strenuous as thumping was quite out of the question.
+
+"If you'd just kept running straight ahead, instead of ducking and
+dodging, we'd be home by now," he complained as he released the puffing
+Dave.
+
+But at that they had made good time through their chase and within a
+very few minutes the last bend of the river showed them the milldam.
+The place was deserted.
+
+"I guess Mr. Aikens persuaded Tod's father to go back home and get
+breakfast and rest up a bit," remarked Dave. "If there doesn't happen
+to be a boat on this side of the river we may have to wait some time
+for that breakfast you've been promising me the last ninety-eight
+miles. We sure can't get across the dam, with all that water rushing
+over."
+
+"I'll swim it before I wait," grimly declared Jerry. "Do you suppose
+Mr. Aikens took the mill boat?"
+
+"Most likely. Where'll you try it, below or above? Swimming, I mean."
+
+"No chance below, with that current. But I guess we won't need to. I
+see Pete Galpin's clam-boat down at his dock. It leaks like sin, but if
+one bails while the other rows I guess we can make it."
+
+No one was astir at Galpin's shanty, a houseboat pulled high and dry on
+shore, and almost hidden by great piles of driftwood snagged upon the
+bank to serve as winter fuel. Old Pete Galpin lived there all alone,
+fishing and clamming and occasionally taking a wood-cutting contract to
+help out through the scant winter months. Once he had been known to
+work with an ice-cutting gang, but quit because he was afraid he'd make
+so much money that it would tempt somebody to rob him.
+
+The flat-boat that was moored down at Galpin's "dock"--four railroad
+ties roped together--was none too substantial looking, having been
+built by Galpin himself from odds and ends picked up from scrap heaps
+and driftage. As Galpin himself said, the only whole part about the
+boat was the name, which had been painted in red on a single thin board
+sticking a full two feet past the stern--"UPANATUM."
+
+But the boys did not waste a great deal of time in admiring the
+beautiful lines of their borrowed craft. Jerry made at once for the oar
+seat, leaving Dave to untie and push off. For all the tremendous leak
+which at once developed, the boat responded easily to the strenuous
+tugs of Jerry's muscular arms and back.
+
+They beached the boat and made their way up the bank and across a field
+where oats had just been cut, the bundles lying yellow as gold in the
+early morning sunlight. Just beyond was a narrow, plum-thicket bordered
+lane, which in turn led into the newly graveled "county" road. The boys
+found the walking much easier in a path that twisted along next to the
+fence. However, within a mile, along came a farmer, hauling a load of
+early potatoes to town, and the boys gladly accepted his invitation to
+"hop on."
+
+Within a quarter of a mile both were sound asleep, nor did they waken
+until the springless wagon rattled over the interurban tracks less than
+two blocks from Dave's home. Rubbing their eyes in a vain attempt to
+drive out the sleep, they stumbled along the quiet street.
+
+"Where will I find you after breakfast?" asked Jerry, as Dave turned in
+at his gate.
+
+"In bed. I'll be lucky if I stay awake till after breakfast."
+
+"But we've got to tell Mr. Fulton."
+
+"You tell him, Jerry. I just know he won't pay any attention to what we
+say--I don't more'n half believe it now myself----" Dave had to stop
+for a tremendous yawn.
+
+"If that's the case, you might just as well sleep." Jerry was out of
+patience, but Dave was too sleepy to care very much.
+
+"I'll see you--see you--later, Jerry," he said drowsily as he turned
+and staggered up the walk.
+
+Jerry, after an undecided second or two, faced about and began to
+retrace his steps. He cut through the Ellery back yard and came out on
+the cross street at whose corner the Fultons lived. The house was a big
+ramshackle affair of a dozen rooms or so, far too large a place for the
+Fultons, since there had been only the two of them, Tod's mother having
+died when he was only a little tad. Indeed, as Tod said, they only used
+three rooms, the kitchen and two bedrooms. But that was hardly true;
+there was a big basement under all the house, the most of it used as a
+workroom, and here it was that the two of them spent the better part of
+their waking hours.
+
+Mr. Fulton was an odd sort of man, a bit inclined to think his business
+his own business. But it was no secret among his neighbors that all
+sorts of queer contrivances were planned and made in that combination
+machine shop, carpenter shop, forge and foundry below stairs.
+
+Mr. Fulton was an inventor. True, for the most part he invented useless
+things; he had inherited money and did not need to make any more. But
+the boys, who were allowed to roam through the workshop at will, were
+wildly enthusiastic over the ingenious devices schemed out by father
+and son, for Tod was a chip off the old block.
+
+Now, Jerry did not go up to the front door, even though it was standing
+ajar. Instead he hurried to the little side porch and reached high up
+under the eaves, where an electric button was concealed. He pushed it,
+hard, well knowing that if Mr. Fulton were anywhere in the house he
+would hear that bell. That was why it had been so well hidden.
+
+But there was no response. Again Jerry rang; he could hear the shrill
+br-r-r-r of the bell. After a long time he heard footsteps, but
+something told him they were not those of Mr. Fulton. The door swung
+open. There stood Mr. Aikens.
+
+"Is Mr. Fulton here," demanded Jerry.
+
+"Asleep," nodded Mr. Aikens.
+
+"I've got to see him."
+
+"All right--if you don't wake him up."
+
+"I've got to talk to him--I've got big news."
+
+"Big news? Of--of Tod?" Big Mr. Aikens was not the kind of man to
+become easily excited, but his manner was eager enough.
+
+"Of Tod--yes!" cried Jerry.
+
+"What is it? Have you found his--his body?"
+
+"Better than that, Mr. Aikens--Oh, I'm almost dead sure!"
+
+Jerry was so excited himself that his voice shook. As for Mr. Aikens,
+he leaped over and caught Jerry's arm and was shaking it wildly up and
+down. Neither one noticed that a white-faced man stood in the opposite
+doorway, and that his eyes were simply blazing with expectancy.
+
+"What do you mean? What _can_ you mean!" demanded Mr. Aikens.
+
+"I believe that Tod Fulton is----"
+
+"Not alive?" almost screamed a voice from across the room. "Not alive!"
+
+"Alive and on Lost Island!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+TO THE RESCUE!
+
+
+This much of the interview was perfectly clear to Jerry afterwards, but
+what followed he could not quite understand at the time or later. For a
+moment it was almost laughable. There stood Aikens fiercely clutching
+one arm and waving it up and down as if to pump further information
+from him. Mr. Fulton, after the first dazed instant, darted across the
+room and grabbed Jerry's other arm.
+
+"_Where_ is he? Tell me--quick!" he demanded.
+
+Then it was that Jerry could not understand, for the look that came
+over Mr. Fulton's face at his reply was neither belief nor doubt. His
+eyebrows almost met in a frown as he repeated mechanically:
+
+"On Lost Island, you say? But--but--how do you know? You weren't _on_
+Lost Island, were you?"
+
+"No--o," answered Jerry slowly.
+
+A look of relief, quickly hidden, came to Mr. Fulton's face, but Jerry
+saw it, and wondered.
+
+"Did someone tell you he was there, then?"
+
+"Someone told me he _wasn't_ there----" began Jerry, when the
+ting-a-ling of a telephone bell cut him short.
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Mr. Fulton and hurried from the room. His muffled voice
+could be heard in a lengthy conversation. Jerry impatiently awaited his
+return, anxious to tell the rest of his story. Imagine then his
+surprise when Tod's father delayed his return unreasonably, and his
+only response to Jerry's eager sentences was, "Yes, yes, I know."
+
+Jerry's heart sank unaccountably--he sensed the fact that Mr. Fulton
+was not listening, was only waiting, in fact, till the boy should
+finish and he could decently get rid of Jerry. The story was
+consequently hurried through. Disappointed beyond description, Jerry
+left the house, not even noticing that Mr. Fulton had left the room
+even before Jerry had reached the door.
+
+Something was wrong somewhere; Jerry had expected that his story would
+be literally snatched out of his mouth; instead it had been smothered
+under the dampest kind of wet blanket. Feeling not a little sore over
+his failure to impress the two men with the importance of his
+discoveries, Jerry plodded along home, determined that as soon as he
+had gulped down a little breakfast he would hike back to Lost Island
+alone and make one more attempt to gain the cover of its wooded banks.
+
+Even that plan was doomed to disappointment. Jerry's mother had saved a
+goodly breakfast for him, and bustled about making him comfortable.
+Contrary to Jerry's expectations, she had no word of blame for his
+having remained away overnight without asking consent, and even
+listened with sympathetic ear to the story of his adventures. But just
+at the moment when Jerry was about to announce his intention to return,
+Mrs. Ring was called to the back door, to return a few minutes later
+with the announcement that it had been Mr. Aikens, and that Jerry was
+not to worry any more about Lost Island.
+
+"But I've simply got to go back, ma," sputtered Jerry, his mouth
+uncomfortably full of pancake. "Mr. Fulton isn't going to--well, he
+didn't show much interest in my theories---"
+
+"But Mr. Aikens seemed to think he did. You just rest easy, son. If two
+grown men can't take care of your Lost Islander--and your theories,
+too, why, well--you just get ready to pile into bed, that's all."
+
+"But, ma--there's the boat."
+
+"It'll take care of itself till you get there."
+
+"But, ma----"
+
+"Hush up, now. Into bed with you."
+
+"But can I go after the boat when I----"
+
+Mrs. Ring caught up a flat piece of wood from the back of the kitchen
+range, and laughingly but firmly put an end to the coaxing, Jerry
+retreating hastily to the shelter of his bedroom.
+
+Both Jerry and his father stood in awe of tiny Mrs. Ring, who barely
+reached to overgrown Jerry's shoulder.
+
+"Wake me up at twelve, will you, ma?" called Jerry, in his most
+wheedling voice. His mother only laughed, but Jerry felt sure she
+would. Besides, there was his dollar alarm clock.
+
+Jerry repented his request when sharp at twelve o'clock he was called
+for noonday dinner. He was sleepy and cross and not a bit hungry. His
+muscles were sore, and the drill to Lost Island did not have quite the
+romance by broad daylight that it had had a few hours before.
+
+Jerry watched his father put on his hat and hurry back to work, with a
+great deal of relief. His mother was much easier to handle in a case of
+this sort.
+
+"You won't mind if I don't get back till late?" he asked, hoping she
+would give her unqualified consent to his remaining away as long as he
+saw fit. "You promised me I could go camping this summer--let me take
+it now, _please_, ma."
+
+"Will you promise me to come back and let me pick the birdshot out of
+you after you've made a landing on Lost Island?" she asked in mock
+anxiety. As a matter of fact, Mrs. Ring was about as proud of her big
+boy as a mother well could be without making herself a nuisance to the
+neighbors. From his earliest boyhood she had cultivated the
+independence of spirit he showed with his first pair of real trousers,
+and now she often strained a point to let him exercise it. To be sure,
+she sometimes wondered how much was genuine self-confidence and how
+much was a reckless love of adventure.
+
+Now she raised her eyebrows in denial, but at the eager look on the
+boy's face she relented. "Trot along, Jerry," she agreed, with a quick
+pat at his shoulder--the Rings were not much at kissing each other. "If
+you can't take care of yourself by now, you never will be able to. I
+know you're as anxious as you can be about Tod--I do hope it turns out
+that you are right about him."
+
+With a muttered, "I've got to be right," Jerry set about making himself
+a couple of substantial sandwiches and stuffing them in the pocket of
+his canvas hunting coat, which he took along for emergencies.
+"Good-bye, ma," he called over his shoulder. "I'll be back as soon as I
+can bring Tod with me."
+
+Once outside, he wasted no time but struck off at once cross-lots to
+rout out Dave Thomas and Frank Ellery. Fortunately Frank came first,
+otherwise Jerry might not have been equal to the task of waking up
+Dave. They tried everything they had ever heard of. They tickled his
+feet; they set off a brass-lunged alarm clock under his very nose; they
+dumped him roughly out of his bed, but even on the bare floor he
+slumbered peacefully on. Cold water brought only temporary success.
+They were in despair.
+
+It was Frank who finally solved the problem. Seating himself on the
+foot of the bed, he raised his head much in the fashion of a hound
+baying at the moon--the sound that issued from his throat would put to
+shame the most ambitious hound that ever howled. Jerry caught up a
+pillow and would have shied it at the head of the offender, but the
+perfectly serious look on Frank's face withheld his arm. Gradually it
+dawned on him that the boy was trying to sing--and, more than that, it
+was one of Dave's favorite songs he was murdering.
+
+Then it was that Jerry understood Frank's strategy. The bed-clothes
+began to heave; they had piled them all atop Dave as he lay on the
+floor. Frank began on the chorus. A wriggling leg emerged from beneath
+the comforts. Jerry joined in, his voice a villainous imitation of
+Frank's discords. Another leg came to view.
+
+They began to repeat the chorus, further off key than before. One line
+was all they were suffered to torture. A catapult of boy, bedclothes
+and pillows bounded from the floor and sent Frank spinning into the
+bed, while Jerry barely saved himself from a spill on the floor.
+
+"You will yowl like a lot of bob-tailed tomcats, will yuh!" yelled
+Dave, dancing up and down on one foot--he had stubbed his toe against
+one of his shoes in his charge across the room.
+
+"You will snore away like six buzz-saws on circus day, huh?" snorted
+Frank, neatly catching Dave in the pit of the stomach with a pillow
+caught up from the floor.
+
+For a second it looked like a free-for-all, but Jerry had no time to
+waste.
+
+"Get your clothes on--hustle. We're going back to Lost Island."
+
+"Suppose my mother won't let me?"
+
+"Suppose you tell her we've got to go and get our boat? She'll let you
+go all right. You just want to get back to bed, that's all that's
+worrying you. Hustle, Dave. We can't lose a minute."
+
+"But didn't you tell Tod's dad about what we--found out?" Dave
+hesitated over the last. It was plain to be seen that he was none too
+sure in his own mind of the importance of their discovery.
+
+"I did, and he--well, he acted so queer about it that I don't know what
+to think. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if they--he and Mr. Aikens, you
+know--never went near Lost Island. They think we're just kids."
+
+"But we don't really _know_ anything, Jerry; we're only just guessing."
+
+"Guessing, huh? Well, I'm only just guessing that you're wasting a lot
+of time about getting your clothes on, but in about half a minute I'm
+going to climb all over you."
+
+At that Dave bristled up a bit, but his fingers became spryer with
+buttons and hooks and very shortly he stood fully dressed and ready to
+go downstairs. Jerry had already made peace with Mrs. Thomas, so little
+time was lost in waiting for Dave to snatch a bite to eat and be on his
+way.
+
+"I've got four bits loose in my pocket," announced Jerry, once they
+were out on the street. "If we don't let any grass grow on the side
+streets while we're moving we can make the two-five express on the
+Dellwood Interurban. We can drop off when they slow down at Downers
+Crossing; that must be almost opposite Lost Island. It's hard going
+through the swamps to get to Plum Run, but I guess we're good for it."
+
+They made the two-five--with about three seconds to spare. Their car
+was empty, so each dropped into a seat and sprawled out comfortably.
+Jerry smiled grimly to himself as he looked back perhaps five minutes
+later and saw how the two had slumped down in their seats. It did not
+need a throaty gurgle from Dave to convince him that the pair were
+sound asleep. "A fine pair of adventurers," he muttered to himself, not
+entirely without some feeling of resentment. It was well enough to be
+the leader, but--well, he wouldn't have minded a little snooze himself.
+
+He did not feel quite so critical, however, when, perhaps a half hour
+later, at a terrific jolt of the train, he was roused from the doze
+into which he too had fallen. A hasty glance out the window told him
+that they were at Downers Crossing. With a yell that would have done
+credit to a whole war-party of Comanches, he pounced upon the two
+sleepers and dragged and pushed and pommeled them out onto the platform
+of the car. The train was beginning to move, so their descent was none
+too dignified.
+
+"Why in thunder didn't you wake us in time so I could have got a
+drink?" complained Frank.
+
+Jerry said nothing; he felt too guilty to risk any answer. After they
+had cut across to the wagon road that led in the general direction of
+the river, he consoled his chum with: "Downer's farm is only about half
+a mile in, and we can get all the buttermilk we want there----" adding
+mischievously: "----on Wednesdays, when they churn."
+
+Both Dave and Frank promised instant murder for that, so he had to
+admit that they would reach the best spring in Winthrop County within
+three minutes.
+
+"Saved your hide by just twenty-nine seconds," declared Dave as he
+plunged his face into the bubbling surface of the clearest, coldest
+kind of a hillside spring.
+
+Their gait was much livelier after that, and in less than ten minutes
+Plum Run was sighted, But they did not come out as close to Lost Island
+as Jerry had predicted. In fact, they were not certain in which
+direction it lay, for to the north lay a cluster of trees apparently
+surrounded by water, and which might well be the place they sought. To
+the south lay another green spot away from shore.
+
+"It's north of here," declared both Dave and Frank, but Jerry exclaimed
+triumphantly, after the first tangle of argument:
+
+"It must be south. If Lost Island was north the wagon bridge'd be
+between us and it."
+
+So south they went; and as they drew nearer they saw that the patch of
+green was indeed Lost Island. Once they were within close sight of it,
+they went forward with all caution. The last hundred yards or so they
+made on hands and knees, finding cover in every clump of bushes or
+willows on the way.
+
+But finally they were ready to break through the last fringe of willow
+and spy out the prospect. Jerry, who was ahead, waited for his two
+companions to catch up with him.
+
+"Not a sound, now," he cautioned as they crouched beside him.
+
+Stealthily they pushed aside the leaves that obscured their view.
+Suddenly, from behind them a yell, blood-curdling, absolutely
+hair-raising, rang out through the stillness. The three turned.
+
+But it was too late. Breaking cover at the same instant, a half-dozen
+husky young chaps charged on the surprised trio.
+
+"Up and at them, fellows!" came a roar. "They're part of the gang!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE FLYING EAGLE SCOUTS
+
+
+For a minute or two it was hard for the three boys to understand just
+what had happened. They were pounced upon and hurled roughly to the
+ground, in spite of their violent struggles, and there they were
+pommeled unmercifully. They fought back, but they were hopelessly
+outnumbered. It was no adventure-story fight where the lone hero
+engages a dozen husky brutes and by superior science and strength lays
+his assailants out one by one.
+
+Too bewildered to be really angry, the three found themselves pinned to
+the ground. Then they were able to take stock of their attackers. Six
+boys they were, of about the same size and age as Dave, Jerry and
+Frank, They were dressed in some odd sort of uniform, like brownish
+canvas. Just now their faces wore triumphant grins.
+
+"Here comes Phil," remarked one of the three who were standing, coming
+over to sit on Jerry's legs, Jerry having seized a favorable
+opportunity to attempt escape.
+
+"What's the idea?" inquired the newcomer, a tall but well-knit chap
+with a broad, sunburned face and a mop of black hair showing under the
+forward brim of his wide hat.
+
+"We caught them trying to sneak up on us, so we fooled them and jumped
+on them instead. It's part of that Lost Island gang," volunteered
+Dave's captor.
+
+"We're not either," exploded Dave.
+
+"Shut up!" exclaimed the one astride his stomach. "Didn't we see you
+slinking along through the bushes?"
+
+"Well, so were you. But we didn't try any wild Indian game on you just
+on that account."
+
+"Good reason why. You didn't see us," crowed the one on top, giving
+Dave a vigorous poke in the ribs to emphasize the point.
+
+That was too much for Dave. His usual good nature had been oozing out
+with every passing second. Now he gave a sudden twist, heaved, turned,
+heaved again, and in less time than it was told, was on his feet and
+presenting a pair of promising looking fists to the two others who had
+quickly come to their comrade's assistance.
+
+"Hold on a minute," suggested the one they had called Phil. "Let's get
+the straight of this thing first and fight afterwards. You say you
+don't belong on the island?" he asked, turning to Dave.
+
+"We certainly don't. We were trying to get onto it without being seen.
+That's why we were skulking along that way."
+
+"Trying to get onto it? You haven't any boat."
+
+"We could swim, couldn't we?"
+
+"But what do you want to get onto the island for? Where are you from,
+anyhow?"
+
+"None of your particular business," snapped Dave, but Jerry answered as
+well as he could with his shortness of breath--he too was "stomached"
+by a stout boy of his own size:
+
+"Watertown."
+
+"Know anybody there by the name of Tod Fulton? He's a cousin of
+mine--why, what's the matter?" for the three boys had cried out in
+dismay.
+
+"Why--why--he's the boy we're after. He's our chum," stammered Jerry at
+last.
+
+"Then what you after him for--if he's your chum?"
+
+"Well, he's--he's----" began Jerry, and Dave blurted out:
+
+"Drowned!"
+
+"What!" cried the whole crew at that. "Tod Fulton drowned!"
+
+"We don't know for sure. That's why we're trying to get onto Lost
+Island."
+
+Then the story came out, piecemeal, for all three insisted on telling
+it. Phil stood as if stunned. At the end he said simply:
+
+"He's my cousin. I'm Phil Fulton. We live at Chester. That's about ten
+miles south of here. We're the Flying Eagle Patrol of Boy Scouts--maybe
+you noticed our suits."
+
+"Thought you were some kind of bushwhackers the way you dropped on us,"
+complained Frank. "But what was the idea in thumping us because you
+thought we were from the island?"
+
+"We had good reasons enough," declared Phil. "We left town at midnight
+last night, hiked all the way to our boat-landing two miles up the
+river, and made the long pull up the Plum in the dark just for the sake
+of getting an early morning chance at the best bass rock you ever heard
+of--just to get chased out at the point of a shotgun after we'd landed
+the first one--a three pounder too. Can you blame us for being sore?"
+
+"On Lost Island?" asked Jerry eagerly.
+
+"No, _off_ Lost Island. A big burly ruffian blew down on us, cussing a
+streak, and wouldn't hardly let us get into our boat. Chucked stones at
+us all the way across and promised us a mess of birdshot if we came
+back. Do you blame us for wanting to lay you out?" It was Dave's
+conqueror who spoke.
+
+"If that's what you do on suspicion, I don't want to be around when
+you're sure of yourself. My ribs'll be sore for a week."
+
+The boys had been talking excitedly; each one was wrought up over the
+fate of poor Tod and this was the only way they were willing to show
+their feelings. It was Phil who brought them back to earth.
+
+"Well, fellows," he suggested, "let's get acquainted first, and then
+let's see if we can't frame up some way of getting across and going
+over that island from end to end. Line up, Scouts, and be presented."
+
+The Scouts lined up in two columns.
+
+"This is Sid Walmsly, nicknamed 'the worm,' partly because that's the
+way we pronounce his name, but mostly because it's a long worm that has
+no turn, and Sid says he's always the one to be left out. You can
+remember him by the wart on his left knuckle. Next is Dick Garrett;
+he's assistant Patrol Leader. This thin, long-drawn-out morsel of sweet
+temper is Fred Nelson. We tried to nickname him "Angel" but he licked
+everyone that tried it on him. Now comes our joker, we'd call him
+Trixie if we dared. His ma calls him Algy Brown. Frank Willis stands
+first in the behind row. He goes by the name of "Budge," chiefly
+because he _won't_ unless he wants to. Barney Knowles, the littlest
+giant in the world--the one in the red sweater. He wears a sweater in
+July and shirt-sleeves in December. And last of all, but not least--far
+from it--Ted Lewis, the only grouchy fat man in captivity. Smile for
+us, Teddy." Teddy growled.
+
+Jerry introduced himself and his two chums, and then turned anxiously
+to Phil. "Got any plan?"
+
+"Why not just get into our boat and row over? We can tell that chump
+over there----"
+
+"Thought you told us good Scouts were always respectful to our elders?"
+interrupted Ted, he of the "grouch."
+
+"Respectful where respect is _due_," came the quick response. "We can
+tell the gentleman that we have sent the rest of the gang back for the
+sheriff----"
+
+"And good Scouts never tell lies----" This from Ted again.
+
+"Be still or I'll make it the truth by sending you back after him. We
+ought to make the try, anyway, because that makes our next move easier.
+If we can't get on the island in the open, we've got to use a little
+strategy. If we just could get our boat around to the other side of the
+island----"
+
+"I've got it!" cried Dave. "Our boat's down the river. While the bunch
+of us keep up a demonstration along the shore here, two of us could
+slip down and get the boat and sneak in at the lower end."
+
+"Good. We'd best waste no time about it because it's going to be coming
+on dark before we know it. Who's going along with me?"
+
+"To the island? I'll go. The man knows _me_," agreed Jerry. "Where's
+your boat?"
+
+The rest waited in the cover of the bushes while Phil and Jerry quietly
+made their way down the river bank to where the Scout boat was moored.
+They sprang in at once, Phil pushing off and hopping lightly to the
+oars. There was only one pair, but he sent the boat skimming across the
+ripples. No one was in sight on the island, and they were in hopes of
+making a landing unobserved, but just as their boat touched shore the
+willows parted and the man stepped out on the high bank.
+
+"Back again?" he demanded gruffly.
+
+"Oh, yes," replied Phil easily. "We came back to see if you'd let us
+look for a box of tackle one of the boys thinks he left down where we
+were fishing this morning."
+
+"Oh! And you," said the man sarcastically, turning to Jerry. "I suppose
+you came to look for a lock of hair from your drowned friend's head?"
+
+The man's tone was so unfeeling that Jerry simply gasped, but Phil
+boiled over at once.
+
+"I'll have you know that that boy was my cousin. We have good reason
+for believing that he's on this island and _we're going to search it_!"
+
+"Oh, indeed!" and Jerry could have sworn that there was a twinkle in
+the man's eye for all there was no mistaking the threat in his voice.
+"Well, I can promise you a full-sized spanking unless you make
+yourselves scarce in just about one half minute. This makes the third
+time I've had to chase you off--and third time's the charm, you know."
+
+"But why don't you want us to look for our friend? Surely you've got
+nothing against him--or us."
+
+"Not a thing. Not a thing, sonny. Only I live on this place, and I
+can't have a troop of youngsters tracking mud in at my front door. That
+friend of yours couldn't very well be on my island without my knowing
+it, could he?"
+
+"But you've never said out and out that he wasn't on the island,"
+asserted Jerry boldly. "And you've acted so suspicious that--that we
+wouldn't believe you now if you did say it."
+
+The man laughed at that, for Jerry had started out by trying to be
+diplomatic, but his feelings got the better of him before the end.
+
+"I'll be careful not to say it then. As for the tackle box--here it
+is." Jerry opened his eyes wide; he had thought the box a pure
+invention on the part of Phil. "Now back water and keep backing."
+
+"You think you've got us beat," shouted Jerry at his retreating back.
+"Never you worry--I've told Mr. Fulton, and he and Mr. Aikens will be
+coming down here with a posse. They won't be asking your permission if
+they can investigate an island that doesn't belong to you any more than
+it does to me."
+
+"It belongs to Mr. Fulton, I suppose?" challenged the man, and turning
+around for a last laugh. Neither boy answered.
+
+"You tell your Mr. Fulton that I said he was welcome to come any time."
+
+"Now what?" asked Jerry, as Phil turned the boat about and headed for
+the other shore.
+
+"What next? Night, mostly. Then I think we'll show your Mr. Billings a
+few Scout tricks he doesn't know about."
+
+"I didn't say his name was Billings----"
+
+"I know--but _I_ did. I've seen him before. That may be the reason he's
+so touchy about having us land on the island. The last time I saw him
+it was down at dad's office. Uncle Ed--that's Mr. Fulton, you know--was
+there, and when I opened the door on them suddenly, he and this
+Billings were having the hottest kind of an argument. Dad hustled me
+out of there in a hurry, but not before Uncle Ed'd called him
+Billings--and a lot of other things."
+
+"You think then that Billings is still sore at Mr. Fulton, and that
+he's holding Tod there----"
+
+"Nothing more likely. We'll know to-night. At least we'll know whether
+Tod is there--and I guess we'll make a good strong try at getting him
+loose."
+
+"How can we do it? What's your plan?"
+
+"Leave it to the Flying Eagle Scouts. I'm not bragging, but we're one
+live crew!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+A VOYAGE IN THE DARK
+
+
+Still, it was some time after the return of Phil and Jerry from their
+unsuccessful sortie into the enemy's country, before a practical plan
+occurred to the ten-brain-power plotters. But the scheme, once its
+details had been worked out, struck them all as having a fair chance
+for success. Briefly, it was this:
+
+Two of the boys--Jerry and Phil were again chosen--were to go down the
+river to the bridge and cross over and get the _Big Four_. They were to
+come back up the river as quietly as possible, hugging the opposite
+shore to a point about two hundred yards below the island, where the
+east bank spurred off into a fairly high hill. Here one of the boys was
+to leave the boat, as near nine o'clock as possible--it was now
+seven--and climb the hill, where he was to signal across to Dick
+Garrett, who would be watching directly opposite.
+
+Then Jerry and Phil were to make all speed to Lost Island, landing at
+the lower end. The Boy Scouts, and Dave and Frank, were to gather as
+conspicuously as possible--a flaring camp fire would show their
+intentions--and pretend that _they_ were about to embark for the island.
+
+That _ought_ to leave the lower end of the island unguarded for the
+safe landing of Jerry and Phil. Once they were ashore, the dense bushes
+and the darkness ought to be sufficient cover for their search.
+
+Little time had been lost, really, in making the plan, for the Scouts
+had been bustling back and forth, building a camp fire and preparing
+supper. Four of them had set up the tents, finishing the task begun by
+all of them when Jerry and Phil set out on their first trip to the
+island.
+
+It was not a very fancy meal the boys sat down to. The food was served
+on paper lunch plates, so there would be no dish-washing. Each Scout
+carried knife, fork, spoon and tincup. There was no extra "silverware"
+save the cook's big utensils. So the three outsiders ate with fingers
+and pocketknives. A nice mess of perch had been caught in a near-by
+creek, and Frank Willis, whose turn it was to act as chef, had browned
+them most artistically. There were some ash-baked potatoes, and a
+farmhouse close by had provided a generous supply of buttermilk.
+
+The last of the meal was eaten by the light of the camp fire, for the
+sky had clouded over and night seemed to drop suddenly from above.
+Licking the last morsel of the delicious fish from his greasy
+finger-ends, and wiping his greasier mouth on his sleeve, Jerry jumped
+to his feet and announced:
+
+"I'm ready, Phil, if you are."
+
+"I've been ready for a quarter of an hour--just waiting for the skillet
+to be empty, because I knew you'd never stir so long as there was a
+crumb left. Where do you put it all?"
+
+"I've got to stow away a lot to balance my brains. I notice you're a
+light eater," retorted Jerry, but Phil only chuckled.
+
+"All right, you two--be on your merry way," put in Dick Garrett. "This
+is no picnic excursion you're starting off on. And don't forget your
+oars, unless you expect to row your boat with your wits."
+
+The two made no reply; a half minute later there were only eight boys
+in camp.
+
+Something like a quarter of a mile inland was the gravel road that
+followed the windings of Plum Run, to cut across at the wagon bridge.
+Two stealthy figures hurried through the woods and across the fields,
+to emerge on the other side of a barbed wire fence and trudge off down
+the dusty road.
+
+"Some woodsman, you are!" snorted Phil in purposely exaggerated
+disgust. "When you skulked through the brush the limbs could be heard
+popping for a mile. How many times did you fall down?"
+
+"Fall down? What you mean, fall down? Every time you stumbled over your
+shadow I thought you were ducking for cover, so I simply crouched to
+keep out of sight."
+
+Phil snorted, and quickened his pace. Jerry put an extra few inches on
+his own stride and easily kept up. They passed a farmhouse--at good
+speed, for a dog came out and after a few suspicious sniffs proceeded
+to satisfy his appetite on Phil's leg. A loud ripping noise told that
+he at least kept a souvenir of the visit.
+
+The dog's excited barking kept them company to the next farmhouse,
+which they passed as silently as possible, not particularly desiring to
+repeat the experience.
+
+"It was your whistling back there that scared up that dog--see if you
+can whistle a patch onto my leggins," Phil suggested when they were
+once more surrounded by open fields.
+
+Jerry did not answer, for just ahead of them the road forked and he was
+trying to remember which turn it was one took to get to the bridge. He
+had never gone this way, but he had once heard a farmer giving
+directions to a party of automobilists. However, Phil unhesitatingly
+took the branch that cut in toward the river, so he said nothing for
+some time.
+
+"Ever been over this road before?" he ventured to ask when the road
+suddenly became so rough that they stumbled at every step.
+
+"No--never been up this way. We always fish on the other side of the
+Plum."
+
+"How do you know then that this is the right road?"
+
+"It turned in toward the river, didn't it? And the other road angled
+off toward Tarryville."
+
+"But the bridge road is graveled all the way, and if this isn't blue
+clay I'll eat my hat. It might just be a private road to some farm, and
+the other road might have swung around after a bit. This muck-hole
+doesn't look good to me."
+
+"All the same, through those trees yonder I can see water. It's the old
+Plum all right. Shake a leg."
+
+"I think we'll gain time by shaking two legs--back to the fork. That's
+the Plum, all right enough, but you'll walk through marsh all the way
+to the bridge if you try to follow the bank. I remember now: this is
+the old wood road. It hasn't been used since they cut timber on the
+Jameson tract."
+
+Jerry did not wait to finish his argument but had already gone back a
+good fifty feet of the way to the other road, when he noticed that Phil
+was not following him.
+
+"What's the matter, Phil?"
+
+"Don't you think we've wasted enough time, without losing some more by
+going back?"
+
+"We'll lose more by going ahead. And we're losing now by standing still
+chewing the rag about it. Come on."
+
+"I'm going ahead. You followed my lead this far; I guess it won't hurt
+you to follow it a little farther. I'm Patrol Leader, you know."
+
+Jerry sensed a little resentment in Phil's tone, and remembered that
+once or twice he had spoken to the Scout leader just as he did to his
+chums--and his chums always looked to him for commands.
+
+"I'm not trying to boss you, Phil, don't think that. But I _know_ that
+the other way is the best way, and I've _got_ to follow it. So you go
+ahead, and I'll wait for you at this end of the bridge."
+
+Without further word he strode off on the back road. It was so dark
+that he might have done so safely, but he did not look back.
+Nevertheless, a pleased grin spread over his face, for he was soon
+aware that Phil was tagging along not many paces behind. That had
+always been the way. Jerry was a born leader; the other boys followed
+him willingly because they never found any cause to lose confidence in
+his judgment.
+
+"Phil, you're a genuine sport," was all he said as the other boy fell
+into step beside him as once more they reached the gravel roadway and
+turned into the right-hand branch.
+
+Sooner than they expected they saw the gaunt skeleton of the upper
+bridgework against the dark sky. Jerry did not permit himself an "I
+told you so," but he said instead:
+
+"We'll be in a pretty pickle if we get on the other side and find our
+boat gone."
+
+Phil made no answer and in silence they walked across the
+hollow-echoing bridge. A series of giant stone steps led down to the
+river bank, and as soon as they reached bottom they saw that their
+fears were groundless, for there lay the _Big Four_ as Jerry and Dave
+had left her eighteen hours before. Deep footprints in the mud bank,
+dimly visible in the dusk, told that someone had stopped to look the
+boat over. Perhaps had the oars been handy, the boat might not have
+remained so safely.
+
+The boys were glad to relieve their shoulders of the pair they had
+taken turns in carrying, and without pausing to rest, they stepped into
+the boat, Phil finding some difficulty in making the Scout boat's oars
+fit the _Big Four's_ oarlocks. But at last they were off and Jerry bent
+to his task. The _Big Four_ had been built for speed, and the craft was
+trimmed just right for getting the most with the least effort. The
+current was fairly swift here, but Jerry hugged the east bank and took
+advantage of every eddy. It was not long before Lost Island swung into
+sight.
+
+"Let me spell you off," suggested Phil, but Jerry shook his head.
+
+"After we land at the hill you can take her the rest of the way. I
+think I'll pull in at that little cove just ahead. It makes a little
+longer walk, but it's well out of sight of the island. Who'll climb the
+hill!"
+
+"Leave that to me. I kind of want to try out a little signaling stunt
+that Dick and I have been figuring on. Here's a good sandy stretch;
+let's beach her here."
+
+The boat grated on the pebbly shore; Phil sprang lightly out, and Jerry
+was left alone. He could hear Phil scrunching over the rocks and
+through the brush; then all was still. Jerry strained his eyes to see
+if he could make out the figure of Dick, who must be almost directly
+opposite, but only the dense black of the wood met his gaze. He waited
+patiently for the gleam of the flashlight, but minute after minute
+slipped by, and no signal appeared.
+
+So he was somewhat surprised when after perhaps fifteen minutes he
+heard a footstep on the beach and he realized that Phil was returning.
+
+"Our scheme worked fine," announced the Scout leader. "Bet you never
+even saw Dick's signal."
+
+"No, I didn't," confessed Jerry.
+
+"Good reason why. You see, I figured out that if you shoot a flash
+straight out in front of you very long everybody can see it. A quick
+flash--well, anyone who saw it might think it was just lightning or the
+interurban. So I just snapped about a dozen straight up into the air,
+until I got a return flash from Dick. Then I used this." He pulled out
+a little pocket mirror. "I pointed my light straight at the ground, and
+gave him a dot and dash message by holding the mirror in the light.
+Some scheme, eh?"
+
+Jerry merely grunted, but way down in his heart a deep respect was
+forming for these Boy Scouts and their resourcefulness.
+
+"Just flash a few signals to those oars," he advised, taking his place
+in the stern. "And be careful with that left oar--she squeaks if you
+pull her too hard."
+
+But Phil soon showed that he needed no advice about handling a boat.
+Without a sound--without a ripple, almost--they moved away from shore
+and cut out into the current.
+
+"Safe to get out into line with the island, I guess. If they're
+watching, it's the shore they'll be most suspicious of."
+
+"They? We've only seen one out there."
+
+"Maybe. But I'm betting on a pair of them at least. It's about time for
+the boys to--listen to those Indians, would you? I'm afraid they're
+overdoing it a bit."
+
+From the far shore, out of sight behind Lost Island, rose a hubbub of
+cries that sounded as if the island were about to be attacked by a war
+party of Sioux. A Boy Scout yell sounded out, the voices of Dave and
+Frank heard above the rest.
+
+"Guess your two must have deserted your banner and joined the Eagles,"
+teased Phil.
+
+The island lay dead ahead of them, dark and still. Both boys had a
+shivery feeling of being watched, but no sign was apparent as they
+floated in behind the point of the island and noiselessly beached the
+boat.
+
+"We'd best stay close together," suggested Jerry in a whisper.
+
+"And by all means don't whisper--talk in an undertone. A whisper
+carries twice as far," countered Phil. Jerry marked down one more to
+the score of the Boy Scouts.
+
+But there was little need for talk. The brush was heavy, broken by
+thickets of plum trees and an occasional sapling of hickory; the ground
+was boggy in spots, and once Jerry sank almost to his knees in oozy
+mud. A screech owl hooted in a tree close by, and cold shivers ran up
+and down their backbones. Unbroken by path or opening, the island
+wilderness lay before them.
+
+They walked hours it seemed, trying their best not to advertise their
+coming in breaking limbs and rustling leaves, for the night was
+uncannily still. It was a great relief, therefore, when the underbrush
+suddenly gave way to a few low trees and after that open ground. Jerry
+was for plunging right ahead, relying on the darkness, but Phil caught
+his arm.
+
+"Circle it," he commanded, and Jerry, little used to obeying orders as
+he was, at once saw the wisdom of the idea and agreed. They were nearly
+halfway around the open plot when they struck a path, evidently leading
+to the river. But the other end must go somewhere, and they strained
+their eyes into the darkness.
+
+"A house, I do believe," mumbled Phil.
+
+"Shall we risk going closer?"
+
+"Got to. Not a sound now. Let's take off our shoes."
+
+In their stocking feet they stealthily drew nearer the dark blot
+against the background. When they were within twenty feet they saw it
+was not a cabin, but one end of a long, narrow, shed-like structure,
+perhaps twenty feet wide and running far back into the darkness. They
+approached it cautiously and began feeling carefully along the higher
+side for some sort of door or opening. They had gone a good thirty
+feet, their nerves tingling with the hope of next-instant discovery,
+when Phil broke the silence with a low-toned sentence.
+
+"There's a house or cabin of some kind less than twenty feet away."
+
+Jerry did not look. His groping fingers had found something that felt
+like a door-edge. His hand closed over a knob.
+
+"Here's the door!" he exclaimed eagerly, and then felt his heart almost
+stop beating. The knob had been turned in his hand! But before he could
+say a word, a sudden "Sh!" sounded from his companion.
+
+"Did you hear it?" gasped Phil.
+
+"What?" asked Jerry, his voice trembling in spite of him.
+
+But Phil did not answer--there was no need. From the cabin came a sound
+that set every nerve on edge. It was a groan--the groan of someone in
+great agony.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+A RESCUE THAT FAILED
+
+
+In the excitement of hearing that groan, Jerry forgot every other
+thought. Both boys jumped at once to the same conclusion: Tod was in
+that cabin! Perhaps he had been hurt, or perhaps, even, that ruffian
+was mistreating him. With one accord they broke for the cabin, making
+for where a thin pencil of light hinted at a door. They wasted no time
+fumbling for the knob, but put all the strength of their shoulders
+against the opening.
+
+The door gave, suddenly, and they tumbled over each other into a dimly
+lighted room. It was fortunate for them that there was no one there,
+for in falling Phil overturned a chair, which in turn managed to become
+entangled in Jerry's legs, who came to the floor with a suddenness that
+did not give Phil time to get out of the way. Half stunned, they lay
+there panting, till a renewal of the moaning aroused them to quick
+action.
+
+Phil jumped to his feet and caught up a leg of the chair, that had been
+broken loose in the triple fall. It was well to have some sort of
+weapon. The sounds seemed to have come from above, where a trap door
+indicated a loft or attic of some sort. The boys looked wildly about
+for some means of getting up to the trap door, but the light of the
+smoky kerosene lamp revealed nothing. The chair might have helped them,
+but it was wrecked beyond hope.
+
+"Perhaps if we called to him, he might answer," ventured Jerry huskily.
+
+"First see if you can reach the trap door if you stand on my
+shoulders." Phil made a stirrup of his hands and gave Jerry a leg up.
+Wabbling uncertainly, but managing to straighten himself, Jerry caught
+at the edge of the opening.
+
+"Nailed!" he exclaimed disappointedly as he jumped to the floor. "Shall
+we call?" Phil nodded.
+
+"Tod. Oh, Tod!"
+
+Only silence. Again they called.
+
+"Tod--Tod Fulton."
+
+There was an answer this time, but not of the sort nor from the
+direction the boys expected. It was more like a whine than a groan this
+time, and it came from the far side of the room. For the first time the
+boys noticed that there was a door there, partly open. They made a rush
+for it, Jerry in the lead. But he got no farther than the threshold. As
+he reached it, the door was flung open in his face.
+
+In the doorway stood a sixteen-year-old girl, a slim, black-haired slip
+of a thing, her black eyes snapping. One hand was doubled up into a
+fist that would have made any boy laugh, but there was no laughter in
+the other hand. It brandished a wicked looking hand-axe, and it was
+evident from the way she handled it that there was strength in those
+scrawny arms.
+
+"You get out of here!" she commanded, advancing a step.
+
+Jerry backed away hastily, but Phil only laughed, trying to balance
+himself on the two and a half legs of the wrecked chair.
+
+"I've seen you before, Lizzie, and you don't scare me a bit with that
+meat axe."
+
+"It's no meat axe; it's a wood axe--look out for your heads," she
+retorted scornfully. "Clear out of here or I'll make kindling of both
+of you."
+
+"Put down that cleaver, Lizzie, and let's talk sense. We came here to
+get Tod Fulton--he's my cousin, you know----" but that was as far as he
+got.
+
+The girl, her face showing a determination that made nonchalant Phil
+jump up from his chair and beat a quick retreat, walked up on them, the
+axe flashing viciously back and forth before her.
+
+"You're going to get off this island," she exclaimed, "and you're going
+to do it quick. No tricks now! The first one who makes a break gets
+this axe in the back--and I can throw straight. About face, now. March!"
+
+There was nothing to do but obey. Sheepishly enough the boys turned and
+meekly let her drive them out into the dark. As she passed the lamp she
+caught it down from the bracket on the wall with one hand.
+
+Thus they marched across the open ground, along the narrow path and out
+on the waterfront.
+
+"Our boat is down at the other end of the island" remarked Phil,
+turning his head ever so slightly.
+
+"I'll have my father bring it over to you in the morning," answered the
+girl relentlessly. "I see your friends waiting for you over on the
+other side, so it wouldn't be fair to keep them in suspense."
+
+"You're surely not going to make us try to swim it?" pleaded Phil,
+pretending great consternation, hoping that he might delay their
+departure till something might happen to give them the advantage.
+
+"That's not all I am going to do." Setting down her lamp on a
+convenient rock, and changing her axe to her left hand, she stooped
+over and picked up a pebble. With a quick jerk she drew back her arm
+and then shot it out, boy-fashion The boys heard the stone hum as it
+sailed through the air. An instant, and then a howl of pain arose from
+one of the Scouts dancing about the blazing camp fire on the other
+shore. It was a good hundred yards away.
+
+"I just did that to show you what'd happen to you if you didn't head
+straight for that gang of pirates over there," she said grimly.
+
+"You're _some_--tomboy!" exclaimed Phil, admiringly, Jerry thought, but
+the girl only laughed sarcastically.
+
+"You first," she demanded. "You're just watching for a chance to catch
+me off my guard. I'm onto you."
+
+Phil had no choice, so without more ado, he plunged in and began
+cutting the water neatly in the direction of the camp fire.
+
+"He swims well, doesn't he?" remarked the girl, so easily that Jerry
+could have sworn she was about ready to laugh.
+
+"He sure does!" he agreed. "He's got me beat a mile. Say," he coaxed,
+"we didn't mean any harm. We were just looking for a boy who was
+supposed to have got drowned up the river a piece but we believe landed
+here on Lost Island. Just tell me whether he's alive or not, and we
+won't bother you any more."
+
+"Oh, you're no bother. In fact, I rather enjoyed your little
+visit--though I will admit you scared me a bit when you held the knob
+of the door to the hangar----"
+
+"Hangar? What's that?"
+
+"It's--it's French for--woodshed," the girl stammered. "It's your turn
+now," motioning toward the water.
+
+"But won't you tell me about Tod?"
+
+"Did you ask my father about him?"
+
+"If it _was_ your father, yes."
+
+"And he didn't tell you!"
+
+"No, and he wouldn't let us search the island."
+
+"Well, I'm my father's daughter. So into the briny deep with you. I
+hope the fish don't bite you."
+
+"But, look here," began Jerry, then fell silent and moved toward the
+waters edge, for the girl had picked up a handful of large pebbles and
+stood plumping them meaningly into the river.
+
+The water was warm, and aside from his clothes, Jerry did not mind the
+swim. After he had stroked along perhaps a third of the way, he turned
+on his back. The light had disappeared from shore. He had a moment's
+impulse to turn back, but was afraid she might be waiting in the
+darkness to greet him with a laugh and an invitation to take to the
+water again.
+
+He turned once more and swam steadily across the current. But after a
+little, once more he turned on his back, only kicking occasionally to
+keep himself afloat. He fancied he had heard some noise that did not
+belong with the night.
+
+There it was again, that regular beat as of wood striking against wood.
+He listened intently, trying to place the sound. Finally, it dawned on
+him that it was a boat, rowed by means of a pair of loose oars.
+
+His mind worked quickly. It could not be the Boy Scout boat, for the
+sound was not right for that. It could only be the man of the island,
+"Lizzie's" father--she had as much as said he was away. At any rate,
+Jerry decided, he would wait there and find out. If the worst came to
+the worst he could always dive out of sight.
+
+Nearer and nearer came the boat. Jerry lay in the water with only his
+nose showing. He was too heavy-boned to be very good at floating, but
+the barest movement of hands or feet kept him from going under. At
+first he could make out nothing, but as his eyes focused more sharply
+he distinguished a slow-moving shape against the gray of the sky. It
+was barely twenty feet away, headed almost directly at him.
+
+A few noiseless strokes put him inside the boat's path, but when he
+stopped paddling he realized to his horror that the boat had changed
+direction and was cutting in toward the island. It was almost upon him
+when he dived.
+
+He was not quick enough. The landward oar caught him a flat blow across
+his eyes. Blinded, dazed, his mouth full of water, he flung up his
+arms. He had a vague sense of having caught hold of something, and he
+held on. Through a sort of mist he heard a voice saying laughingly:
+
+"Hit a snag, John. Better be careful or you'll wreck the ship in sight
+of harbor."
+
+Little by little Jerry's head cleared and he realized that he had
+caught hold of the stern of the boat. He could not see over the edge,
+but he could tell that there were two people in the boat, both men.
+They talked fitfully, but for the most part their voices came to Jerry
+only as meaningless mumbles. Once more the dark outline of Lost Island
+lay before him, and in Jerry's heart arose a new hope that perhaps this
+time he would not come away empty-handed. The boat grounded on the
+beach where he and Phil had stood only a few minutes before. The man
+who had been at the oars jumped out and pulled the boat well up on
+shore. Jerry, finding that he could touch bottom, had let go and now
+stood well hidden in the water.
+
+"You might as well wait here in the boat," said the one who had gone
+ashore. "I won't be gone but a minute."
+
+He moved up the bank. It was the same man Jerry had encountered twice
+before on his island visits. But who was the man in the boat? Jerry
+wished he dared come closer.
+
+The minutes passed slowly, and the water did not feel as warm as it had
+at first. He was greatly relieved when once more he heard the rustle of
+someone coming through the tall grass. But though the sound came nearer
+and nearer, Jerry, his nerves literally on end, found the wait a long
+one. Would the man never get there?
+
+But the delay was quickly explained. There were two instead of one
+crunching across the beach, and the other stumbled as he walked and
+would have fallen more than once had it not been for the supporting arm
+of his companion. Jerry could have shouted from joy had he dared, for
+some instinct told him that that swaying form belonged to no one but
+his chum, Tod Fulton.
+
+And then, in an instant, the mystery was all made clear--at least for
+the instant. The man in the boat rose and struck a match so that the
+other could see to help wobbly Tod to a seat. As the light flared up
+full, Jerry had a good sight of the face of the man who stood waiting.
+
+It was Mr. Fulton!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+"TO-MORROW IS THE DAY!"
+
+
+And then it was that Jerry saw that the temporary clearing of the
+mystery only made things darker than ever. For, why should Tod be
+rescued in this weird fashion? Why had the man refused to let Tod's
+friends come on the island? And why, why had Mr. Fulton laughed at
+Jerry's story--and yet followed his clue in this stealthy way? Jerry,
+up to his nose in the water, and deeper than that in perplexity, saw
+that the whole affair was really no longer the mystery of Tod Fulton's
+disappearance, but the mystery of Lost Island.
+
+So, although he now felt safe from bodily harm, because of Mr. Fulton's
+presence, he made no sign, but waited there a scant dozen feet beyond
+the stern of the boat. He heard Tod answer a few low-toned questions of
+his father, but could not make out either question or answer. He saw
+Mr. Fulton pick up the oars and poise them for a sweep, dropping the
+blades into the water to exchange a last sentence with the shadow who
+stood waiting on the bank.
+
+"Everything all right, then, Billings!"
+
+"Varnish on the left plane cracked pretty badly, Mr. Fulton. I had to
+scrape it off and refinish it. It really ought to have another day to
+dry."
+
+Jerry repeated, puzzled, to himself: "Left plane--what in thunder's
+that?"
+
+Billings went on:
+
+"You won't forget to bring the timer. Elizabeth will get it at the
+usual place if you can leave it by noon."
+
+"It'll be there, Billings."
+
+Not a word more was said as the boat was swung about and headed out
+into the stream, save that Mr. Fulton chuckled:
+
+"Old Billings rather had you worried, eh, son, until he gave you my
+message?"
+
+Tod laughed, so heartily that Jerry, who had watched his chance to cut
+out into the wake of the boat and hold on behind with one hand, could
+not himself forbear a little happy ripple.
+
+"What was that?" exclaimed Mr. Fulton, a full minute after.
+
+"I don't know," answered Tod. "I was waiting for it to come again.
+Sounded like--only _he_ couldn't be here."
+
+"Who couldn't?"
+
+"It sounded like a laugh--and there's only one person, outside of a
+billygoat, who's got a gurgle like that."
+
+"Your wetting didn't tame you down any, did it? Who's the goat you had
+in mind?"
+
+"Jerry King--_well_, what in the world!"
+
+Over the back of the boat clambered a dripping, wrathful figure.
+
+"I'll be switched if I'm going to be dragged along at the tail of this
+scow and be insulted any longer. I laugh like a billygoat, do I? For
+two cents I'd scuttle the ship!"
+
+But Jerry's anger was more put on than real, and under Mr. Fulton's
+banter and Tod's grateful appreciation of the attempted rescue, he soon
+calmed down.
+
+"What was the matter with you back there on the island? We heard you
+groaning as if you'd green-appled yourself double."
+
+"Groaning? Me groaning? Huh! Say, next time you go bearding damsels in
+distress and rescuing castaway fishermen, you learn how to tell the
+difference between a bulldog who's whining to get out and get at you,
+and a wounded hero. It's a good thing you didn't have a chance to
+follow up that 'groan'--you'd have _groan_ wiser."
+
+"One more like that, Tod," suggested Mr. Fulton wearily, "and I think
+I'll take a hand myself."
+
+"But why," Jerry wanted to know, "didn't you come back home right
+away--if you weren't hurt?"
+
+"Oh, but I was. You try going over that dam once and see if your
+insides-out don't get pretty well mixed up. I got a terrific thump on
+the back of the head when the boat turned turtle, and if I hadn't had a
+leg under the seat, I'd be in Davy Jones' locker right now. When I came
+to I didn't know whether I was me or the boat. I had gallons of water
+in me and--and I think I swallowed a worm or two; the bait can got
+tipped over--and all the worms were gone--somewhere."
+
+"But why did you stay----" Jerry began, feeling vaguely that Tod was
+talking so much to keep him from asking questions. But he was not
+allowed even to ask this one, for Mr. Fulton interrupted with:
+
+"I got busy right away after you had told me about your Lost Island
+clue, and soon got a message through to--to Mr. Billings there. When he
+told me Tod was safe and sound, I thought I'd wait until I had finished
+some important business I just couldn't leave. That's how it was so
+late before I got here."
+
+"Mr. Billings came and got you, didn't he?" remarked Jerry, trying to
+keep the suspicion out of his voice. If they had a secret that was none
+of his business, _he_ wouldn't pry.
+
+"Yes," said Mr. Fulton, and made no further explanation.
+
+"But there were two of you on the island after me, weren't there? Who
+was the other hero?" Tod wanted to know.
+
+"Where were you, that you knew there were two of us?"
+
+"I was all doubled up in that little anteroom where the dog
+was--doubled up laughing." Then he added hastily, thinking he had
+teased poor Jerry far enough: "But I was locked in."
+
+"Why locked in, if Mr. Billings had gone to bring your father? Afraid
+you'd up and rescue yourself?" Jerry's tone was downright sarcastic.
+
+"No, Jerry--you see, the island--that is," looking toward Mr. Fulton as
+if for permission to go on, "that is, there's something going on on
+Lost Island that Mr. Billings figures isn't anybody else's business,
+and he didn't want to take chances of my nosing around."
+
+"I see," said Jerry dryly. "So of course rather than row you across to
+dry land himself he brought your father here to get you. It's all as
+plain as the wart on a pumpkinhead's nose!"
+
+"Now, Jerry, you're getting way up in the air without any cause. I'll
+tell you this much, because I think you've got a right to know: Mr.
+Billing's secret really is mine. Just as soon as I dare I'll tell you
+all about it. But what became of your friend--if there _were_ two of
+you?"
+
+"I was so peeved that I forgot all about Phil. It's Phil Fulton----"
+
+"What!" cried Tod. "Cousin Phil. Where is he?"
+
+"Standing on the bank just opposite Lost Island and figuring out how
+soon he ought to give me up for drowned or hand-axed by a savage
+female. He may have gone for the sheriff by this time--or the coroner.
+Better take me to shore here and I'll go back."
+
+Mr. Fulton began pulling the boat toward shore. "How did he happen to
+get into this?" he asked.
+
+Jerry told him the whole story of the encounter with the Boy Scouts.
+"They've pitched camp there, so I guess I'll see if they can dry me out
+and put me up for the night," he finished.
+
+As the boat neared shore Tod began to show signs of suppressed
+excitement. Finally, as Jerry was about to jump out into the shallow
+water, being already soaked through, Tod began coaxingly:
+
+"Why couldn't I go on with Jerry, dad? You told me you'd let me go
+camping with the bunch, don't you remember? And I promised Phil I'd
+show him the best bass lake in the country----"
+
+"I ought to take you back to town and let Doc Burgess look you over.
+Maybe the bones are pressing on your brain where you bumped your head.
+You act like it. But the fact is I _didn't_ want to go back to
+Watertown--I ought to chase right down to Chester for that timer. It
+was promised for to-morrow, and there isn't a minute to be lost. There
+aren't any falls down this way, are there?" he asked with mock
+seriousness.
+
+"Come on, dad, say I can go!" begged Tod.
+
+"We-l-l," hesitated Mr. Fulton, "suppose we say I'll let you stay till
+morning--or night, rather. Then we'll see."
+
+Jerry jumped out at this point and splashed his way to shore. He had a
+feeling that the two might want to talk without being overheard.
+Apparently he was right, as for a good five minutes the two conversed
+in low tones. Jerry tried his best not to hear what was said, but every
+now and then a sentence reached his ears. But it was so much Greek as
+far as he was concerned.
+
+He had walked inland a bit, finally striking the narrow path that
+fishermen had cut along the top of the high bank. It swung back toward
+the edge, cut off from view by a rank growth of willows. He noticed
+that the boat had drifted downstream until it now stood almost opposite
+him, and only a few feet from shore. Thus it was that, as Mr. Fulton
+backed water with his left-hand oar and rammed the nose of the boat
+toward the shelving beach, he heard one complete sentence, distinct and
+understandable.
+
+"It's up to you, Tod, to get them away. We can't afford any
+complications at this stage of the game. To-morrow is the day!"
+
+"Trust me, dad!" exclaimed Tod, going up and giving his father's
+shoulder a squeeze. Jerry waited for no more. Bending low, he scurried
+far down the path, so that Tod could have no suspicion that his chum
+had overheard.
+
+"Are you coming?" he shouted when he felt that he had gone far enough.
+
+"Hold up a second and I'll be with you. Good night, dad."
+
+"Good night, Mr. Fulton," shouted Jerry in turn, then waited for Tod.
+
+The journey to the Boy Scout camp was made in silence, for Jerry did
+not feel that he dared ask any more questions, and Tod volunteered no
+further explanation. Just outside the ring of light cast by the
+deserted camp fire, however, Jerry halted and asked:
+
+"Thought what you'll tell _them?_"
+
+"Why, no. Just what I told you, Jerry."
+
+"You can't--unless you tell them more. They'd never be satisfied with
+_that_."
+
+"I'm sorry, Jerry. I'd like to tell you the whole yarn, but--but you
+see how it is."
+
+"I don't but I guess I can wait. Only I do think you ought to have
+something cooked up that would stop their questions. Will you leave it
+to me?"
+
+"Surest thing you know. What'll you say?"
+
+"That's my secret. You play up to my leads, that's all you've got to
+do. _Hello_, bunch!" he shouted.
+
+"Wow! Hooray! There he is!" came cries of delight from the darkness in
+the direction of the river, and a moment later the boys, who had been
+almost frantic with worry over the non-appearance of Jerry, came
+trooping up. When they found Tod with him, their joy was unbounded.
+Their excited questions and exclamations of surprise gave Jerry a
+much-needed instant in which to collect his story-inventing wits. At
+last Phil quieted down his dancing mob and put the question Jerry had
+been awaiting:
+
+"How did you do it?"
+
+"That's the funny part of it. I didn't. Tod's dad came along and did it
+for me."
+
+"I hope he beat up that old grouch----"
+
+"Huh, you got another guess coming. They're old friends----yes," as a
+cry of unbelief went up, "that's why Tod was in no hurry to be rescued.
+His name's Billings, and Mr. Fulton used to be in business with him. Is
+yet, isn't he, Tod?"
+
+"Uhuh--I think so."
+
+"Well, you may know there's fish around Lost Island. Billings is what I
+call a fish hog. He don't want anybody to know about the place--wants
+it all for himself. Tod drifts onto the island and the man can't very
+well throw _him_ off, half drowned as he is. Then, when he gets the
+water out of Tod, all but his brain, he finds it's the son of his
+partner, and he can't very well throw him off _then_. There's a girl on
+that mound out there, and she comes in with a string of the biggest
+fish you ever saw. You couldn't drive Tod off with a club after that.
+After the fish, I mean, not the girl. He gets a message to his father,
+and makes his plans to stay there all summer, but dad comes down
+to-night and spoils his plans by dragging him off. He kind of thinks he
+doesn't want all the fish dragged out by the tails--he likes to hook a
+few big ones himself. I'd got out into the middle of the Plum when I
+heard the sound of prodigious weeping--it was Tod, saying a last
+farewell to the big fishes--and the little girl.
+
+"So I swam back. And here he is and here I am, and we're both pledged
+not to go back on Lost Island."
+
+"Righto!" cried Tod, in great relief, Jerry could plainly see. "And dad
+asked me to coax you chaps to keep away from old Billings--he's a
+regular bear, anyway. But to make up for that, to-morrow I'm going to
+take you to the swellest pickerel lake you ever laid eyes on."
+
+"You mean _bass_ lake, don't you?" asked Jerry maliciously.
+
+"Pickerel and bass," agreed Tod without an instant's hesitation. "Let's
+turn in; we want to make an early start."
+
+It was late, however, before the camp was finally quiet, for someone
+started a story, and that brought on another and another, till half of
+the Scouts fell asleep sitting bolt upright.
+
+But as one lone boy, the last awake, rolled near the fire in his
+borrowed blanket, he chuckled knowingly to himself and said:
+
+"Foxy old Tod! Dad sure can 'trust' him. But I'm just going to be
+curious enough to block his little game so far as I'm concerned. _I'm_
+going to stick around!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+A MID-AIR MIRACLE
+
+
+Jerry had a hard time next morning explaining just why he couldn't go
+along on the proposed fishing trip. Tod was inclined to accept his
+excuses at face value, but Dave and Frank could not understand why
+Jerry should so suddenly about-face in his notions. Just the day before
+he had talked as if he was prepared to stay a week. But his promise of
+a speedy return--with his own fishing tackle--finally silenced their
+grumblings, especially when he agreed to make their peace with two
+mothers who would be asking some pretty hard questions on their own
+return.
+
+But Jerry was not to get away without taking part in an incident that
+almost provided a disagreeable end for the adventure. It was while they
+were all at breakfast. Tod had been giving a glorious account of the
+thrilling sport he had enjoyed on his last trip to the bass lake he
+promised to guide them to. Suddenly, in the midst of a sentence, he
+stopped dead. His jaw dropped. He positively gasped.
+
+"_There she is!_"
+
+Then his face became blank. After a hasty glance about the circle of
+astonished faces, he went on with his fish story. But he was not
+allowed to go far.
+
+It was Phil, taking a cousin's rights, who put the sharp question.
+
+"Is your mind wandering, or what? 'There she is!' Who is _she_--and
+where? We don't want to hear your old fish yarn anyway."
+
+"I guess he's still thinking of that island girl," suggested Jerry,
+realizing that Tod had put himself into some kind of a hole, and
+wishing to help his chum out. But Phil was not to be so easily
+satisfied.
+
+"There's something mighty queer about this whole proposition. That yarn
+of yours last night, Jerry, didn't sit very easy on my pillow, and it
+doesn't rest very easy on my breakfast, either. What's the idea? What
+you trying to hide, you two?"
+
+"Nothing," said Tod, and Jerry repeated the word.
+
+ "Nothing! You make me tired. Now, out with it. I swam across that
+creek last night in my clothes on account of you, and I figure you've
+got a right to tell me why."
+
+"And I figure you've got a right to believe me when I told you why last
+night."
+
+"You didn't. You left it to Jerry to cook up a story that would keep us
+from asking questions. And now you yell out, 'There she is!' and sit
+there gaping at the sky, with your mouth wide open as if you expected a
+crow to lay an egg on your tongue. What does it all mean?"
+
+"It means I'm still capable of taking care of my own business!" snapped
+Tod.
+
+"Oh--very well. After this I'll let you."
+
+It was an uncomfortable group that sat about the rest of the breakfast,
+even after Tod had begged his cousin's pardon for ungrateful loss of
+temper, and Phil had said that it was "all right."
+
+Jerry was afraid for awhile that the fishing trip would be called off,
+but in the boisterous horseplay that went with the washing of the
+scanty dishes, all differences were forgotten, especially when Phil,
+scuffling in friendly fashion, put Tod down on his back and pulled that
+squirming wrestler's nose till he shouted "Enough!"
+
+It was with feelings of mingled amusement and relief that Jerry watched
+the noisy crowd pile into the two boats, the Scout boat and the _Big
+Four_, and paddle downstream, soon to be lost sight of behind Lost
+Island. His satisfaction was somewhat lessened by the fact that Phil
+had felt it necessary that one of their number remain behind to stand
+guard over the camp, but Jerry was sure that he would have no great
+trouble in keeping away from Frank Willis, trusting that "Budge" would
+live up to his reputation.
+
+He began well, for hardly was the camp deserted before he went back to
+his blankets. "Now some folks like fishing," he yawned, "and I do too
+when the fish don't bite too fast; but I like sleep. It's good for what
+ails you, and it's good if nothing ails you. Take it in regular doses
+or between meals--it always straightens you out."
+
+Jerry did not argue with him. A few minutes later his regular breathing
+told the world at large and Jerry in particular that so far as one
+Budge was concerned the coast was clear.
+
+As a matter of fact, Jerry did not feel that there would be anything to
+see until late in the afternoon at best. The conversation between Mr.
+Fulton and the man Billings had seemed to indicate that nothing out of
+the ordinary was to happen that day, but Mr. Fulton's parting words to
+Tod gave Jerry hope. "This is the day!" he had said.
+
+At any rate, he slipped out of camp and scouted about for a comfortable
+spot in which to keep an eye on Lost Island. But after he had sat there
+a half hour, he began to have twinges of the same disease that
+afflicted Budge and he saw that it would be necessary for him to move
+about a bit in order to stay awake. He regretted having left the camp
+without a fishing pole; that would at least give him something to do to
+pass the time away. With something like that in mind he started back
+toward the shady place where he had left Budge snoozing.
+
+But as the walk started his blood circulating again, and his brain
+became active once more, he had a new idea. "Old Tod's a sly fox," he
+said to himself. "He's not going to be among the missing when the fun
+is on. He's going to take them down to his bass lake, and then he's
+going to slip away. He'll have to come back by land, so he'll probably
+take them to Last Shot Lake. It'll take them an hour to get there, but
+he can come back afoot in half that time if he's in a hurry--and I
+guess he is. He most likely will hang around half an hour before he
+thinks it's safe to make his getaway. That's two hours all told. In
+some fifteen or twenty minutes he ought to come skulking along through
+the woods.
+
+"There's that hill yonder--it ought to make a good spy-post. Little
+Jerry bids these parts a fond adieu."
+
+Something like a strong quarter of a mile down the river, and perhaps
+that much inland, stood a lonesome hill, almost bare of trees save a
+clump of perhaps a dozen on the very summit. It was an ideal hiding
+place. Leaving the road after cutting through the river timber and
+following it a few hundred yards, he plunged into a dense growth of
+scrub oak and hazel brush that extended almost to the base of his hill.
+
+He came to one bare spot, perhaps an acre in extent, and was about to
+leave the shelter of the brush for the comparatively easy going of the
+weedy grass, when, almost opposite him, he saw a figure emerge from the
+trees.
+
+At first he thought it was Tod, and he chuckled to himself as he
+thought how quickly his guess had been proved true. But when a second
+stepped out close behind the first, Jerry realized that neither one was
+his friend, even before he noticed that both were carrying rifles.
+
+A pair of hunters, no doubt, Jerry surmised, although he wondered idly
+what they would be hunting at this season of the year. Rabbits were
+"wormy" and the law prohibited the shooting of almost everything else.
+But "City hunters," Jerry derided, "from their clothes. They think
+bluejays and crows are good sport."
+
+That the hunters were looking for birds was evident, for they kept
+their eyes turned toward the tree-tops. Thus it was that they did not
+see Jerry crouching in the brush a scant dozen feet from where they
+broke into the woods again. He was near enough to overhear them
+perfectly, but not a word could he understand, for they were talking
+very earnestly together in some outlandish tongue that, as Jerry said,
+made him seasick to try to follow. But as they talked they pointed
+excitedly, first toward the sky and then straight ahead, and that part
+of their conversation was perfectly understandable to the boy.
+
+A sudden wild thought entered his mind. Here were two hunters out in
+the woods at a time when no real sportsmen carried anything but rods
+and landing nets. The mystery of their purpose reminded him of another
+mystery, and immediately his mind connected the two, even before he
+noticed the constant recurrence of a word that sounded much as a
+foreigner would pronounce "Lost Island." Jerry realized, even as the
+thought passed through his mind, that it was the wildest kind of guess,
+but it was enough to set him stealthily picking his way through the
+brush in the wake of the two.
+
+He saw, just in time to avoid running smack into them, that just before
+they reached the road, although now out of the heavier woods, they had
+stopped and were talking together more excitedly than ever. Something
+had happened, Jerry realized at once, but he could not puzzle out what
+it was, although he looked and listened as intently as they seemed to
+be doing. He was about to give it up in disgust, when he became
+conscious of a queer droning noise, as of a swarm of bees, or a distant
+threshing machine. Strangely, the sound did not seem to be coming from
+the woods or fields about him, but from the blank sky itself.
+
+Then he remembered how Tod had acted at breakfast--how he too, like
+these men, had been apparently staring into space. Jerry read the
+newspapers; he was an eager student of one of the scientific magazines;
+he had sat in Mr. Fulton's basement workshop and listened to many a
+discussion of the latest wonders of invention. But even then he did not
+at once realize that the sound he had been hearing really came from the
+sky, and that the purring noise was the whir of the propellers of an
+aeroplane.
+
+He looked for a full minute at the soaring speck against the blue sky
+before he exclaimed aloud. "I'll be darned--an airship!"
+
+Fortunately, the two men were too engaged to pay any attention to
+sounds right beside them. But Jerry glanced hastily in their direction
+as he dropped back into the shelter of a big clump of elderberry. Then
+he looked again. There could be no doubt the two were following the
+flight of the aeroplane. They stepped off a few feet to the right and
+Jerry could see only their shoulders and heads above the bushes. He was
+curious to see better what they were doing, but he dared not cross the
+open ground between. So instead he turned his attention again to the
+soaring man-bird.
+
+It was coming closer. It swung down lower and circled in over Lost
+Island, barely a hundred feet above the tree-tops. A sudden cry from
+the two men drew his eager eyes away from the approaching aircraft, but
+he looked back just in time to witness a wonderful sight.
+
+Motionless, poised like a soaring hawk, the aeroplane, its propeller
+flashing in the sunlight, hung over Lost Island. For fully six seconds
+it remained there, not moving an inch. Suddenly it lurched, dropped
+half the distance to the trees, the yellow planes snapping like
+gun-shots. It looked as if it would be wrecked, and Jerry started
+forward as if to go to the rescue. In the half instant he had looked
+away, the machine had righted and purring like an elephant-size pussy,
+was darting out over the water. A cheer sounded faintly from Lost
+Island; Jerry wanted to cheer himself.
+
+Now he heard another kind of sound, but this time there was no doubt in
+his mind as to its source. There could be no mistaking the put-put-put
+of a single cylinder motor boat. It was coming up Plum Run, probably
+from the "city"--Chester. He could see it swinging around into the
+channel from behind Lost Island. It crept close along shore, and with a
+final "put!" came to a stop just where the boat had landed the night
+before with Mr. Fulton. Three men crowded forward and jumped to shore;
+one of them, Jerry could have sworn, was Mr. Fulton himself.
+
+As if the pilot of the aeroplane had been waiting for their coming he
+circled back toward the island. He had climbed far into the blue, but
+came down a steep slant that brought him within two hundred feet of
+earth almost before one could gather his wits to measure the terrific
+drop. Out across Plum Run he swept in a wide circle, and Jerry saw that
+the aeroplane would pass almost directly overhead.
+
+He had forgotten all about the two men by this time, so keen was his
+interest in the daring aviator. He certainly had nerve, to go on with
+his flight after the accident that had so nearly ended his career only
+a minute back.
+
+And then Jerry was treated to a sight that made him rub his eyes in
+amazement. The accident was repeated--it had been no accident. Now only
+a hundred feet up, directly above him, the big machine seemed to quiver
+with a sudden increase or change of power. A rasping, ear-racking
+sound--a spurt of blue vapor--and the aeroplane did what no other
+flying machine had ever done before; it stopped stock-still in mid-air.
+
+Jerry could see every detail of the big machine, its glistening canvas,
+its polished aluminum motor and taut wires and braces. He could even
+see the pilot, leaning far over to one side, a smile of satisfaction on
+his face. Jerry could hardly resist shouting a word of greeting to the
+bold aeronaut.
+
+He did shout, but it was a cry of horror, for all in a moment, a streak
+of flame seemed to leap out of the motor, there was a fearful hiss of
+escaping gas, a report that fairly shook the tree-tops, and with planes
+crumpling under the tremendous pressure of the air rushing past as it
+fell, the aeroplane plunged to earth. Yet, even in his intense
+excitement, Jerry, as he raced to where the flaming machine had fallen,
+caught at a fleeting impression: There had been two explosions, and the
+first seemed to come from close beside him.
+
+The aeroplane had come to earth a good hundred yards away, and Jerry
+made all speed in that direction. He passed the spot where the two men
+had been standing--they were still there, and seemed in no hurry to go
+to the rescue. One of them, Jerry noticed as he rushed by, shouting
+"Quick!" had just thrown his gun under his arm, but the action did not
+impress the boy at the time as having any significance.
+
+He raced on, the flaming wreck now in sight. He fairly flew through the
+last dense thicket and jumped out, just in time to collide with another
+hurrying figure. When the two picked themselves up, Jerry saw that it
+was Tod.
+
+"Hurry, Jerry," he cried. "I'm afraid that poor Billings is killed!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+AN EMPTY RIFLE SHELL
+
+
+In that few steps till they reached the smoking mass of wreckage, many
+things became clear to Jerry. He realized that Lost Island had been
+merely a building ground for Mr. Fulton's experiments in aeronautics,
+that this sorry looking ruin was his invention. He remembered the long,
+low shed on the island--that was the workshop.
+
+Then they were at the verge of the twisted and wrecked machine,
+frantically tugging at rods and splintered wood in an effort to get at
+the unconscious form covered by the debris. Fortunately there was no
+great weight to lift, and there was really no fire once the smoke of
+the explosion had cleared away. In a very few seconds they had dragged
+the man clear and laid him out flat on his back in a grassy spot, where
+Tod remained to fan the man's face while Jerry hurried toward camp for
+water. Blackened and bleeding as the man was, Jerry readily recognized
+him as Billings.
+
+He found Budge startled by the explosion and hesitating about leaving
+the camp unguarded to go to the rescue. Jerry's shouted command brought
+him galloping across the field with a pail of water, and the two boys
+made good speed on the way back. They found the man still unconscious
+but beginning to writhe about in pain.
+
+"I think his leg's broken," cried Tod, his face white with the strain
+of helpless waiting. "From the way he doubles up every little bit I
+think he must be hurt inside. The cuts that are bleeding don't seem to
+be very bad. Let me have the water."
+
+"Do you suppose we really ought to----" began Jerry, but paused, for
+Budge had answered his question effectually.
+
+Without a word he stooped over the moaning man. Outer clothes were
+taken off in a trice. Without jarring the man about, almost without
+moving him, garment by garment Budge gradually removed, replaced,
+examined, until every part of the man's anatomy had been looked over.
+Finally he straightened up, and for the first time the other two, who
+had stood helplessly by, saw how set and white the young Scout's face
+was.
+
+"Leg's broken all right," he said slowly. "So's his arm--and at least
+two ribs. Maybe more. Side's pretty badly torn and I think he's
+bleeding internally. We've got to get a doctor without a second's loss
+of time. Tod, you chase along like a good fellow and see how quick you
+can get to a telephone. Jerry, lend a hand here and we'll fix a splint
+for his leg--lucky it's fractured below the knee or we'd have a time. I
+don't know whether I can do anything for his ribs or not. Hustle up,
+Tod--what you standing there gaping for?"
+
+"Where--where'd you learn to do things like that?" blurted Tod, as he
+started away.
+
+"What? This?" in surprise. "Every Scout knows how to do simple things
+like this." And he turned back to his bandaging, for he had brought
+along the camp kit, with its gauze and cotton. Out came his big
+jackknife and he cut a thumb-sized willow wand, which he split and
+trimmed. In less than no time he had snapped the bone back into place
+and wound a professional looking bandage about the home-made splint. He
+was just about to turn his attention to the injured side when a great
+crackling in the brush caused both boys to turn.
+
+Three men came bounding across the open space, the foremost, Mr. Fulton.
+
+"Is he alive?" he exclaimed before he recognized the two boys.
+
+"Yes," answered Jerry, "but he's hurt pretty bad--inside, Budge says.
+Tod just----"
+
+"Tod! He here? Did he go after a doctor?"
+
+"Here he comes now. Did you get the doctor?" shouted Budge and Jerry
+together.
+
+"I got his office. It's our own Doctor Burgess. I got Mrs. Burgess and
+she says the doctor is out this way, and she'll get him by
+telephone--she can locate him better than I could. He ought to be here
+most any minute. I'm to watch for him along the road." Tod darted back
+toward the line of bushes that marked the highway.
+
+But it was a good half hour before a shout proclaimed the coming of the
+doctor, and in that time Budge had had a chance to show more evidences
+of his Scout training. After a hurried trip back to camp he fashioned
+bandages that held the broken ribs in place; he bound the scalp wound
+neatly, and stopped the flow of blood from an ugly scratch on the man's
+thigh. The others stood about, helping only as he directed. It was with
+a wholesome respect that they eyed him when the job was finished.
+
+But it took the doctor to sum their admiration up in one crisp
+"Bully--couldn't have done it better myself."
+
+He felt about gently and at last straightened up and remarked:
+
+"He's good enough to move, but not very far. Where's the nearest
+farmhouse?"
+
+"Half a mile, nearly," answered Tod.
+
+"I think he'd want to be taken--home," Mr. Fulton said hesitatingly.
+"If we could move him to the river bank I guess we could get him across
+all right--to Lost Island, you know. His daughter's there to nurse him."
+
+"Lost Island?" questioned the doctor, raising his eyebrows.
+"We-l-l--Son, can you make a stretcher?" turning to Budge.
+
+"Come on, Jerry. Back in a minute," called Budge over his shoulder to
+the doctor.
+
+Jerry followed to the Scout camp, where Budge caught up a pair of stout
+saplings that had been cut for tent poles but had not been needed.
+
+"Grab up a couple blankets," he directed, setting off again through the
+brush on a run. Jerry was well out of breath, having contrived to trip
+himself twice over the trailing blankets, when he finally rejoined the
+group. Budge reached out for the blankets and soon had a practical
+stretcher made, onto which the injured man was gently lifted. Mr.
+Fulton and one of the strangers took hold each of an end and they set
+out directly for the bank of Plum Run.
+
+For the first time Jerry had a chance to observe the two who had come
+with Tod's father. Heavy-set, rather stolid chaps they were, just
+beginning to show a paunch, and gray about the temples. They looked
+good-natured enough but gave the impression of being set in their ways,
+a judgment Jerry had no occasion to change later. They spoke with an
+odd sort of accent but were evidently used to conversing in English,
+although the first glance told that they were not Americans.
+
+They were plainly but expensively dressed; they looked like men of
+wealth rather than like business men. They had come to see Mr. Fulton's
+invention tried out, Jerry surmised, and, if it proved successful,
+perhaps to buy it. Those two men he had seen with the rifles were
+foreigners too, but of a different station in life and, Jerry was sure,
+belonging under a different flag.
+
+They were soon down to the water's edge, where was moored the launch
+Jerry had heard chugging over to the island not long before. Blankets
+were brought from the Scout camp and piled on the launch floor to make
+a comfortable bed, and poor Billings was carefully lifted from the
+stretcher and laid in the boat. The doctor and Mr. Fulton got in. The
+two men remained on the bank. Mr. Fulton looked at them questioningly,
+but their heavy faces gave no sign. So he asked:
+
+"You will wait for me, I trust! I don't want you to feel that
+this--accident----" he hesitated over the word--"makes the scheme a
+failure. There is something about it all that I can't understand, but a
+close examination may reveal----"
+
+"Ah, yes," answered the shorter of the two, "we will want to be just as
+sure of the failure as we insisted on being of the success. But you
+understand of course that we feel--ah--feel
+considerably--ah--disappointed in the trial flight. Oh, yes, we will
+wait for you. You will not be long?"
+
+"Just long enough for the doctor to find out what needs to be done.
+That slim youngster there is my son Tod. He knows almost as much about
+my--about _it_ as I do. Tod, you take care of Mr. Lewis and Mr. Harris
+till I come back. You'd best stay close to the _Skyrocket_; we don't
+want to take any chances, you know."
+
+All the time he had been talking he had been tinkering with the motor,
+which was having a little balky spell. At his last words Jerry spoke up
+hastily:
+
+"I'll chase over and keep an eye on the _Skyrocket_ while the rest of
+you take your time," and he hurried off, adding to himself:
+"_Skyrocket's_ a good name, 'cause it sure went up in a blaze of glory,
+and came down like the burnt stick." But he had other things in mind
+besides the mere watching of the wreck. At Mr. Fulton's hesitation over
+the word "accident" a picture had popped into his mind--two men
+carrying rifles and peering up over the tree-tops.
+
+He was destined to see them again, for as he crossed the road he heard
+a crackling in the underbrush of someone in hasty retreat. He blamed
+his thoughtlessness in whistling as he ran along; perhaps he might have
+caught them red-handed if he had been careful. As it was, he saw the
+two scurrying toward the south, whereas before they had been going
+northward.
+
+He did not go directly to the fallen aeroplane. Instead he picked his
+way carefully over the route the men had followed just after the
+explosion, stooping low and examining every spear of grass. His search
+was quickly rewarded. Just where the trampled turf showed that the two
+men had stood for some time he pounced upon a powder-blackened
+cartridge, bigger than any rifle shell he had ever seen before, even in
+his uncle's old Springfield. That was all, but it was enough to confirm
+his suspicions.
+
+He walked over to the charred and twisted remains of the _Skyrocket_,
+fighting down his strong impulse to pry into the thing and see if he
+could discover the secret of its astounding exploits before the crash
+came. It did not take more than the most fleeting glance to see, even
+with his limited knowledge of flying machines, that this one was very
+much different from the others. He was glad when the others came up to
+save him from yielding to his curiosity.
+
+Tod and the two men were deep in a discussion of Mr. Fulton's
+invention, but Jerry gained little by that, as most of the technical
+terms were so much Greek to him. Tod talked like a young mechanical
+genius--or a first-class parrot. The two men listened to his glowing
+praises in no little amusement, venturing a word now and then just to
+egg the boy on--though he needed none.
+
+Jerry waited for a chance to break in forcibly. "I say, Tod." he
+interrupted a wild explanation of the theory of the differential, "I
+expect I'd better chase along back home. I can just catch the
+interurban if I cut loose now. I--I want to hike back and spread the
+good news that you aren't decorating a watery grave."
+
+"I s'pose I'll have to stay here and help the Scouts mount guard over
+the relics here--when will you be back?"
+
+"To-morrow, maybe."
+
+"You can come back with dad. He'll probably come back to Watertown
+to-night, after he takes these two gentlemen to Chester in the launch.
+He'll probably want you to help him bring down some repairs."
+
+"You think he'll try to patch up the _Skyrocket?_" asked Jerry.
+"Doesn't look hardly worth while."
+
+"Worth while!" exploded Tod. "Is a half million dollars worth while?"
+Then he repented having spoken out so freely, reminded by the sharp
+glances of the two men. "Oh, Jerry's all right," he apologized. "Dad
+thinks as much of him as he does of me."
+
+"Well, I'll be off," said Jerry hurriedly. "Tell your father I'll see
+him either to-night or early in the morning--and that I've got
+something important to tell him."
+
+"About the _Skyrocket?_" demanded Tod eagerly, but Jerry only shook his
+head teasingly and began to hurry across the fields and woods to the
+interurban tracks.
+
+He was lucky, for hardly had he reached the road crossing before the
+familiar whistle sounded down the track. The motorman toot-tooted for
+him to get off the rails, as this was not a regular stop, but Jerry
+stood his ground and finally the man relented at the last minute and
+threw on the brakes.
+
+Watertown reached, Jerry could not hold his good news till he got home,
+but to every one he met he shouted the glad word that Tod Fulton had
+been found, alive and uninjured. The open disbelief with which his
+announcement was met gave him a lot of secret satisfaction. In fact, he
+could hardly restrain an occasional, "I told you so." His mother was
+the only one to whom he allowed himself to use that phrase, but then,
+he _had_ told her.
+
+He could hardly wait until Mr. Fulton should return from Chester, so
+eager was he to tell of his discovery there in the woods, but the slow
+day passed, and bedtime came without any sign of a light in the big
+house down the street. Reluctantly he finally went up to his room, but
+for a long time he sat with his nose flattened out on the window pane,
+watching patiently.
+
+At last he was rewarded. Out of the gloom of the Fulton house he saw a
+tiny point of light spring, followed by a flood of radiance across the
+lawn.
+
+"What are you doing, son?" came a deep masculine voice from the sitting
+room. "Thought you had gone to bed hours ago."
+
+"Mr. Fulton just came home, pa, and Tod told me to tell him----"
+
+"Guess it'll keep till morning, won't it? Besides, I expect Tod saw his
+father later than you did."
+
+"I'll be right back, dad----" this from just outside the kitchen door.
+"It's just awfully important----"
+
+The door banged to just then. Mr. Ring chuckled. He believed in letting
+boys alone.
+
+Jerry sped down the dark walk and jabbed vigorously at the special
+doorbell, hurried a little bit by the fact that as he came through the
+wide gate he had a feeling that the big gateposts did not cause all the
+shadow he passed through. "I'm getting nervous since I saw those two
+men to-day," he reminded himself. "I'll soon be afraid of my own
+shadow--but I hope it doesn't take to whispering too."
+
+Mr. Fulton came hurrying to the door, a big look of relief on his face
+when he saw who it was.
+
+"I couldn't wait till morning, Mr. Fulton. I just had to tell you I
+knew the _Skyrocket_ didn't fall of its own free will. I saw two men
+skulking in the woods. They both carried big rifles. I was sure I heard
+one of them go off just before the explosion came, and on the ground
+where they stood I found _this!_"
+
+He handed Mr. Fulton the rifle shell.
+
+"Good boy!" exclaimed the man, almost as excited as the youngster. "I'm
+beginning to see daylight. You keep all this under your hat, sonny, and
+come over as early in the morning as you can. We'll talk it over then,
+after I've had a chance to sleep on _this_." He indicated the
+cartridge. "Tell me, though--was one of the men a tall, lean chap with
+a sabre scar on his jaw----"
+
+"They were both heavy-set, scowly looking----" "Hm. That makes it all
+tangled again. Well, it may look clearer in the morning. Chase along,
+Jerry; I've got a busy night's work ahead of me. No," he added as Jerry
+began to speak, "you couldn't help me any. Not to-night. To-morrow you
+can."
+
+Jerry wanted to tell him about the whispering shadows, but hesitated
+because it sounded so foolish. His heart skipped a beat or two as he
+drew near the tall posts, but this time the gateway was as silent as
+the night about him.
+
+"Some little imaginer I am," he laughed to himself as he skipped back
+into the house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE GAME BEGINS
+
+
+The sun was not up earlier next morning than Jerry Ring. However, he
+waited till after breakfast before going over to rouse Mr. Fulton, Who
+would, he knew, sleep later after his strenuous night's work. He spent
+the time in an impatient arrangement and rearrangement of his fishing
+tackle, for he had a feeling in his bones that this visit to Lost
+Island might be more than a one-day affair.
+
+Mrs. Ring finally appeared on the scene, to tease him over his early
+rising. "I don't need to look for the fishing tackle when you get up
+ahead of me; I know it's there."
+
+But Jerry only grinned. His mother was a good pal, who never spoiled
+any of his fun without having a mighty good reason. Now he saw her
+setting about fixing up a substantial lunch, and he knew that there
+would be no coaxing necessary to gain her consent to his trip. He
+slipped up behind her unawares and kissed her smackingly on the back of
+the neck--perhaps that was one reason she was such a good pal.
+
+Breakfast over, Jerry caught up his pole and tackle box and hustled
+down the street. The Fulton house looked silent and deserted, he
+thought, as he reached up to push the secret button. The loud b-r-r-r
+echoed hollowly through the big house; Jerry sat down on the step to
+await the opening of the door, for he figured Mr. Fulton would be slow
+in waking up. But the minute he had allowed stretched into two, so he
+reached up and gave the button another vigorous dig. Still there was no
+response. Puzzled, he held the button down for fully a minute, the bell
+making enough racket to wake the dead. Vaguely alarmed, Jerry waited.
+No one came. Putting his mouth to the keyhole, he shouted: "Mr.
+Fulton--wake up--it's Jerry!"
+
+Then he put his ear against the door and listened for the footsteps he
+was sure would respond to his call. Silence profound. Again he shouted
+and listened. And then came a response that set him frantically tugging
+at the door--his name called, faintly, as if from a great distance.
+
+But the door did not yield. Jerry bethought himself of a lockless
+window off the back porch roof, which he and Tod had used more than
+once in time of need. He quickly shinned up the post and swung himself
+up by means of the tin gutter. In through the window, through the long
+hall and down the stairway he plunged, instinct taking him toward Mr.
+Fulton's bedroom-study. The door stood ajar. He pushed it open and
+looked in. A fearful sight met his eyes.
+
+On the bed, where he lay half undressed on top of the covers, was Mr.
+Fulton, blood streaming down his battered face. "What has happened?"
+gasped Jerry, seeing that the man's eyes were open. But there was no
+answer, and he saw that Mr. Fulton was too dazed to give any account of
+the events that had left him so befuddled. Jerry got water and bathed
+and dressed the deep cuts and bruises as best he could. The shock of
+the cold water restored the man's faculties in some measure and he
+finally managed a coherent statement.
+
+"It was your two friends, I guess. They broke in on me while I was
+working downstairs. One stood guard over me while the other ransacked
+the house. Then, when they couldn't find anything, they tried to force
+me to tell where my papers were hid. That was when I rebelled, and they
+pretty near did for me. I put up a pretty good scrap for a while, until
+one of them got a nasty twist on my arm. I guess the shoulder's
+dislocated; I can't move it. But I guess I left a few marks
+myself--that's why they were so rough. But all they got was the
+satisfaction of beating me up."
+
+"I wish I knew what it was all about," remarked Jerry. "I feel like a
+fellow at a moving picture show who came in about the middle of the
+reel. And there's nobody to tell me what happened before."
+
+"I guess there's no harm in telling _you_--now. You see, Jerry, the big
+outstanding feature of the war across the water has been the work done
+by two recent inventions, the submarine and the aeroplane. That set me
+thinking. The water isn't deep enough around here to do much
+experimenting with submarines, but there's dead oodles of air. So
+aeroplanes it had to be. Now, the aircraft have been a distinct
+disappointment, except as scouting helps, because the high speed of the
+aeroplanes makes accurate bomb-dropping almost impossible.
+
+"That was my starter. If I could perfect some means of stopping a
+machine in mid-flight, just long enough to drop a hundred pounds of
+destruction overboard with a ninety per cent chance of hitting the
+mark, I had it. Well, I got it. The _Skyrocket_ is the first aeroplane
+that can stop dead still--or was. I showed my model to the proper
+government officials, but even after I had cut my way through endless
+red tape I found only a cold ear and no welcome at all. I think the
+official I talked to had a pet invention of his own.
+
+"At any rate I was plumb disgusted. I finally took my idea to the
+business agent of a foreign power--and the reception I got almost took
+me off my feet. Meet me halfway! They pretty near hounded me to death
+till I finally consented to give them an option on the thing, But then
+my troubles began. The man who had made the deal with me had to step
+aside for a couple of old fogies who can't grasp anything they can't
+see or handle. I was about disgusted, when a friend introduced me to a
+friend of his, who hinted that there were other markets where the pay
+was better. The upshot of it was that I gave this man--as agent of
+course for _his_ government--a second option on the invention to hold
+good if no deal was made with the first party before August first, when
+option number one expires.
+
+"Mr. Lewis and Mr. Harris represent--well, the name of the country
+doesn't make any difference, but they hold the first option. They are
+cautious; they won't buy unless they can see a complete machine that
+works perfectly. The others are willing to buy the idea outright, just
+as it stands.
+
+"Of course I have no proof that the two men you saw--and they are the
+same I am sure as the two who burglarized me--have anything to do with
+my invention, but I'd venture a guess that their aim is to prevent my
+being able to demonstrate my machine before August first. What do you
+think?"
+
+"I think we'd better be getting busy."
+
+"There's nothing to do. Of course, I don't lose any money by it--I gain
+some. But I hate to sell my idea to a gang of cutthroats and thieves. I
+resent being black-handed into a thing like that. But with Billings
+laid out, the _Skyrocket_ wrecked and myself all binged up, there's
+little chance. I suppose I could get a lot of mechanics and turn out a
+new plane in time, but I don't know where I could get men I could
+trust. Like as not those two villains, or their employer, would manage
+to get at least one of their crew into the camp, and there'd be a real
+tragedy before we got through."
+
+"I tell you what," suggested Jerry. "If you feel strong enough to
+manage it, you come over to the house and let ma get you some
+breakfast. Then you'll feel a little more hopeful--ma's breakfasts
+always work that way," he said loyally. "There is bound to be a way out
+of this mix-up, and we'll find it or know the reason why."
+
+Over a savory pile of pancakes Mr. Fulton did grow more hopeful,
+especially when Jerry began to outline a scheme that had been growing
+in his mind. He began by asking questions.
+
+"Do you have to have such skilled mechanics to make those repairs?"
+
+"Well, no, not as long as I have skilled eyes to oversee the job. A
+good deal of it is just dub work. Most anybody could do it if he was
+told how. I could do the directing easy enough; but I'm not
+left-handed. However, I'll chase downtown and let Doc Burgess look me
+over; maybe my shoulder isn't as bad as it feels. But I'm afraid my
+right arm is out of the fight for at least a couple of weeks--and
+there's just two weeks between now and August first. I'd not be much
+good except as a boss, and a boss isn't much good without somebody to
+stand over. So there you are, right back where we started."
+
+"Not on your life! We're a mile ahead, and almost out of the woods. If
+you can boss dubs, and get anything out of them, why I know where you
+can get at least nine of them, and they're all to be
+trusted--absolutely."
+
+"Tod could help a lot, and I suppose you are one of the dubs, but where
+are the rest?"
+
+"Phil Fulton and his Boy Scouts----"
+
+"My nephew, you mean, from Chester? I suppose I could get him, but just
+what are these Boy Scouts?"
+
+"You've been so interested in your experiments that you don't know what
+the rest of the world is doing. Never heard of the Boy Scouts?" Jerry,
+secure in his own recent knowledge, was openly scornful.
+
+"Oh, yes, now that you remind me, I do remember of reading about some
+red-blooded boy organization--a little too vigorous for chaps like you
+and Tod, eh?" he teased.
+
+"You'll see what happens before the summer is ended. But that isn't
+helping _us_ out any, now. Phil's patrol is down there with Tod right
+this minute, and I bet you they know a thing or two about mechanics.
+That seems to be their specialty--knowing something about most
+everything. I'm mighty sure that if you tell us what to do, we can do
+it. We may not know a lot about the why of it, but we're strong on
+following instructions."
+
+"I'd be willing to take a chance on you fellows if it wasn't for the
+time. The _Skyrocket's_ a complete wreck. It took Billings a good many
+times two weeks to build her up in the first place----"
+
+"But you're not losing anything. The boys would be tickled to death to
+tackle it, and if we do lose out finally, why we've lost nothing but
+the time. It's like a big game----"
+
+"Yes," observed Mr. Fulton dryly. "A big game, with the handicaps all
+against us. If we win, we lose money, and we have the pleasant chance
+of getting knocked over the head most any night."
+
+"But that isn't the idea. A set of foreigners are trying to force some
+free-born Americans to do something we don't want to do. Are we going
+to let them?"
+
+"Not by a jugfull!" exclaimed Mr. Fulton, getting up painfully from his
+chair. "I'll go on down to the doctor--I expect I should have first
+thing, before I started to stiffen up. You go ahead to Lost Island, and
+see what can be done toward picking up the pieces and taking the
+_Skyrocket_ over to the island. If there are enough unbroken pieces we
+may have a chance. I'll be along by noon."
+
+He hobbled down the street and Jerry, after telling his mother what had
+happened, and getting reluctant consent to his extended absence,
+gathered together a few necessaries and made all speed for the
+interurban. There was no temptation to go to sleep this time, for his
+thoughts were racing madly ahead to the exciting plan to beat the
+schemers who had wrecked the _Skyrocket_. At the same time he was
+conscious of a disappointed feeling in his heart; why could it not have
+been the United States that had bought the invention? That would have
+made the fight really worth while. For, to tell the truth, the two
+unenthusiastic owners of the first option did not appeal to him much
+more than did the others.
+
+He found the whole Boy Scout crew gathered about the _Skyrocket_,
+having given up a perfectly wonderful fishing trip to guard the
+airship. Jerry quickly told the story of the morning's events to Phil,
+interrupted at every other sentence by the rest of the excited Scouts.
+The whole affair appealed to their imaginations, and when he came to
+the proposition he had made Mr. Fulton, there was no doubt of their
+backing up his offer.
+
+"Let's get busy!" shouted Dick Garrett, Assistant Patrol Leader. "We
+ought to be all ready to move across by the time Mr. Fulton gets here."
+
+And he started toward the wreck as if to tear the thing apart with his
+bare hands and carry it piecemeal to the banks of the Plum.
+
+"We won't get far, that way, Dick," observed Phil. "First of all we
+want a plan of action. And before that, we need to investigate, to see
+just how much damage has been done and how big the pieces are going to
+be that we'll have to carry."
+
+"But we don't know the first thing about how the contraption works,"
+objected Dick, somewhat to Jerry's satisfaction, for there was a little
+jealous thought in his heart that Phil would naturally try to take away
+from him the leadership in the plan. But Phil soon set his mind at rest.
+
+"We don't need to know how it works. All we need to know is whether we
+have to break it apart or if we can carry it down mostly in one piece.
+First, though, we've got to organize ourselves. Jerry's the boss of
+this gang, and as Patrol Leader I propose to be straw-boss. Anybody got
+any objections? No? Well, then, Boss Jerry, what's orders?"
+
+Much pleased, Jerry thought over plans. A workable one quickly came to
+him. "First of all we'll follow out your idea, Phil. Let's all get
+around it and see if we can lift it all together. Dave, you catch hold
+of that rod sticking out in front of you--it won't bite. Give him a
+hand, Budge. All right, everybody! Raise her easy--_so_."
+
+To their unbounded relief, nearly all the aeroplane rose together. One
+plane, it is true, gave one final c-c-r-rack! as the last whole rod on
+that side gave way; but the rest, twisted all out of shape and creaking
+and groaning, held together in one distorted mass.
+
+"All right," commanded Jerry; "let her down again--easy, now. That's
+the ticket. Now, Frank--the two Franks--you scout ahead and pick us out
+a clear trail to the water. You'll have to figure on a good twenty-foot
+clearance.
+
+"I guess we might as well finish the work you young Sandows started. I
+see that the right plane--or wing or whatever you call it--is just as
+good as gone. We'll cut her away and that'll give us a better carrying
+chance."
+
+"Why not take her all apart while we're at it, Jerry?" suggested Phil.
+"We'll have to anyway to get her over to the island."
+
+"Just leave it to me and we won't. I've got a little scheme. Who's got
+a heavy knife with a sharp big blade in it?"
+
+"That's part of our Scout equipment," answered Phil proudly. "Come on,
+Scouts, the boss says whack away the right wing."
+
+"Wing?" grunted Fred Nelson, hacking vainly at the tough wood. "Feels
+more like a drumstick to me!" Although the rods were splintered badly
+they did not yield readily to the knives. The two trail scouts returned
+long before the task of clearing away the plane was finished.
+
+"There's a fairly easy way if we go around that hazel thicket and make
+for the road about a hundred yards south of here, then come back along
+the road to that cut-over piece by the little creek, go in through
+there to the river trail, and along that, south again, till we come
+just about straight across from here," reported the two.
+
+"All right. Now one of you stay here and mount guard over the
+left-behinds, while the other goes ahead and shows us the way. How's
+the knife brigade coming on?"
+
+"Ready any time you are. What's next?"
+
+"Line up on each side the stick of the _Skyrocket_, and we'll pick her
+up and tote her to the beach. Back here, Dave, you and Barney; we need
+more around the motor--it weighs sixteen ounces to the pound. All set
+now? Right-o--pick her up. Lead ahead, Frank."
+
+The unwieldy load swayed and threatened to buckle, and more than once
+they had to set it down and find new holds, but the winding road picked
+out by Frank Ellery was followed without any serious mishap, until at
+last they stood on the high bank overlooking the wide stretch of sandy
+beach beyond which Plum Run rippled along in the sunshine.
+
+"Set her down--gently, now," ordered Jerry. "We'll let her rest here
+while we bring up our reinforcements--and the rest of our baggage.
+Phil, you take three Scouts and go back and bring in the wings. Leave
+Frank there until you've gathered up every last scrap. The rest of us
+will stay here to figure out some way of getting our plunder shipped
+safely across to Lost Island."
+
+"Go to it!" urged Phil mockingly. "You've got some job ahead of you.
+You figure out how a rowboat's going to float that load across--and let
+me know about it."
+
+"Yes," challenged a new voice, "you do that, and let me know about it
+too."
+
+Mr. Fulton had stepped unobserved through the border of trees and brush
+lining the river path.
+
+"Huh!" bragged Jerry. "If that was the hardest thing we had to do, we
+could use the _Skyrocket_ for a fireworks celebration to-night!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+PATCHING THE "SKYROCKET"
+
+
+But Jerry gave no explanation of the method he intended to use in
+transporting the unwieldy bulk across the narrow stretch of water.
+While Phil and his helpers disappeared, to bring up the rest of the
+aeroplane framework, he set his crew to work. The Scout camp, which was
+something like a hundred feet north, yielded a couple of trappers'
+axes; with these he soon had two stout saplings cut and trimmed to an
+even length of thirty feet. In the larger end of each he cut a deep
+notch, while to the smaller ends he nailed a good-sized block, the
+nails found in an emergency locker on the _Big Four,_ both it and the
+Boy Scout boat having been brought down and hauled up on the beach.
+
+The two boats were now laid side by side, twenty odd feet apart. Across
+the bows he laid the one sapling, across the sterns, the other, so that
+blocks and notches fitted down over the far edges of the boats. Mr.
+Fulton at once caught Jerry's idea and nodded his head approvingly.
+
+"All right," he said, "if the saplings will hold up the weight."
+
+"They don't need to," explained Jerry. "The _Skyrocket_ will reach over
+to the inner edges of the boats; I measured the distance with my eye.
+All the sticks do is to hold the two ships together."
+
+Phil's crew made two trips, on the second one bringing in Frank, who
+had wrapped up a weird collection of broken-off parts in a piece of
+varnish-stiffened silk torn from one of the planes.
+
+It did not take long to load the "body" of the _Skyrocket_ onto the
+saplings, the boats being still on shore. Then, all pushing steadily,
+the strange double craft was slowly forced across the sand and into the
+shallow shore-water of Plum Bun. Both boats settled dangerously near to
+the point of shipping water, so it was fortunate that the river was as
+calm as a millpond. At that, there was no hope that anyone could get in
+to row the boats.
+
+"Strip for action!" shouted Phil. "The boss says we're to swim across.
+Likewise, the last one in's a rotten egg."
+
+The splashing that ensued, as ten youngsters plunged in, almost in a
+body, nearly swamped the boats. After his first shout of alarm, Mr.
+Fulton waved his hand gayly and shouted:
+
+"Go to it, fellows. If the doctor didn't have my arm in a splint I'd be
+right with you."
+
+"All right, Scouts," assented Jerry, "but go mighty easy."
+
+They were all good swimmers, and with hardly a ripple they propelled
+the _Skyrocket_ slowly but steadily toward the shore of Lost Island. As
+they drew near they saw that they had spectators on both sides, for
+awaiting them was the girl Phil and Jerry had seen not so long before,
+but under different circumstances. Now she waved her hand encouragingly.
+
+"Oh, Liz-z-i-e!" shouted Phil, "where's the meat-axe?"
+
+For answer she caught up a pebble and sent it skimming in his
+direction, so close that Phil felt no shame in ducking, even if it did
+bring a great shout of laughter from his companions.
+
+But it was evident that "Lizzie" or Elizabeth Billings, as they soon
+came to call her, bore no ill will as she came down to the water's edge
+and awaited their coming. But the boys had no intention of making a
+landing so long as she was there, and Jerry was turning over in his
+mind just how to ask her to withdraw, when she apparently came to the
+conclusion that her presence was neither needed nor desired. At any
+rate, she left the beach abruptly and disappeared along the island
+path, only stopping to send a hearty peal of laughter in their
+direction.
+
+"Next time across I guess well wear our clothes," snickered Budge. "The
+young lady isn't used to welcoming savages to her lonely isle."
+
+"Try a little of your savage strength on that rod you're leaning on;
+nobody suggested that this affair was a lawn party," Phil reminded him.
+"Come on, fellows, let's get the old _Skyrocket_ up out of the damp."
+
+After some maneuvering they decided to unload from the water, as the
+beach shelved gradually. Within five minutes they were ready to make
+for the other shore, being compelled to swim the boats back again, as
+no one had remembered to throw in the oars.
+
+This time their load was hardly worth calling one so far as weight was
+concerned, and four of the boys piled in, to row the boats across,
+nearly capsizing the whole arrangement in their efforts to outspeed
+each other. This time they were fully dressed. One of the boys brought
+the two boats back, and now all the party crossed over, with the
+exception of poor Budge, who again was the one slated to stay behind
+and guard camp. Perhaps his disappointment was only half genuine,
+however, as he was none too keen about the heavy job of freighting the
+wreckage to the center of Lost Island.
+
+Tod was awaiting them when the last boatload beached on the island. It
+was easy to see that he had been greatly worried over the nonappearance
+of his father, and the bandages in which Mr. Fulton was literally
+swathed were not calculated to set his mind at ease. But Mr. Fulton's
+laughing version of the "accident," as he called it, soon relieved
+Tod's fears.
+
+They made short work of the trip to the long, low shed Phil and Jerry
+had seen on their exploration of the island, and which they now learned
+was a "hangar," a place specially fitted for taking care of the
+aeroplane. When the big sliding door was thrown open the boys saw that
+inside was a complete machine shop, with lathes, benches, drills and
+punches, the whole being operated by power from the gasoline engine in
+the corner.
+
+"The first thing to do," announced Mr. Fulton, "is to understand just
+what we're driving at. So I'll explain, as briefly as possible, just
+what this contraption of mine is. It's simply a device that enables me
+to reverse the propellers instantly at high speed. But that isn't all.
+The same lever throws in another set of propellers--lifters, we call
+them--just above where the pilot sits. They act as a kind of
+counterbalance. Now these planes, or wings, act in the same manner as
+the surfaces of a box kite, and aside from this device of mine, which
+has some details you won't need to know about, and a slight improvement
+I've made in the motor itself, the _Skyrocket_ isn't any different from
+the ordinary biplane, which you all know about, of course."
+
+"Of course we don't," blurted Jerry.
+
+"Of course we do," exclaimed Phil. "There isn't one of the Flying
+Eagles who hasn't made half a dozen model flying machines, and Barney
+here won a prize with a glider he made last spring in the manual
+training department of the high school. But we've all studied up about
+aeroplanes--that's why we call ourselves the _Flying_ Eagles."
+
+"Another reason," chuckled Mr. Fulton, "why there ought to be a bunch
+of Boy Scouts in Watertown. How about it, Jerry?"
+
+"Leave it to us. We'll challenge you Eagles to a tournament next
+summer, and you'd better brush up your scouting if you don't want to
+come off second best. Is that a go, Tod?"
+
+"That's two go's--one for each of us."
+
+"Well," suggested Mr. Fulton, "those of you who don't know the first
+principles of flying go into the second squad. You go to the
+office--that's the railed off space yonder--where you'll find plenty of
+books for your instruction. As soon as I get gang number one properly
+started I'll come back and give you a course of sprouts."
+
+Jerry and Dave and Frank went to the "office," from where they heard
+Mr. Fulton putting Tod in charge of one group, while he took the rest
+under his personal direction.
+
+"First off," he advised, "we'll take the _Skyrocket_ all apart. All the
+broken or strained parts we'll throw over here in this box. Anything
+that's too big we'll pile neatly on the floor. I want to know as soon
+as possible just what I'll have to get from the city. I can call on the
+blacksmith shop at Watertown for some of the hardest welding, and Job
+Western did most of the carpentering in the first place, so I know
+where to go for my trusses and girders. Examine every bolt and
+nut--nothing is to be used that shows the slightest strain or defect.
+
+"Phil, you and I will tackle the motor. If she isn't smashed, half the
+battle's won."
+
+Jerry sat back in the corner awhile, trying his best to get something
+definite out of the great array of books he found on a low shelf.
+Looking up and seeing Mr. Fulton's eyes on him, a twinkle in their
+depths, he threw down the latest collection of algebraic formulas and
+walked over.
+
+"I guess I know enough about aeroplanes to unscrew nuts and nip wires.
+You can explain the theory of it to us after working hours."
+
+So, with monkey wrench, pliers, hammers and screwdriver, he set about
+making himself as busy as any of the others--and as greasy.
+
+Dark came on them before they had made enough headway to be noticeable.
+The boys were glad to see the shadows creeping along, for, truth to
+tell, they were all thoroughly tired and not a little hungry. Not a
+bite had any of them eaten since breakfast.
+
+"Hope Budge has taken it upon himself to hash together a few eats,"
+sighed Phil. "I feel hungry enough to tackle my boots."
+
+"Eats?" exclaimed Mr. Fulton in surprise. "You don't mean to tell me
+that you're hungry?"
+
+"Oh, no, not hungry. Just plain starved," clamored the whole outfit.
+
+"Good. One of you go over and get your guard, and we'll see what those
+mysterious signals mean that Miss Elizabeth has been making this past
+half hour. She told me she'd cook us a dinner--if we could stand
+domestic science grub. This is the first time she ever kept real house.
+Let's wash up."
+
+The supper that Elizabeth brought, smoking hot, to the long, board-made
+table the boys quickly set up in the hangar, did not smack very much of
+inexperience. Even Budge declared it was well worth the trip across the
+river. The boys were inclined to linger over the meal, and Dave started
+in to tell a long story about a hunting trip in which he and his uncle
+had been the heroes of a bear adventure, but Mr. Fulton stopped him,
+even if the yawns of his listeners had not warned him to cut the tale
+short.
+
+"We're in for some good hard licks, men," said Mr. Fulton, "and it's
+going to mean early to bed and early to rise. That is," he amended, "if
+you want to go through with it."
+
+"We'll stick to the bitter end," they cried. "What's the program?"
+
+"Two weeks of the hardest kind of work. Breakfast at six; work at
+six-thirty, till twelve; half hour for lunch; work till seven; dinner;
+bed. That may not sound like much fun--it isn't."
+
+"Suits us," declared Phil for the rest. "Do we get a front seat at the
+circus when the man puts his head in the lion's mouth--and a ride on
+the elephant?" he joked, pointing at the dismembered _Skyrocket_.
+
+"I'll give you something better than that, just leave it to me,"
+promised Mr. Fulton. "Where you going to turn in?"
+
+"We go over to camp. You'll blow the factory whistle when it's time to
+get up, won't you?"
+
+"No," teased Elizabeth, coming in just then, "I'll drop a couple o'
+nice smooth pebbles into camp as a gentle reminder."
+
+It was a jolly party that crowded into the two boats and sang and
+shouted their way across Plum Run some ten minutes later, but within
+the half-hour the night was still, for tired muscles could not long
+resist the call of sleep.
+
+But bright and early next morning they were all astir long before the
+hour of six and the promised pebbles. A swim in Plum Bun put them in
+good trim for a hearty breakfast, and that in turn put them in shape
+for a hard day's work.
+
+And a hard day it turned out to be, for Mr. Fulton parceled out the
+work and kept everyone on the jump. Jerry and Tod were put at the
+motor, which had refused to respond to its owner's coaxing. They
+twisted, tightened, adjusted, tested, till their fingers were cramped
+and eyes and backs ached.
+
+Lunch gave a most welcome rest, but the half hour was all too short.
+Every one of them welcomed Mr. Fulton's decision when he said: "We've
+got along so nicely that I think I will call this a six-o'clock day.
+Wash up, everybody, and let's see what Elizabeth has for us."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+A WILD NIGHT
+
+
+That was merely the first of a whole week of days that seemed amazingly
+alike. Mr. Fulton tried to make the work as interesting as possible by
+letting them change off jobs as often as he could. But even then there
+was little that under ordinary circumstances would interest a regular
+out-of-doors boy. What helped was that the circumstances were not
+ordinary. It was all a big game to them--a fight against odds. Perhaps
+at times the screwing of greasy nuts on greasier bolts did not look
+much like a game, nor did the tedious pushing of a plane or twisting a
+brace and bit look like a fight, but every one of the boys sensed the
+tense something that was back of all Mr. Fulton's cheery hustle.
+
+They knew that his arm and shoulder hurt fearfully at times, but never
+a complaint did they hear from him, although he was all sympathy over
+the blood-blisters and cut hands of their own mishaps.
+
+But the second week made up for any lack of excitement that the boys
+had felt. The week was up Wednesday night. On Thursday morning Mr.
+Fulton met them with a white face that somehow showed the light of
+battle.
+
+"Guess you'd better arrange, Boss Jerry, to leave a couple of your
+Scouts on guard here nights," was all he said, but the boys felt that
+something disturbing had happened the night before. They questioned
+Elizabeth when she brought their lunch, which they ate from benches and
+boxes to save time, but she would give them no satisfaction. Tod seemed
+to know something, but he too was strangely mum.
+
+Jerry decided to remain over that night himself, and Phil, who had
+dropped a steel wrench across his toes and so had to remain for medical
+attention anyway, offered to share the watch with him. After Mr. Fulton
+had left them at about ten o'clock, they talked for awhile together,
+but finally they both began to yawn.
+
+"What'll it be?" asked Phil. "Two hours at a stretch, turn and turn
+about?"
+
+"Suits me," said Jerry. "Ill take the first trick."
+
+Phil's snoring something like fifty-nine seconds later was sufficient
+answer. All was still, and Jerry set about to await midnight, when he
+could hope for a brief snooze. After a while the silence began to wear
+on his nerves and in every night noise he fancied he heard steps. He
+sat still and watchful, hardly breathing at times, his finger poised
+above a push button that would ring a bell where Mr. Fulton lay
+stretched out on a pallet on the floor of the tiny cabin.
+
+But midnight came and nothing had happened. He roused Phil and then
+hunted himself out a soft spot in which to curl up. But he had grown so
+used to listening that now he found he could not stop. He tried
+counting, only it was fish he was catching instead of sheep going
+through the gap in the hedge. It was no use. At last he got up and
+stretched himself.
+
+"Guess I'll take a turn around in the cool air; I can't seem to sleep."
+
+"Gee," grumbled Phil, "and here _I_ can't seem to stay awake. Just as
+well have let me slumber on in peace."
+
+"Well, don't slumber while I'm gone, sleepyhead."
+
+Jerry walked across the open ground and after an undecided halt, broke
+through the bushes, heavy now with dew, and made for the shore. He
+stood for a long time on the bank, looking across to where the Scout
+camp lay quiet in the darkness, and then turned and was about to go
+back to Phil. But he paused; a steady creaking sound had broken the
+night. It was drawing slowly nearer. It was a rowboat.
+
+"Great conspirators, they are!" sniffed Jerry. "They might at least
+grease their oars." He heard the mumble of low voices, the _sush_ of a
+boat keel on the sand. Reaching down, he caught up a big handful of
+pebbles; with a hard overhand swing he let them fly.
+
+He heard a muttered "Ouch!" and then, after a moment's silence, once
+more the _creak-crook_ of oars. "Batter out" chuckled Jerry to himself
+as he scurried back to the hangar.
+
+After that he slept.
+
+The boys were all excitement when he told his story next morning, but
+that was nothing to compare with the exclamation that arose that same
+evening when they returned to camp to find that Dave, who had been left
+in charge, had disappeared, and that the place had been rifled and then
+torn all to pieces. Poor Dave was found not far off, tied to a tree.
+His story was somewhat lacking in detail. He had sat dozing over a book
+on aeronautics, when suddenly an earthquake came up and hit him over
+the head. That was all he knew till he woke up tied securely to a tree.
+
+"That settles it," declared Phil. "We ought to have done it in the
+first place, but the boss didn't think it was worth while."
+
+"What's that?" demanded Jerry, a bit sharply.
+
+"Well, what's the idea of our coming over here every night to sleep,
+when there's oodles of room there on Lost Island, where we're needed?
+Huh?"
+
+"What's that 'huh'? Boy Scout for sir?" cried Jerry hotly.
+
+Phil jumped to his feet, but to the surprise of Jerry, who had put up
+his fists, the Scout Leader brought his heels together with a click and
+his right hand went to the salute.
+
+"I stand convicted," he said simply. "You're the boss of this
+expedition. What's orders?"
+
+"Orders are to break camp--it's already pretty well broken--and take
+ship for Lost Island. Patrol Leader Fulton will take charge of the job
+while Boss Ring goes off and kicks himself quietly but firmly."
+
+They all laughed and good feeling was restored. The Scouts made short
+work of getting their traps together, even in the dark, and it was not
+many minutes before the first load was on the way to Lost Island.
+
+Jerry, Phil and Dave followed silently afterwards in the _Big Four_
+with the rest of the dunnage.
+
+"You think _they_ did it?" asked Dave of no one in particular. No one
+asked who _they_ were, nor did anyone answer, but each knew what the
+others were thinking.
+
+Mr. Fulton showed no surprise when told of their decision to camp
+henceforth on the island. "Good idea," was his only comment.
+
+They were not disturbed that night, and the next day passed without
+incident, save that Budge had the bad luck to break a truss he had been
+all day in making. "Good!" said Mr. Fulton. "That wood might have
+caused a serious accident if it had got into the _Skyrocket_." Budge,
+knowing his awkwardness and not the timber was to blame, felt grateful
+that he had been spared the reproof that would have been natural.
+
+They had been making good progress, in spite of their greenness; next
+day Mr. Fulton was planning to stretch the silk over the planes; it had
+already been given a preliminary coat of a kind of flexible varnish
+which was also a part of Mr. Fulton's invention. The carpenter had done
+his part handsomely. The launch had come down the day before with all
+of the heavier framework and trusses. A few rods were still to come
+from the blacksmith, and the rear elevator control was still awaited,
+but enough of the material had been mended and put in place to make the
+aeroplane look less like a wreck.
+
+Jerry and Mr. Fulton had finally managed to master the secret of the
+motor; that is, they finally made it run as smoothly as a top, but
+neither one was ever able to tell why it had not done so from the
+start. Oiled and polished, it stood on the bench till a final brace
+should be forthcoming.
+
+Camp had been pitched on the river side of the open ground, close
+beside the path. The second night of their new location Mr. Fulton and
+Elizabeth came over, Dick guarding the _Skyrocket_ and Tod remaining at
+the cabin to look after poor Billings, who, thanks to the doctor's
+daily visits and his daughter's patient nursing, was growing steadily
+stronger. Elizabeth brought along a guitar, which she played daintily,
+singing the choruses of all the popular songs the boys could ask for by
+name. After a little bashful hesitation, Dave chimed in, while the rest
+of the boys lay back and listened in undisguised delight.
+
+Into this peaceful scene burst Tod, frightened out of his wits. It was
+a full minute before he finally managed to gasp:
+
+"They've come--they've been here! I didn't see them!"
+
+"What in the world do you mean?" cried Mr. Fulton, shaking the excited
+boy with his left hand. "If you didn't see them, how do you----"
+
+"I didn't. But it's gone--the motor's gone.----"
+
+"What!" yelled the whole crew at once.
+
+"Dick and I sat outside the doorway, listening to you folks having a
+good time, and I went in to see what time it was--and there was the
+hole in the side of the hang--hang--the shed, and the motor had
+disappeared. At least that was all we noticed was gone."
+
+The last of this was delivered on the run, for all had set out for the
+machine shop, Mr. Fulton having promptly vetoed Phil's plan to put a
+circle of Scouts around the shore.
+
+Sure enough, a big gap showed in the side of the hangar, where two
+boards had been pried loose. "Lucky you were outside," grunted Phil
+disgustedly, "or they'd have pulled the whole place down over your
+head."
+
+"We've got to work fast," urged Mr. Fulton. "If they get away with the
+motor the stuff's all off. They're desperate men--I don't want any of
+you trying to tackle them. Scout ahead, and when you sight them, this
+is the signal:" He whistled the three short notes of the
+whippoor-will's call. "I've got my automatic, and I guess I can take
+care of them."
+
+As they hurried out into the night they spread out, working toward the
+east side of the island. Jerry found himself next to Phil, and after a
+few yards he moved over closer to the Scout Leader.
+
+"I say, Phil," he called guardedly; "you ready to listen to the wildest
+kind of a notion?"
+
+"Shoot," came the answer.
+
+"I don't believe our visitors came on the island for that motor at all.
+What good would it do them?"
+
+"It'd stop our launching the _Skyrocket_, for one thing."
+
+"But there are lots of lighter things that would do that. I don't trust
+those two ruffians--or their boss, either."
+
+"Well, who does?"
+
+"That's not the point. Mr. Fulton figures that they merely want to keep
+those others from buying his idea, so that when the first option
+expires, _they_ can. But if they could steal the plans in the
+meanwhile--get me?"
+
+"I get you. Then you think that stealing the motor was just a blind,
+and that they are----"
+
+"Getting us out of the road so they can take their time going through
+the workshop. If we're wrong, there's plenty of Scouts out trailing
+them--it'd be too late anyway, as it's only a few hundred feet to where
+they would have left their boat. What say we sneak back, see if there's
+a gun at the cabin, and take them by surprise when they start
+burglarizing the hangar?"
+
+Phil turned about by way of answer, and stealthily they approached the
+cabin. A light showed dim in the invalid's room, and through the
+curtained window they could see Elizabeth's long braids bent over a
+book. She merely looked up when they stopped at the window, and at once
+came out the back door to where they stood.
+
+"Is there a gun in the house?" questioned Phil.
+
+"A thirty-two Colts," she replied. "Want it?"
+
+"Quick as we can have it. _They_ are on the island."
+
+But she did not wait to hear the rest of his explanation. In a jiffy
+she had brought them an ugly looking revolver. "Be careful," she said
+as she handed it to Phil; "it shoots when you pull the trigger."
+
+The boys stole across the narrow space between the cabin and the
+hangar, and flattened themselves against the log walls as they wound
+their way toward the little "night door" near the other end. As they
+passed the big sliding doors they paused an instant and pressed their
+ears close against the planks, but all was still. Both had an instant
+of disappointment, for they were counting strongly on being able to
+crow over the rest.
+
+But when they came to the crack where the two doors came together, and
+looked within, their spirits jumped up till they hardly knew whether
+they were pleased or frightened. For just an instant a flash lamp had
+lighted up the darkness!
+
+Not quite so cautiously now, and a good deal faster, they made their
+way to the little door, guided by their sense of feeling, for the night
+was black as the pitch in the old saying. Jerry turned the catch firmly
+but slowly, and the door swung open without a creak. They stepped
+inside.
+
+They were now in a walled off ante-room used for small supplies. It
+opened into the main workshop by means of a narrow doorway. Standing in
+the middle of the tiny room they had a full view of the whole place.
+Like two monstrous fireflies a pair of dark figures darted about,
+ransacking Mr. Fulton's desk, tearing open the lockers and cupboards,
+searching out every likely nook and cranny where papers might be hid,
+their flashlights throwing dazzling light on each object of their
+suspicion.
+
+The two boys realized suddenly that the attention of the two had been
+focused in their direction, and Jerry jumped back behind the shelter of
+the door-edge just in time to escape the blinding rays of the
+flashlights. Phil evidently realized that their time of grace was over
+and there was nothing to be gained in further delay.
+
+With raised pistol he stepped out into the light.
+
+"Hands up!" he ordered gruffly. "Your little game is ended for
+to-night."
+
+But he had miscalculated somewhat. With startling suddenness darkness
+closed in about them, there was a quick rush across the littered floor,
+a thud as a heavy body dashed against the shed wall and crashed through
+the inch boards. Phil's gun roared out twice. As the two boys hastened
+to the gap in the wall they could hear the crash of the pair as they
+tore madly through the brush. Then all was still again.
+
+But not for long. Panting from the run, Mr. Fulton and three of the
+Scouts came chasing like mad through the darkness.
+
+"What's happened?" he cried when he saw it was Jerry and Phil. He
+listened as patiently as possible to their disconnected story, laughing
+grimly at the end. "Well, they'll swim it to shore, because we found
+their boat, and we sunk it under about a ton of stones."
+
+"Yes, but----" began Jerry, a premonition of further disaster in his
+mind and on the tip of his tongue, when from the east shore of Lost
+Island came wild cries of rage and chagrin. "Just what I thought!"
+exclaimed Jerry, by way of finishing out his sentence.
+
+"What's that?" demanded Mr. Fulton and Phil in a breath.
+
+But Jerry did not answer. There was no need. Down the path came an
+excited group, shouting:
+
+"Somebody's made off with the _Big Four!_"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+TRICKED AGAIN!
+
+
+Nothing else happened that night, but the boys had already had enough
+excitement to keep them awake long past their usual time for turning
+in. Some of them, indeed, were for starting out in pursuit of the _Big
+Four_, but Mr. Fulton promptly squelched the plan. There was little
+hope of finding the boat in the dense darkness.
+
+Next morning, before breakfast, Sid Walmaly and Dave were sent out on a
+scouting expedition, but they were not gone long. The _Big Four_ had
+been found, barely half a mile down, stranded on a sand-bar. A jagged
+hole in the side showed where the kidnappers had tried to scuttle the
+craft.
+
+After this event, the boys settled to their work in high spirits,
+undeterred by the fact that the motor was still missing, although Mr.
+Fulton felt sure it could not have been taken from the island. Phil
+ventured to advance a theory, which the boys were inclined to scout but
+which Mr. Fulton finally decided was at least worth the time and effort
+it would take to try it out.
+
+The men had had no time to carry the motor far, argued Phil. They had
+not gone to their boat, else they could hardly have made their way back
+to the hangar. They might of course have picked it up after they had
+been frightened away, but there had been hardly time for that. They had
+undoubtedly hidden it in the first place. The easiest place to hide the
+thing was in the river, and the closest trail to the river hit the
+extreme north end, where there was a steep-sided bay.
+
+"Who's the best swimmer in the crowd?" asked Mr. Fulton. "I don't dare
+take very many away from the job, but we've got to have the motor."
+
+"Jerry Ring's the best swimmer and diver in Watertown," announced Dave
+without hesitation. Mr. Fulton turned inquiringly to the Boy Scouts,
+but no one answered his questioning look until Phil at last spoke up
+quietly:
+
+"I'll go along if you need another one."
+
+"I do. You two take the Scout boat and bring her around the point. I'll
+go through the woods--be there in half an hour or so, when I get things
+running smoothly here. Be careful you don't find the gas-eater before I
+get there," he jested.
+
+But it was more than half an hour before Mr. Fulton came upon the two
+boys, stripped to their B-V-D's and at that instant resting on the
+bank. He came up just in time to hear Jerry say: "I used to think I
+could dive! Where'd you get onto it?"
+
+"Just Scout stuff," laughed Phil, modestly. "Every Scout in the
+patrol's got swimming and diving honors."
+
+"Good!" broke in Mr. Fulton. "Dive me up that motor and I'll get you a
+special honor as a substitute submarine."
+
+"We've worked down from the point, scraping bottom for twenty feet
+out--that's about as far as they could heave it, we figured. We've just
+got to the place where I'd have dived first-off if I had only one
+chance at it. Here goes for that leather medal," as Phil rose and
+poised himself for the plunge.
+
+It was as pretty a dive as one could want to see. He split the water
+with a clean slash, with hardly a bubble. A minute, another, and
+another passed, the two on shore watching the surface expectantly. They
+began to grow worried.
+
+"He's been beating me right along" confessed Jerry. "I can't come
+within a full minute of his ordinary dives. This one is a pippin--there
+he blows!"
+
+Spouting like a young whale, Phil broke the water and came ashore in
+long reaching strokes.
+
+"I tried my best!" he gasped as he pushed back his hair and rubbed the
+water from his eyes. "But I couldn't make it!"
+
+"Better luck next time," encouraged Mr. Fulton. "If you don't find her
+in two more dives like that, why she isn't in Plum Run, that's all!"
+
+"Find her? I was talking about _lifting_ her. Guess we'll have to get a
+rope on her--she's pretty well down in the mud."
+
+"Hurray!" shouted Jerry, giving his chum a sounding smack on the wet
+back. "Man the lifeboats! I chucked a rope in the bow of the boat."
+
+Mr. Fulton stood on the bank to mark the line, while the boys pushed
+the boat out to where Phil had come up, some twenty feet from shore.
+Jerry slipped over the side, one end of the rope in his hand. He did
+not remain long below.
+
+Clambering in at the stern, he shouted: "Hoist away--she's hooked!"
+
+And there was the motor, clogged with mud, to be sure, but undamaged.
+Mr. Fulton stepped into the boat and they rowed quickly back to the
+"dock." While the two boys put on their clothes over their wet
+underwear, he hurried back to the workshop to see how things were
+going. A few minutes later they followed with the motor.
+
+They felt, after this fortunate end of the adventure, that Mr. Fulton
+ought once more to be his own cheery self, but a look of gloom seemed
+to have settled down over his face, and his face looked haggard except
+when he was talking to one of the boys. Jerry finally decided to try to
+cheer him up.
+
+"Luck was sure breaking our way this morning, wasn't it?" he exclaimed
+cheerfully as the man came up to where Jerry sat, removing the mud from
+their prize.
+
+"Fine--fine," agreed Mr. Fulton, but without spirit.
+
+"What's the trouble?" demanded Jerry, sympathetically. "Anything else
+gone wrong?"
+
+"No--Oh, no."
+
+"You look like the ghost of Mike Clancy's goat. Remember how you always
+used to be telling Tod and me to grin hardest when we were getting
+licked worst?"
+
+"I sure ought to grin now, then."
+
+"We're not licked--not by a long shot!"
+
+"Yes we are--by about twenty-four hours. While you were gone I got word
+from the blacksmith. He says he can't possibly have that propeller
+shaft we found was snapped, welded before to-morrow afternoon late. Not
+if we're to have the other things he promised. He's lost his
+helper--quit him cold."
+
+"No!" exclaimed Jerry, his heart sinking at least two feet. Then, with
+sudden suspicion, "Do you suppose----"
+
+"I _know_ it," interrupted Mr. Fulton. "Our two friends are working
+every scheme they know. Blocking our blacksmithing was one of their
+easiest weapons. I'm only surprised they didn't do it before."
+
+"What can we do?"
+
+"Submit gracefully. But I just can't face those two doubters. First
+they were so enthusiastic and then so suspicious, that I can't be
+satisfied unless I convince them. But the stuff's all off--and I told
+Lewis and Harris to come out to-morrow afternoon at three-thirty to see
+the _Skyrocket_ make good all my claims!"
+
+"Can't you beg off and get a little more time?"
+
+"They'd be willing enough, I suppose. They don't seem to be in the
+slightest hurry. But there's that second option that begins operations
+after to-morrow. No, there's no loophole. All we can do is just peg
+ahead, and if the blacksmith comes through sooner than he expects, we
+may have a bare chance. I just sent Tod in to lend a hand."
+
+The blacksmith did do better than his word, for Tod came back late in
+the afternoon bearing the mended shaft and two smaller parts that were
+urgently needed.
+
+It took all the rest of that afternoon to lay the shaft in its
+ball-bearings and true it up. The propeller was still to be attached,
+but Mr. Fulton declared he would take no chances with that or with the
+final adjustments in the half light of the growing dusk.
+
+The boys were glad to knock off. They had been working at high tension
+for a long while now and were beginning to feel the strain. They were
+all frankly sleepy, too, after the excitement of the night before. As a
+final precaution against a repetition of the surprise attack they all
+slept in the hangar, finding the hard floor an unwelcome change from
+their leafy beds in camp.
+
+But the night passed quietly. With daybreak they were all astir, but
+the time before breakfast was spent in an invigorating swim in the
+Plum. Elizabeth had done herself proud in the way of pancakes this last
+morning, and the boys did full justice. It was almost eight o'clock
+before anyone returned to the hangar with any intention of working.
+After barely half an hour there, chiefly spent in polishing and
+tightening up nuts and draw-buckles, Mr. Fulton drove them all
+outdoors. "Chase off and play," he insisted. "Tod and I will give her
+the finishing touches; then you can all come back and help us push her
+out into the sunlight for the final inspection."
+
+But Elizabeth called them before Mr. Fulton was ready for their
+services. Heaping platters of beautifully browned perch testified both
+to her skill and that of the boys.
+
+"Lunch time already?" exclaimed Mr. Fulton in surprise. "Where's the
+morning gone to?" But he showed that if he hadn't noted the passage of
+time, his stomach had. As he watched the brown pile diminish under Mr.
+Fulton's vigorous attack, Phil threatened to go back to the river and
+start fishing again. "You oughtn't to be eating fish," he joked. "Birds
+are more your style. Better let me go out and shoot you a duck--or a
+sparrow; they're more in season."
+
+But Mr. Fulton was at last satisfied, as were all the boys. He
+sauntered back at once to the hangar. "Guess you chaps can give me a
+shoulder now, and we'll take her out to daylight. After that you keep
+out of the way till the show starts--about four o'clock. All but two of
+you, that is. There's a bearing to grind on the lathe, and a couple of
+sets of threads to recut."
+
+Tod could not have been driven away, so Jerry volunteered to be the
+other helper. The whole troop made easy work of running out the
+_Skyrocket_. After standing about admiringly a while, they all
+scattered, some of them, Jerry learned from their conversation, to try
+to teach Elizabeth how to catch bass. Jerry grinned to himself at this;
+he had heard Tod tell of the exploits of this slip of a girl, and no
+boy in camp could do more with a four-ounce bass rod than she could.
+
+Tod and Jerry went at once at their grinding, and by two o'clock all
+was in readiness. Every rod and strut and bolt and screw was in place,
+tight as a drum. The nickel and brass of the bearings flashed in the
+sun; the _Skyrocket_ looked fit as a fiddle. There was still a little
+gasoline in the gallon can that they had been using for testing the
+motor, and Tod let it gurgle into the gasoline tank that curved back on
+the framework just above the pilot's seat.
+
+"Try her out, dad," he urged.
+
+"I'll try the motor," agreed Mr. Fulton, "but I'm not going up until
+there's somebody around to watch her go through her paces. I've got my
+shoulder out of splints to-day, but I don't dare use it when there's
+any danger of strain. Think you're going to have the nerve to go up
+with me, son?"
+
+Jerry opened his eyes wide. This was the first he had heard of any such
+plan as _that_.
+
+"Think I'm going to let you go up alone, with a twisted wing that might
+give out?" demanded Tod scornfully. "Huh! I'll take her up alone if
+you'll let me."
+
+"I'll let you fill her up with gas, if you're so ambitious as all that.
+I see an automobile throwing up the dust on the last hill of the town
+road. I expect it's our friends. I'll let one of the boys row me across
+to meet them. Ask Billings, if you can't find the wrench to unscrew the
+cap of the gasoline reservoir."
+
+Billings proved to be sound asleep, napping off the effects of
+over-indulgence in browned perch, so the boys decided to await the
+return of Mr. Fulton, a search of the workshop having failed to reveal
+the wrench, and none of the Stillsons being big enough to take the big
+nut that capped the fifty-gallon tank sunk in the ground on the shady
+north side of the hangar. So they sat down beside it and waited for Mr.
+Fulton to come back with his visitors.
+
+They finally appeared, Lewis and Harris standing about and listening in
+unenthusiastic silence as Mr. Fulton glowingly explained the whyness of
+the various devices and improvements that made the _Skyrocket_ a real
+invention. They did not even venture an occasional question, although
+it was easy to see that they were impressed.
+
+"What are they made of? Wood?" exclaimed Jerry in fierce impatience.
+"Do you know--if it wasn't that we've simply got to beat out those
+other fellows, I'd almost like to see these two sleepies get left. I
+don't like them a little bit!"
+
+"Huh! Ask me if I do. They give me the willies. Never did like them,
+and ever since they acted so nasty about that accident I just plumb
+hate 'em. You'd think dad was trying to sandbag them or something like
+that. Just listen to them grouching around. I'd hate to be a woman and
+married to one of them and have dinner late."
+
+Jerry had seated himself on the top of the reservoir, the cap between
+his legs. He caught hold of it with his two hands. "It's too blamed bad
+your dad couldn't hitch up with Uncle Sam!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Yes, and if you believe what the papers say, we're going to need it,
+too. We might be mixed up in the big war any day."
+
+"Well, I expect we'd better not sit here gassing any longer. Tod, chase
+over and ask your dad where that wrench is--unless you've got a notion
+I can twist this thing off with my hands." He gave a playful tug as if
+to carry out his boast.
+
+"Say!" he cried, "what do you know about this!"
+
+"About what?" asked Tod lazily, a dozen feet away on the way to his
+father.
+
+"This," answered Jerry, giving the big cap a twirl with his forefinger.
+"Some careful of your gasoline you people are!" The cap was loose.
+
+"Something funny about that," declared Tod, coming back. "I saw
+Billings screw that on last time myself--with the wrench."
+
+There _was_ something decidedly funny about it, as it turned out. At
+Tod's alarmed call Mr. Fulton came on the run. "It's been tampered
+with," was his immediate decision. "Screw on the pump, boys, and force
+up a gallon or so, If there isn't water in that gas we're the luckiest
+folks alive. I might have known those crooks had a final shot in their
+locker!"
+
+"What's the idea?" asked Mr. Harris, with the first interest he had
+showed.
+
+"Somebody's trying to block the game, that's what!" sputtered Mr.
+Fulton. "Here, boys, take the canfull in and put it in the shop engine.
+If she can take it I guess we're worrying for nothing."
+
+For a moment or so it looked as if that were the case; the engine
+chugged away in its usual steady manner. But once the gasoline was gone
+that the boys had been unable to empty out of its tank, it began to
+kick a little. Within another minute it had stopped dead.
+
+"Show's over," announced Mr. Fulton grimly. "It's way after three
+o'clock now, and we can't hope to get a new supply from town this side
+of dark. If we just hadn't sent your auto back!"
+
+"You mean to tell us that you cannot go up--that there will be no
+flight!" cried Mr. Lewis, making up for all his previous lack of
+excitement in one burst of protest. "But, man--it's the last day of the
+option."
+
+"It's worse than that," countered Mr. Fulton. "It's the day before the
+beginning of a new option, held by the people who watered that gas--and
+at least a dozen other sneaking tricks."
+
+"But you told us that you would--why, you guaranteed us a trial flight."
+
+"I said you didn't have to buy till you'd seen it work, yes. I'm in
+your hands, gentlemen. After midnight to-night I'm in other hands--and
+you're going to lose the chance of your lifetime to secure for your
+government something that may prove the deciding factor in that
+terrific war you're carrying on over there. I'm sure you don't doubt my
+good faith."
+
+"Faith! It's performances we want."
+
+"Give me gas and I'll give you a demonstration that can't help but
+convince you. I can't use my motor on water. I was willing to risk my
+neck--and my boy's--by going up and trying this contraption with my
+left hand--but I can't accomplish the impossible."
+
+"But surely you don't expect us to buy a pig in a poke----"
+
+"This is no pig--it's a hawk. Will you do this? Will you buy the
+machine and the idea on approval? I'm pledged. If it isn't sold by
+night to you, to-morrow those other people will come with cash in
+hand----"
+
+"Harris, you know," drawled Mr. Lewis, "I half believe the fellow's
+trying to flimflam us, you know. How do we know?"
+
+"How do you know!" Mr. Fulton's eyes flashed fire. "I'll have you know
+I'm a man of honor."
+
+"Sure--sure," agreed Mr. Harris conciliatingly. "But that's not the
+idea, old chap. We don't buy this for ourselves, you understand. We're
+merely agents, and responsible to our chief. What'd we say if we came
+back with a bag of pot metal for our money?"
+
+"What will you say to your conscience when your enemy drops destruction
+onto your brave countrymen in the trenches from the Fulton Aeroplane?
+That's what you'd better be asking yourselves."
+
+"But we've got to be cautious."
+
+"Cautious! If you saw the goose that laid the golden egg getting off
+the nest, you'd hold the egg up to a candle to see if it was fresh!"
+
+"Well, now, Mr. Fulton----" began Mr. Harris, when he was interrupted
+by Jerry, who had been holding himself in as long as was humanly
+possible.
+
+"Don't let's waste any more time talking, Mr. Fulton. Tod and I have
+got a scheme that will pull us out on top yet--even if it does mean
+helping these doubters against their will!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE BIG PLAY
+
+
+"Look here, Mr. Fulton," began Jerry, almost stammering in his
+eagerness. "It wouldn't be any trick at all to get over to the
+interurban tracks in time to catch the four o'clock northbound. That
+gets to Watertown at four twenty-five--say half-past. We ought to be
+able to get the gas and rout out a machine to haul it in inside another
+half hour. That's five o'clock. Then an hour certainly would see us
+back here, with a good hour and more of daylight left."
+
+"I've gone over all that in my mind a dozen times. But I've also spent
+a little time figuring what these men would be doing in the meanwhile.
+There's just one place in Watertown that keeps any quantity of
+gasoline--the rest buy of him. And he'd die of fright if he should be
+caught with more than a hundred gallons at one time."
+
+"But we don't need more than five!" exploded Tod.
+
+"Sure, son, sure. But suppose somebody just ahead of you made it his
+business to buy the hundred--how about that?"
+
+"But there's a chance," objected Jerry, returning to the attack. "We
+might be able to get away without their seeing us."
+
+"Don't worry; they're watching every move we make."
+
+"Then I've got another scheme. See if you can pick it full of holes
+too." There was more than a touch of impatience in Jerry's voice.
+"They're watching this side, that's sure; and they know we're bound to
+figure on either Watertown or Chester. We'll fool them. I'll swim
+across to the other side, reach a telephone, get my dad, who's at
+Corliss these days on business. There's a Standard Oil tank at Corliss.
+Dad'll start the gas out inside of twenty minutes----"
+
+"Corliss is a good two hours' trip by auto, my boy. It would take at
+least half an hour to get the message through, and another to get the
+gas here from the road. That means at least seven o'clock, and it would
+be dark before we were ready to go up."
+
+"All right," agreed Jerry, refusing to give up. "Suppose it does get
+dark: there's such a thing as flying by night, isn't there? All we've
+got to do is to build a dozen flaring bonfires to see by----"
+
+"Now you're talking!" exclaimed Mr. Fulton with sudden enthusiasm.
+"You've hit it. Not brush--that would smoke us out. But there are ten
+or a dozen open air torches here like those they use at street shows,
+and there's not enough water in the gasoline to hurt it for that
+purpose. Moreover, we can switch our engine onto that dynamo in the
+shop, and we'll string incandescent lights all through the trees; we've
+got plenty of them. There's at least a mile of bare copper wire about
+the place--what you two standing with your mouths wide open for?
+Thought you were going to get that gas! Where in thunder are all those
+boys?"
+
+"Here they come--tired of waiting out there in the sun, I guess. So
+long, dad; I'm going with Jerry."
+
+"You are _not_. You're going to be chief electrician. If Jerry can't
+put through his part of the job alone he doesn't deserve credit for
+having thought of the whole scheme."
+
+The first part of Jerry's task proved easy enough. It took him well
+over the half hour Mr. Fulton had predicted, to find a farmhouse with a
+telephone, and Central seemed an unusually long time in ringing through
+to the office Jerry's father had been making his headquarters for the
+past weeks. Then it developed that Mr. Ring was out at a conference of
+business men. Jerry took the telephone number the girl gave him, and
+repeated it to Central, who again took her time in giving the
+connection. Jerry was about ready to drop with nervousness before he
+finally heard his father's gruff voice at the other end of the line.
+
+The words simply tumbled over themselves as Jerry told his story;
+fortunately, Mr. Ring was shrewd enough to guess the half that Jerry
+jumbled in his eagerness.
+
+"Where are you--so I can call you back?" was Mr. Ring's only reply.
+
+Fifteen minutes later the telephone rang. Jerry answered, to hear: "Ten
+gallons of gasoline, double strained, left here five minutes ago on a
+fast delivery truck. It ought to reach the road opposite Lost Island
+inside of two hours. You be there to tell them what to do. Good luck,
+Jerry--I'm going back to that conference. This skylark may cost me a
+five hundred dollar profit."
+
+"It isn't a skylark--it's a sky_rocket_, and Mr. Fulton will pay you
+double over!" But it was into a dead transmitter he shouted it, for Mr.
+Ring had not waited.
+
+Jerry did not wait long either, but raced across fields and through
+woods to the river road. He found a shady spot, which he established as
+his headquarters, but he was too restless to wait there long. They
+seemed a mighty long two hours. The sun sank lower and lower; Jerry
+heard a bell ringing far off, calling the farm hands to supper--he was
+getting hungry himself. Shadows began to darken, the clouds flared up
+in a sudden crimson, first low down on the horizon, then high up in the
+sky. The sun dropped out of sight behind the trees.
+
+Away down the road sounded a faint drumming noise that grew nearer and
+louder until around the bend whirred a dust-raising black monster that
+came to a halt a few feet away from the boy who had sprung out,
+shouting and waving his arms. "You waiting for gasoline?" a grouchy
+voice demanded. "Are you Mr. Ring?"
+
+"I sure am!"
+
+"Well, come on back here and help h'ist it out. We're in a hurry to get
+back to town--why it's only a kid!" as Jerry came up. "Who's going to
+help you handle it? It's in two five-gallon cans."
+
+"I guess I can manage it all right. I've got some friends waiting down
+on the river bank."
+
+"All right; it's your funeral. There you are, sealed, signed and
+delivered." The motor roared out, then settled to a steady hum; the man
+backed and turned and soon was swallowed up in the dust and the growing
+dark.
+
+Jerry braced his shoulders for the stiff carry to the Plum, a
+five-gallon can in each hand. He was willing to stop now and then for a
+breathing spell, but at last he set the load down on the narrow fringe
+of sandy beach. Cupping his hands about his mouth, he sent a lusty
+shout ringing across the water; he was too weary to swim it, and there
+did not seem to be much need for further concealment. There was an
+instant answer, showing that the boys had been awaiting his signal. The
+splash of oars told him that the boat was on the way, and he felt
+suddenly glad that he could now think of a few minutes' rest.
+
+It proved to be Dave and Tod and Phil in the Scout boat. They made
+quick work of loading in the two cans, and then they all piled in, Dave
+and Tod at the oars. They were perhaps halfway across when Jerry asked,
+anxiously, it seemed:
+
+"Can't you get any more speed out of her, fellows?"
+
+"What's eating you? It's as dark now as it's going to get," answered
+Dave, at the same time letting his oars float idly up against the side
+of the boat.
+
+"I'm worried, that's why," exclaimed Jerry, slipping over and pushing
+Dave out of his seat. "Do you hear anything?"
+
+They all listened, Tod holding his oars out of the water. Sure enough,
+a purring, deeply muffled sound came faintly across the water. It was
+unmistakably a motorboat.
+
+"Some camper," suggested Dave.
+
+"It sounds more like--trouble," declared Phil, a significant accent on
+the word. "The enemy, I bet, and trying to cut us off."
+
+"Well, we've got a big start on them. They're a long way off" again
+Dave volunteered.
+
+"You mean you're a long way off. They've got her tuned down--she isn't
+over two hundred yards away and coming like blue blazes. They mean
+mischief--they aren't showing a single light. What's our plan?"
+
+"Keep cool," advised Jerry. "They'll probably try to bump us. We'll row
+along easy-like, with a big burst of speed at the last second. Before
+they can turn and come at us again, we can make shore. Steady now!"
+
+The drone of the motor was almost upon them. The dusk lay heavy over
+the water; they could see nothing. Louder and louder sounded the
+explosions, but now they had slowed up. A dim shape showed through the
+gloom.
+
+"All set!" came the low command from Jerry, just as the boat, muffler
+cut out, the engine at top speed, and volleying revolutions and
+deafening explosions, seemed to leap through the water.
+
+"Down hard!" cried Jerry, lunging with his oars. Tod grunted as he put
+all his strength into the pull. The Scout boat seemed to lift itself
+bodily out of the water as it plunged forward--only inches to spare as
+a slim hull slipped by the stern.
+
+"Yah!" yelled Phil, jumping to his feet and shaking his fist wildly.
+"You're beat!"
+
+The Scout boat hit shore just then, and Phil, caught off his guard,
+took a header and landed astride one of the gasoline cans. "I wonder if
+that was a torpedo," he grunted as he picked himself up.
+
+"No," chuckled Tod. "Just a reminder not to crow while your head is
+still on the block."
+
+The boys wasted no time in getting the gasoline out of the boat and up
+through the bushes, sending a lusty shout ahead of them to tell the
+waiting islanders that they were coming.
+
+"Over on the far side of the clearing," directed Tod, who was carrying
+one side of a can with Jerry. "We hauled the _Skyrocket_ over there as
+the ground is more level and free from stumps."
+
+They found the whole crew waiting about the airship, their eager faces
+lighted up by the flaring flames of one of the gasoline torches.
+"Hooray for Jerry, the Gasoline Scout!" they shouted as the boys
+dropped their loads at the first convenient spot.
+
+"Bully for you!" exclaimed Mr. Fulton, coming over and clapping Jerry
+on the shoulder. "Have any trouble?"
+
+"You better guess we did," broke in Dave. "A motorboat tried its best
+to run us down."
+
+Mr. Fulton looked grave as he listened to the tale of their adventure.
+As Dave finished a spirited account of their narrow escape, the man
+turned to Tod with:
+
+"Guess you'd better look after filling the tank, son, while I chase
+over to the house and get my goggles and my harness," referring to a
+leather brace the doctor had brought him a few days before to use until
+his shoulder grew stronger. Unfortunately, the thing was not properly
+made and it held the arm too stiffly, so Mr. Fulton used it only when
+he absolutely had to.
+
+The boys all wanted to have a hand in this final operation and
+consequently it took twice as long as was necessary to fill the tank.
+Enough was spilled, as Tod said, to run the _Skyrocket_ ten miles. In
+the meanwhile, one of the boys took the small can and went the rounds
+and filled all the torches with gasoline, while another came close
+behind him and started them going.
+
+Tod finally left the rest to finish the job of filling the _Skyrocket_,
+and disappeared in the direction of the workshop. Within five minutes
+the boys heard the steady chugging of "Old Faithful" as they had named
+the shop motor. An instant later the whole field was suddenly lighted
+up as the twenty incandescent lights flashed up brightly.
+
+"_Some_ illumination!" cried Jerry, delightedly, turning to Mr. Harris,
+who happened to be nearest him.
+
+"Yes," agreed the man coldly, "but it's all on the ground."
+
+"Sure. Because there's nothing up in the air to see. Wait till the old
+_Skyrocket_ shoots up," and Jerry walked over to where the boys were
+standing. "Old grouch," he said to himself. "You'd think he didn't want
+to see us win out."
+
+Tod came hurrying back from the hangar. "Where's dad?" he asked.
+
+"Hasn't got back yet."
+
+"That's funny. I saw him leave the cabin as I went in to start up the
+dynamo. He called something to me about hurrying so as not to give
+those fellows any time to think up new tricks. Who's that over there
+with Mr. Harris?"
+
+"Phil, I guess. Your dad hasn't come out yet or we'd have seen
+him--it's light as day."
+
+"What's the cause of the delay now?" came from behind them. Mr. Lewis
+had approached the group unobserved.
+
+"Waiting for my father," answered Tod. "Guess he's having a hard time
+with his harness. I'd have stopped for him only I thought he'd have
+come back ahead of me. I'll chase over now and see if he needs any help
+with his straps."
+
+Tod ambled off across the torch-lighted open. It was a weird sight,
+that flaring line of torches, the paler gleam of the electric lights
+hung high in the trees, the animated faces of the excited boys, the two
+stolid men, and the adventurous looking _Skyrocket_, its engines
+throbbing, the tiny searchlight ahead of the pilot's seat sending a
+fan-shaped road of white light into the trees. It was like a scene on
+the stage--just before the grand climax.
+
+Tod furnished the climax for this scene. Hardly had he disappeared
+within the door of the cabin, before he came running out again,
+shouting at the top of his voice:
+
+"Fellows! Quick!"
+
+There was a note in his cry that went through the boys like an electric
+shock. It was anger and fear and a dozen other emotions at once. They
+fairly flew across the hundred yards or so to the cabin, crowding in
+till the main room was filled.
+
+"What is it, Tod?" cried Phil, as his cousin flung open the door to the
+tiny lean-to bedroom. Tod's face was pasty white and his eyes bulged
+out.
+
+"They've--_got_ dad! I'm afraid he's--killed!"
+
+"No!" exclaimed Jerry, pushing past.
+
+But the first look made him believe the worst. On the floor, toppled
+over in the chair to which he had been bound, lay Mr. Fulton, his
+injured shoulder twisted way out of place, his distorted face the color
+of old ivory. Gagged and tightly laced to the bed lay Mr. Billings, his
+features working in wildest rage.
+
+But Mr. Fulton was not dead. He came to under the deft handling of Phil
+and his fellow Scouts, but it was Mr. Billings who told the story of
+the attack.
+
+While Mr. Fulton had been struggling with the strap that held his
+shoulder-brace in place, two burly men had burst through the doorway
+and quickly overpowered him, handicapped as he was by his useless arm.
+They had bound him to the chair, and then, after gagging and tying
+Billings, had calmly proceeded to ransack the room, one holding a
+pistol at Fulton's head while the other searched.
+
+Papers scattered about on the floor, wrecked furniture and broken
+boxes, testified to the thoroughness of the hunt. But they had found
+nothing until they had thought to go through the bed on which Billings
+lay. Under the mattress was a portfolio packed with blueprints and
+plans. That was when Mr. Fulton had fallen; he had tried to free
+himself from his bonds and get at the two, no matter how hopeless the
+fight.
+
+As Mr. Billings finished the story, Mr. Fulton opened his eyes weakly.
+"Tod----" he gasped--"where's Tod?"
+
+"Here, dad," coming close beside him where he lay on a big pile of
+blankets.
+
+"Look quick and see if they found the little flat book--you know."
+
+Tod rummaged hastily through the disordered mess of drawings littered
+over the bed and floor. "Not here," he confessed finally.
+
+The man gave a deep groan. "We're done for, then. It had the contract
+folded up in it. And it had the combination to the safe at the house,
+and there was the list of the specifications Mr. Billings made out for
+me when we packed away the first draft of the _Skyrocket_."
+
+"What difference does that make, if they've already got the
+blueprints'?" asked Jerry.
+
+"Oh-h!" cried Mr. Fulton, despair in his voice, "don't you see? The
+aeroplane itself was made here; Billings did all the work on it. But
+Tod and I did all the experimental work at home. All the data
+concerning the invention is back there in the safe!"
+
+"And they're already halfway there in their motorboat!" groaned Phil.
+
+But Mr. Fulton made no answer. His eyes were closed; he had fainted
+dead away.
+
+Tod jumped up from where he had been kneeling beside his father. "Look
+after him, Phil," he directed briskly. "Jerry, you come with me. Those
+villains have got the contract and they will soon have dad's secret--it
+means that we're cleaned out. There's only one thing to do in a tight
+place like this, and you and I are going to do it--if you've got the
+nerve!"
+
+"I've got it," responded Jerry quickly. "What is it?"
+
+"We're going after those crooks in the _Skyrocket_!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+A CLOSE FINISH
+
+
+The incidents of the next hour or so would be hard to picture from the
+standpoint of Jerry's emotions. As they half ran over to where the
+_Skyrocket_ stood ready, snorting like an impatient racehorse, his
+heart was filled with a kind of frightened determination. Once he was
+strapped into his seat, his pulses stopped galloping so fast, but as
+Tod began an endless fumbling with levers, plainly as nervous as his
+chum, Jerry's nerve oozed out at his fingertips; he might have climbed
+out had it not been for the straps--and the two men, who now came
+forward and insisted that the boys give up their hair-brained plan.
+Jerry would have been killed by inches rather than give in to them.
+
+A sudden terrifying lurch, a dizzy parting company with solid earth
+that almost made Jerry part company with his stomach. He yelled, but it
+might easily have been through excitement rather than fear. He hoped
+the two and Tod would think so. He dared not look down--all he could do
+was grip the rod before him with a death-defying clutch. Faster and
+faster, higher and higher they mounted, the air whistling by them like
+mad.
+
+"Can't you slow her down a little?" he yelled in Tod's ear, but Tod
+gave no answer. He could hardly have heard above the roar of the motor
+and the sickening whine of the propellers--not to intention a steady
+drumming of taut wires and tightly stretched silk. "Can't you tune her
+down?" Jerry yelled, louder this time, "and get her level?"
+
+"Can't!" shouted Tod. "I've forgotten which handle to pull, even if I
+knew which way to pull it!"
+
+He tried first one and then another, but although they lurched
+dangerously, first this way and then that, they kept mounting into the
+sky. Finally there was but one chance left--Tod cautiously drew the
+lever toward him, then with an "Ah!" heard above all the noise, brought
+it all the way. The _Skyrocket_ quivered, dropped to an even keel, and
+then turned her nose earthward. But Tod was ready for that. Halfway
+back he shoved, the lever and once more the _Skyrocket_ rode level.
+
+They had left Lost Island far behind, but in which direction they could
+not be sure. A long streak of flame to the left told them that a
+railroad lay there, and it could be none other than the Belt Line that
+ran into Watertown. Through a rift in the clouds a cluster of stars
+showed briefly--the Big Dipper. "See!" shouted Tod. "We're headed
+north, all right."
+
+They were going much slower now, and the noise was not so deafening;
+they could talk without splitting their throats. Dimly they made out
+Plum Run directly beneath them, while a haze of lights indicated
+Watertown, the goal. Even as they watched it seemed to be drawing
+nearer.
+
+"Were you scared?" asked Tod.
+
+"Stiff," confessed Jerry. "You?"
+
+"Should say. Bet my hair's turned white. Where'll we land?"
+
+"Where can you?"
+
+"Don't know. River, most likely. Say, we're lucky we're alive. I
+thought I knew how to run it until we got off the ground. Then I found
+I'd forgotten more than I ever learned."
+
+"Did you ever run it before?"
+
+"With dad watching, yes. Once, that is. But I've faked running it a
+hundred times there in the hangar. Suppose we could come down in your
+back lot? It's level--and big enough, maybe."
+
+"We might hit a horse. Dad's got Daisy in there nights."
+
+"We'll have to chance it, I guess. But you hold on good and tight,
+because I'll probably pull the wrong strings at the last minute. Where
+are we now?"
+
+"That's the mill yonder, I think. We want to swing west a little now.
+Suppose _they_ are at the house by now?"
+
+"Most likely. They had a good start. Shall we get your dad?"
+
+"Uhuh. And several others--with guns. Better have old Bignold." Mr.
+Bignold was the only night policeman in Watertown. "There's the city
+limits, that switch-tower on the Belt Line. Hadn't we better come down
+a bit. I don't like the idea of falling so far."
+
+Tod obediently let the _Skyrocket_ slide down a few hundred feet, till
+they were just above the tree-tops. They could see that their arrival
+was causing a commotion below. They could even hear the cries of alarm.
+"Bet they think we're a comet," chuckled Tod.
+
+Now he began to circle a bit, for it was hard to identify houses and
+streets in the dark and from this unfamiliar view. At last Jerry gave a
+shout of joy. "There's our house--and I bet that's dad coming out to
+see what's up. Hey, dad!" he yelled, but the running figure below made
+no answer.
+
+"Well, here goes for Daisy!" chuckled Tod, at the same time pointing
+the _Skyrocket_ earthward so sharply that it made Jerry gasp. Down,
+down they shot, the black underneath seeming to be rushing up to crush
+them. At the last Tod managed to lessen their slant, but even then they
+struck the ground with a force that almost overturned the machine. Over
+the rough ground the landing wheels jolted, but slower and slower. A
+final disrupting jar, and they stopped dead.
+
+Not so the object they had struck. With a wild squeal of fear poor
+Daisy struggled to her feet and went tearing out of sight and hearing
+at better speed than she had shown for years.
+
+"That'll bring dad on the jump," declared Jerry, climbing painfully
+from his seat. "Say, to-morrow I'm going to take a good look at this
+rod I've been holding to; I'll bet it shows fingermarks."
+
+"What's the meaning of that rumpus out there?" demanded a stern voice.
+
+"Oh, dad--we need you the worst way."
+
+"That you, Jerry? What in tarnation you up to anyhow?"
+
+"We're not up any longer--we're glad to get back to earth."
+
+"Eh?" said Mr. Ring, perplexed, as he came up to them. "What ye driving
+at? What was that thing that just sailed over the house? Did you see
+it? I heard Daisy going on out here like the devil before day--or was
+it you two who were pestering her? What's that contraption you're
+sitting on?"
+
+"The same thing that just sailed over, dad," laughed Jerry, then,
+unable to hold in any longer: "We came from Lost Island in Mr. Fulton's
+aeroplane that he's just invented, and there's robbers in Mr. Fulton's
+house, and we want you to get a gun and Mr. Bignold and all the
+neighbors, and go down and get them!" Jerry stopped, but only because
+he was out of breath.
+
+"Get them? Who are _them?_ And what in thunder you two doing in an
+aero----" "Oh, dad," Jerry almost screamed in his fear that delay might
+make them too late, "don't stop to ask questions. Let's get to the
+house and Tod can be telephoning while I tell you what it's all about."
+He caught hold of his father's arm to hurry him along. "There are two
+men breaking into Mr. Fulton's safe this minute, most likely, and we
+mustn't let them get away."
+
+"Well, what in thunder's Fulton got in a safe that any robber would
+want?" grumbled Mr. Ring, but stepping briskly along nevertheless. "Two
+men, you say? Guess Bignold and I can handle them. I've got my old
+horse-pistol--if it doesn't blow out backwards."
+
+They had reached the house, and Tod went in to telephone, while Mr.
+Ring went upstairs to get his revolver, which, instead of being a horse
+pistol, was an automatic of the latest type. Jerry stopped him for a
+moment at the stair door. "I'm going ahead. I'll be just outside the
+gate over yonder, keeping an eye on the place to see they don't get
+away." He was gone before Mr. Ring could object.
+
+But the house was dark and silent. Not a sign of unwelcome visitors was
+to be seen. All the windows were tightly closed; both doors were shut.
+Jerry felt uncomfortable. Suppose there was no one there--had been no
+one there? The two men would roast him and Tod unmercifully. He heard a
+light step on the walk behind him and turned, expecting his father. His
+words of greeting died in his throat.
+
+Two men, looking unbelievably big and threatening in the darkness, were
+almost upon him. He tried to shout for help. His tongue seemed
+paralyzed and his throat refused to give out a sound. Jerry was scared
+stiff. He knew at once that these two were the men they had come to
+capture, and somehow he had a feeling that they knew _that_, too.
+
+Not a word was said. Jerry had backed up against the gatepost, his
+fists doubled up at his sides.
+
+The two pressed in close against him. He felt powerful hands reaching
+out to crush the life out of him, but still he made no outcry. Then one
+of them spoke.
+
+"You came in the airship?"
+
+Jerry started, for the man's English was perfect, though heavy and
+foreign sounding in an unexplainable way. He repeated his question when
+the boy did not answer at once.
+
+"Yes--yes," stammered Jerry, hoping that perhaps he might gain time.
+
+"You came alone?" insinuated the same speaker as before, but now an
+ominous note of threat in his voice.
+
+Jerry was in a quandary. He realized that if he told them that he had
+come alone, that they would kill him. On the other hand, if he told
+them the truth, they would get away.
+
+"Answer!" commanded the man, catching Jerry by the throat and shaking
+him till the back of Jerry's eyeballs seemed to be red, searing flames.
+A sudden rage came over him, numbed as he was by the pressure on his
+windpipe. With a mighty wrench he freed himself. Kicking out with all
+his might, he caught the farther man full in the pit of the stomach. He
+fell, all doubled up. But the man who had choked Jerry, laughed
+scornfully as lie caught the boy's arms and gave the one a twist that
+almost tore it from its socket.
+
+"More spirit than brains," he laughed derisively. "I'll break you in
+two over my knee if you make another break like that."
+
+"You'll kindly put up your hands in the meanwhile," suggested a
+pleasant but firm voice which Jerry could hardly recognize as that of
+his father. "I think I'll take a little hand in this game myself."
+
+"Look out, dad--there's one on the ground!" warned Jerry. "I kicked him
+in the stomach."
+
+"Pleasant way to treat visitors. Why didn't you invite them into the
+house, son? Oblige me, gentlemen." He waved his automatic in the
+general direction of the Fulton front porch. "I'd ask you to my own
+house, but, you know, womenfolks----"
+
+Jerry stepped out of the way. His assailant passed him and turned to go
+in the gateway. Then something happened, just what, Jerry was not sure.
+Afterwards it developed that he had been picked up bodily and hurled
+full at his father. Mr. Ring went down like a tenpin when the ball hits
+dead-center. As he fell, his finger pressed the trigger and six roaring
+shots flashed into the air. When father and son regained their feet,
+they had a last dim glimpse of two forms in rapid flight. Then the
+darkness swallowed them up.
+
+"We bungled it," said Mr. Ring, ruefully feeling of a certain soft spot
+in his body where Jerry's weight had landed.
+
+"And here come Tod--and Chief Bignold, just a minute too late."
+
+"Hi there, Mr. Ring," called the burly constable. "What is it--a riot?"
+
+"A massacre, but all the victims escaped. Two blooming foreigners
+trying to steal an airship out of Mr. Fulton's safe down there in his
+cellar--wasn't that what you said, boys?"
+
+The boys tried to explain, but both men seemed to insist on taking the
+whole affair as a joke, though they talked it over seriously enough
+when the youngsters were out of hearing. Tod opened the door and let
+them inside the house, but did not go in himself, motioning to Jerry to
+stay beside him.
+
+"You two youngsters chase along over to the house and tell Mrs. Ring to
+give you your nursing bottles and put you to bed."
+
+"Huh," snorted Tod, "we daren't leave the _Skyrocket_ unguarded."
+
+"Why it's Fulton's kid," exclaimed Bignold, for the first time
+recognizing him. "Say, you tell your dad that he's been stirring up
+this town till it's wild with excitement. Three telegrams this day, not
+to mention a special delivery letter that they've been hunting all over
+the country for him with. And on top of that, an important little man
+with brass buttons and shoulder-straps, struttin' all over the place
+and askin' everybody if he's Mr. Fulton, the inventor. When'd your dad
+get to be an inventor?"
+
+"Well, he had to be born sometime," answered Tod dryly.
+
+"Eh? Well, you'd best tell that same little busy-bee where your father
+can be found. And the telegrams; don't forget them."
+
+"I won't," answered Tod, starting off toward town on the run. "Watch
+the old _Skyrocket_ till I get back, will you, Jerry?" and he was gone.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Two stiff, sleepy, disgusted boys sat up in their nest of blankets and
+looked at each other through the framework of the _Skyrocket_ next
+morning at something like seven o'clock.
+
+"And you said you wouldn't go to sleep," each said slowly and
+accusingly to the other, then both grinned sheepishly.
+
+"Oh, well, the machine's still here, so why grouch over a couple hours'
+sleep?" Tod defended. "Huh--I suppose not. But I'll bet dad had a good
+laugh over us when he came down here about breakfast time. What's that
+pinned to your blanket?"
+
+Tod crawled out of his nest and pulled loose the scrap of paper that
+had been pinned in the region of his big toe.
+
+"It's a note. Want to hear it? It says, 'Mother Ring tells me pancakes
+are ready for you when you've finished your guard-mount. Signed--A
+Burglar.' That's sure one on us."
+
+It was scant justice that the two did to breakfast that morning. Four
+telegrams were burning holes in Tod's pockets; he could hardly keep
+from tearing them open, so curious was he to know their contents. Even
+the newspaper that Mrs. King brought in and laid beside their plates,
+could not entirely hold their attention, in spite of the startling news
+headlined on the front page. "BREAK WITH GERMANY--U. S. on Verge of
+Being Drawn Into World War."
+
+"We'll take it with us and read it after we get there. No--not another
+cake, Mrs. Ring. Excuse us, please--we've got to go."
+
+"It seems a shame----" began Tod, when they were once more outside,
+then asked abruptly: "Willing to take a licking, Jerry?"
+
+"And go back on the _Skyrocket_? Did you think we were going any other
+way? And leave the machine here for anybody to come along and study
+out--or steal? Not much! I'll take a dozen lickings!"
+
+But he didn't. When the _Skyrocket_ finally circled about Lost Island
+and settled down over the narrow landing field as easily as a homing
+pigeon, to come to a stop with hardly a jar, it was bringing news to
+Mr. Fulton that was bound to soften the heart of any dad.
+
+Tod's father was out in front of the little cabin, a bit pale and
+shaky, but cheerful. His face lighted up wonderfully when he saw the
+_Skyrocket_ aground and the two boys safe. He tried to rise to greet
+them, but had to be satisfied to wave his hand instead. The two boys
+came running over to where he sat, eager to tell their story.
+
+"What's happened?" Mr. Fulton asked excitedly before they could begin.
+He was pointing at the newspaper Jerry had been waving wildly as they
+raced across the open.
+
+"War--maybe--with Germany! But we've more important news than that--for
+us just now, at least. Telegrams--four of them--look. And an officer's
+been looking for you----"
+
+"Police?" asked Mr. Fulton gravely.
+
+"Army!" exploded Tod and Jerry together. "Bet it's about the----"
+
+They paused, for Mr. Fulton was not listening to them. He had torn one
+of the telegraph envelopes open and was reading the brief message, his
+face going first red and then white.
+
+"What's all the excitement?" demanded a slow voice in which there was a
+trace of resentment. It was Mr. Harris, who had appeared in the doorway
+of the cabin.
+
+"Nothing much," answered Mr. Fulton. "Nothing at all. In fact, the
+excitement's all over. I'm certainly very glad that you balked
+yesterday on buying that 'pig in a poke,' my dear baronet. It seems,"
+flapping the opened telegram against his other hand, "it seems, my very
+dear sir, that the American government, being confronted by a situation
+which bears more than a promise of war, has offered to buy the ideas
+which are embodied in the _Skyrocket_."
+
+"Hooray for Uncle Sammy!" shouted Tod.
+
+All the boys had come crowding around, slapping Tod and Jerry wildly on
+the back and cheering till their throats were hoarse. It was fully five
+minutes before anyone could make himself heard above the din. Finally
+Mr. Fulton raised his hand for a chance to be heard, and after one
+rousing shout of "Three cheers for the Scouts of the Air!" the noisy
+crew quieted down.
+
+"Phil asked me one day if I'd promise you all a front seat at the
+circus and a ride on the elephant. Well, I'm going to keep my word,
+I've got a piece of timber about forty miles up the river from here,
+and on it there's a log cabin and one of the greatest little old
+fishing lakes in the country. I'm going to take you all up there for a
+month of the best sport you ever had."
+
+"Bully for you, dad!" shouted Tod, then turned to Jerry with:
+
+"And while we're there, what say we learn the first principles of Boy
+Scouting, so that when we get back to Watertown we can organize a
+patrol of----"
+
+"The Boy Scouts of the Air!" finished Dave and Frank and Jerry in a
+breath.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Boy Scouts of the Air on Lost
+Island, by Gordon Stuart
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Boy Scouts of the Air on Lost Island
+by Gordon Stuart
+
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+Title: The Boy Scouts of the Air on Lost Island
+
+Author: Gordon Stuart
+
+Release Date: November, 2004 [EBook #6827]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on January 28, 2003]
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+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOST ISLAND ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Richard Prairie, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+The Boy Scouts of the Air on Lost Island
+
+BY GORDON STUART
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+I OVER THE DAM
+
+II A HOPELESS SEARCH
+
+III LOST ISLAND
+
+IV MORE THRILLS
+
+V A STARTLING CLEW
+
+VI TO THE RESCUE!
+
+VII THE FLYING EAGLE SCOUTS
+
+VIII A VOYAGE IN THE DARK
+
+IX A RESCUE THAT FAILED
+
+X "TO-MORROW IS THE DAY!"
+
+XI A MID-AIR MIRACLE
+
+XII AN EMPTY RIFLE SHELL
+
+XIII THE GAME BEGINS
+
+XIV PATCHING THE "SKYROCKET"
+
+XV A WILD NIGHT
+
+XVI TRICKED AGAIN!
+
+XVII THE BIG PLAY
+
+XVIII A CLOSE FINISH
+
+
+
+
+The Boy Scouts of the Air on Lost Island
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+OVER THE DAM
+
+
+Three boys stood impatiently kicking the dew off the tall grass in
+Ring's back yard, only pausing from their scanning of the beclouded,
+dawn-hinting sky to peer through the lightening dusk toward the
+clump of cedars that hid the Fulton house.
+
+"He's not up yet, or there'd be a light showing," grumbled the
+short, stocky one of the three.
+
+"Humph--it's so late now he wouldn't be needing a light. Tod never
+failed us yet, Frank, and he told me last night that he'd be right
+on deck."
+
+"We'd ought to have gone down right off, Jerry, when we saw he
+wasn't here. Frank and I would have stopped off for him, only we was
+so sure he'd be the first one here--especially when you two were
+elected to dig the worms."
+
+"We dug the worms last night--a lard pail half full--down back of
+his cabbage patch. And while we were sitting on the porch along
+comes his father--you know how absent-minded he is--and reaches down
+into the bucket and says, 'Guess I'll help myself to some of your
+berries, boys.'"
+
+"Bet you that's why Tod isn't here, then."
+
+"Why, Frank Ellery, seventh son of a seventh son? Coming so early in
+the morning, your short-circuit brain shockers make us ordinary
+folks dizzy. This double-action----"
+
+"Double-action nothing, Dave Thomas! I heard Mr. Fulton tell Tod
+yesterday he was to pick four quarts of blackberries and take them
+over to your Aunt Jen. Tod forgot, and so his dad wouldn't let him
+go fishing, that's all."
+
+"Sun's up," announced Jerry Ring.
+
+"So's Tod!" exclaimed Dave Thomas, who had climbed to the first high
+limbs of a near-by elm and now slid suddenly down into the midst of
+the piled-up fishing paraphernalia. "I just saw him coming in from
+the berry patch--here he comes now."
+
+A lanky, good-natured looking sixteen-year-old boy, in loose-fitting
+overalls and pale blue shirt open at the throat, came loping down
+the path.
+
+"Gee, fellows," he panted, "I expect you're cussing mad--but I _had_
+to pick those berries before I went, and it took me so long to
+grouch out the green ones after it got light."
+
+"I see you brought the very greenest one of all along," observed
+Dave dryly.
+
+"Oh, you here, too, little one?" as if seeing him for the first
+time. "I didn't know kindergarten was closed for the day. I make one
+guess who tipped over the bait can."
+
+"Ask Frank," suggested Dave with pretended weariness; "he's got
+second sight."
+
+"Don't need second sight to see that worm crawling up your pants
+leg. We going to stand here all day! I move we get a hike on down to
+the boat. Maybe we can hitch on behind Steve Porter's launch--he's
+going up past Dead Tree Point--and that'll save us the long pull
+through the slough."
+
+The boys picked up the great load of luggage, which was not so big
+when divided among four boys, and hustled out of the Ring yard and
+down the dusty road. They were four of a size; that is, Tod Fulton
+was tall and somewhat flattened out, while Frank Ellery was more or
+less all in a bunch, as Jerry said, who was himself sturdily put
+together. Dave Thomas was neither as tall as Tod nor as stocky as
+Frank; He looked undersized, in fact. But his "red hair and readier
+tongue," his friends declared, more than made up for any lack of
+size. At any rate, no one ever offered a second time to carry the
+heaviest end of the load.
+
+Now, as they walked along through the back streets of Watertown,
+rightly named as it was in the midst of lakes, creeks and rivers,
+they began a discussion that never grew old with them. Tod began it.
+
+"We've got plenty of worms, for once."
+
+"Good!" cried Dave. "I've thought of a dandy scheme, but it'd take a
+pile of bait."
+
+"What's that?" asked Jerry, suspecting mischief.
+
+"You know, you can stretch out a worm to about three inches. Tie
+about a hundred together--allow an inch apiece for the knot--that
+would make two hundred inches, or say seventeen feet. Put the back
+end of the line about a foot up on the bank and the other end out in
+the water. Along comes a carp--the only fish that eats _worms_--and
+starts eating. He gets so excited following up his links of worm-
+weenies, that he doesn't notice he's up on shore, when suddenly Tod
+Fulton, mighty fisherman, grabs him by the tail and flips him----"
+
+"Yes--where does he flip him?" Tod had dropped his share of the
+luggage and now had Dave by the back of the neck.
+
+"Back into the water and makes him eat another string of worms as
+punishment for being a carp."
+
+"You with your old dead minnows!" exclaimed Tod, giving Dave a push
+that sent him staggering. "Last time we went, all you caught was a
+dogfish and one starved bullhead. There's more real fish that'll
+bite on worms than on any other bait. I've taken trout and even
+black bass. Early in the morning I can land pickerel and croppies
+where a minnow or a frog could sleep on the end of a six pounder's
+nose. Don't tell me."
+
+"Yes," put in Jerry, "and I can sit right between the two of you and
+with my number two Skinner and a frog or a bacon rind pull 'em out
+while you fellows go to sleep between nibbles."
+
+"Bully!" exclaimed Frank. "Every time we go home after a trip, you
+hang a sign on your back: 'Fish for Sale,' with both s's turned
+backwards. I'm too modest to mention the name of the boy who caught
+the largest black bass ever hooked in Plum Run, but I can tell you
+the kind of fly the old boy took, all the same."
+
+"Testimony's all in," laughed Tod, good-humoredly. "And here we are
+at the dock of the 'Big Four.'"
+
+"Yes, and there goes Porter up around the bend. We row our boat to-
+day. We ought to get up a show or something and raise enough money
+to buy a motor."
+
+"I move we change our plans and leave Round Lake for another trip."
+It was lazy Frank who made the proposal.
+
+"What difference does it make to you? You never row anyway. Plum
+Run's too high for anything but still fishing----"
+
+"I saw Hunky Doran coming back from Parry's Dam day before yesterday
+and he had a dandy string."
+
+"Sure. He always does. Bet you he dopes his bait," declared Tod.
+
+"Well, you spit on the worm yourself. The dam isn't half as far as
+Dead Tree, and, besides, we can always walk across to Grass Lake.
+Jerry votes for the dam, don't you, Jerry?"
+
+But Jerry only shrugged his shoulders. Frank and Tod always
+disagreed on fishing places, largely because their styles of angling
+were different and consequently a good place for one was the poorest
+place in the world for the other. So Jerry, who usually was the
+peacemaker, said nothing but unlocked the padlock which secured the
+boat, tossed the key-ring to Dave with, "Open the boathouse and get
+two pair of oars. Tod, take a squint at the sun--five-thirty, isn't
+it? An hour and a half to the Dead Tree, and an hour more to Round
+Lake. What kind of fish can you take in old Roundy after eight
+o'clock?"
+
+"Oh, I knew we were going to the dam, all right. I give in. But if
+I've got to go where I don't want to, I'm going to have the boat to
+fish from."
+
+"As if you didn't always have it!" snorted Frank. "The only one who
+fishes in one place all day, but he's got to have the boat--and
+forgets himself and walks right off it the minute he gets a real
+bite. Huh!"
+
+Tod paid no attention to this insult. He and Jerry settled in their
+places at the oars, with Frank at the stern for ballast, and Dave up
+ahead to watch the channel, for Plum Run, unbelievably deep in
+places, had a trick of shallowing at unlikely spots. More than once
+had the _Big Four_ had her paint scraped off by a jagged shelf of
+rock or shoal.
+
+They were all in their places, the luggage stowed away, and Frank
+was ready to push away from the dock, when he raised his hand and
+said instead: "Understand me, boys, I'm the last one in the world to
+kick--you know me. But there's one request I have to make of you
+before the push of my fingers cuts us off from the last trace of
+civilization."
+
+"'Sw'at?" cried the three.
+
+"When we have embarked upon this perilous voyage, let no mournful
+note swell out upon the breeze, to frighten beasts and men--and
+fish--into believing that Dave Thomas is once more _trying_ to
+sing!"
+
+Immediately a mournful yowling began in the bow of the boat, growing
+louder as they drew away from shore. And then, amid the laughter of
+his three companions, Dave ended his wail and instead broke into a
+lively boating song, the others joining in at the chorus. For Dave's
+singing was a source of pride to his friends.
+
+So, Dave singing lustily and Tod and Jerry tugging at the oars in
+time with the music, they swung away from the dock and out in the
+center channel of Plum Run, a good hundred yards from shore. Once in
+the current, they swung straight ahead down stream. Before long the
+last house of Watertown, where people were fast beginning to stir,
+had faded from view. They passed safely through the ripples of the
+shoals above Barren Island, a great place for channel cat when the
+water was lower. Through the West Branch they steered, holding close
+to the island shore, for while the current was slower, at least the
+water was deeper and safer.
+
+A mile-long stretch of smooth rowing lay ahead of them now, after
+which they entered Goose Slough, narrow and twisty, with half-hidden
+snags, and sudden whirlpools. More than one fishing party had been
+capsized in its treacherous quarter mile of boiling length. Then
+came a so-called lake, Old Grass, with the real Grass Lake barely
+visible through its circle of trees. A crystal-clear creek was its
+outlet to Plum Run, a thousand gleaming sunfish and tiny bass
+flashing through its purling rapids or sulking in deep, dark pools.
+There was good fishing in Grass Lake, but waist-high marsh grass,
+saw-edged, barred the way for nearly half a mile.
+
+But just ahead of them Plum Run had widened out once more to real
+river size, its waters penned back by concrete, rock and timber dam,
+with Parry's Mill on the east bank.
+
+"Land me on the other side, above the big cottonwood," decided
+Frank. "There's a weedy little bight up there where I predict a two-
+pound bass in twenty minutes."
+
+"I'll try the stretch just below, working toward the dam, I guess.
+How about you, Jerry!" asked Dave.
+
+"I'll stay with the boat awhile, I reckon. Where away, boatman?"
+
+"Dam," grunted Tod.
+
+"Not swearing, I take it?" inquired Jerry.
+
+"No--fishing there."
+
+Dave and Frank were dropped out at the cottonwood, where they were
+soon exchanging much sage advice concerning likely spots and proper
+bait. Jerry and Tod chuckled as they rowed away. Tod himself was
+keen on still fishing with worms or grubs; he liked to sit and dream
+while the bait did the work; but his quarreling with Dave and Frank
+was mostly make-believe. Jerry, the best fisherman of the four,
+believed, as he said, in "making the bait fit the fish's mouth." His
+tackle-box held every kind of hook and lure; his steel rod and
+multiple reel were the best Timkin's Sporting Goods Store in town
+could furnish; they had cost him a whole summer's savings.
+
+Tod rather laughed at Jerry's equipment. His own cheap brass reel
+and jointed cane pole, with heavy linen line, was only an excuse.
+Throw-lines with a half dozen hooks were his favorites, and a big
+catfish his highest aim. As soon as the boat hit the dam he began
+getting out his lines. Jerry jumped lightly over the bow.
+
+"Shall I tie you up?" he called over his shoulder.
+
+"Never mind, Jerry. I think I'll work in toward the shore a bit
+first, and, anyway, she can't drift upstream." So Jerry went on his
+way out toward the middle of the dam.
+
+It was really a monstrous affair, that dam. The old part was built
+on and from solid rock, being really a jutting out of a lime stone
+cliff which had stood high and dry before the water had been dammed
+up by the heavy timber cribs cutting across the original stream.
+Concrete abutments secured these timbers and linked the walls of
+stone with the huge gates opening into the millrace that fed the
+water to the ponderous undershot millwheel. Just now the gates were
+open and the water rushed through with deafening force. Jerry made
+his way across the stonework section, having a hard time in the
+water-worn crevices, slimed over with recent overflows, for when the
+millgates were closed, Plum Run thundered over this part of the dam
+in a spectacular waterfall.
+
+He had hardly reached the flat concrete before he noticed that the
+roar from the millrace had ceased; the gates had been closed. All
+the better; this part of the river was shallow; when the water rose,
+big fish would be coming in to scour over the fresh feeding grounds.
+So he moved a little nearer shore and quickly trimmed his lines. He
+heard a hail from the bank as he made his first cast. It was from
+Dave.
+
+"Mind if I come out and try my luck beside you?"
+
+"Not at all. Water's coming up fast. Best try some grubs or worms,
+though. No good for minnows here now."
+
+"Sure," agreed Dave, settling comfortably beside him. "Water sure is
+filling up, isn't she? Guess the Miller of the Dee dropped a
+cogwheel into his wheat."
+
+"Not wishing anybody any bad luck, but I hope they don't start up
+again all day. This'll be a backwater as soon as the current starts
+going over the dam. Another six inches--say! Look at Tod. If he
+isn't fishing right above the flume. Wonder if he's noticed."
+
+"Noticed? He's got a bite, that's what! Look at him bending to it.
+It's a big one, you bet. Golly, did you see that!"
+
+"I see more than that," exclaimed Jerry grimly, dropping his
+precious pole and starting across the slippery rocks on the run. "If
+he doesn't get out of there in about thirty seconds, he's going over
+the dam!"
+
+But just as Jerry mounted the last clump of rocks, just as Dave's
+desperate shouts had aroused Tod to a realization of his danger,--
+something happened. You have watched a big soap bubble swelling the
+one last impossible breath; you have seen a camp coffee kettle
+boiling higher and higher till _splush!_ the steaming brown mass
+heaves itself into the fire--the bending, crowding mile-wide surface
+of Plum Creek found a sudden outlet. And right in the center of that
+outlet was a plunging tiny boat.
+
+"Help!" rang out one choked-off cry, as in a great rush of suddenly
+foaming flood, over the dam plunged a boat and a terrorized boy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+A HOPELESS SEARCH
+
+
+In the brief instant that Jerry stood on the slippery point of rock
+he had the queer feeling that it was all a horrible dream, or at
+least only an impossible scene from a motion picture. Where a boat
+had been a second before was now only a seething, tossing down-
+tumbling wall of brownish foam.
+
+But his stunned inaction was quickly gone. Down to the very edge of
+the flood he raced, almost losing his balance and toppling in. At a
+dangerous angle he leaned over and peered into the churning water-
+pit below.
+
+Dave had come hurrying to his side, to miss his footing at the last
+and plunge waist-deep into the current. A precious moment was lost
+in rescuing him. When, both safe on the rocky ledge, they turned to
+scan the depths of the fall, it was to see a dark object suddenly
+pop up full fifty feet downstream. It was the boat--but no Tod.
+
+"Did you see it!" cried Jerry excitedly. "Didn't it look like
+something blackish in the bottom of the boat?"
+
+"She's full of water, that's all. Tod's down there under the fall.
+He's drowned, I tell you! What shall we do? What shall we do!"
+Excitable Dave was fast losing his head.
+
+"Come on!" shouted Jerry, aroused by the helplessness of his
+companion. "We've got to get to the mill and have them turn the
+water through the race. Then we've got to get a boat out there--
+quick!"
+
+But he had not waited for Dave. Across the river just below the dam
+was a house. If there was a telephone there--Jerry knew there was
+one at the mill--something might yet be done in time. There was of
+course no way of reaching the mill itself across that raging
+torrent. There _was_ a telephone at the house, but it seemed hours
+after Jerry reached it before he finally got a gruff "Hello" from
+the mill manager, Mr. Aikens. But, fortunately, Aikens was not slow
+to grasp the situation. In the midst of his explanations Jerry
+realized that there was no one at the other end of the wire.
+
+Out of the house he dashed and down to where in his wild race he had
+seen a boat moored below the dam. The oars were still in place.
+Barely waiting for the panting Dave to tumble in, he pushed off,
+exultingly noting as he strained at the oars that already the volume
+of water pouring over the falls had lessened. Before he reached the
+main channel it had dwindled to a bare trickle.
+
+"Take the oars!" he directed the helpless Dave, at the same time
+stumbling to the bow of the boat and jerking off shoes, shirt and
+trousers. Diving seemed a hopeless undertaking, but there was little
+else to do. Again and again he plunged under, coming up each time
+nearly spent but desperately determined to try again. Two boats put
+out from the mill side of the river, capable Mr. Aikens in one of
+them. A grappling hook trailing from the stern of the boat told that
+such accidents as this were not unusual in treacherous Plum Run.
+
+Then began a search that exhausted their every resource. The ill
+word had speedily gone around among the nearer houses, and in the
+course of an hour a great crowd of men appeared from Watertown
+itself. The water was black with boats and alive with diving bodies.
+Hastily constructed grappling hooks raked the narrow stream from
+side to side. A big seine was even commandeered from a houseboat up
+the river and dragged back and forth across the rough river bed till
+the men were worn out.
+
+But all to no avail. Every now and then a shout of discovery went
+up, but the booty of the grappling hooks invariably proved to be
+only watersoaked logs or mud-filled wreckage. Once they were all
+electrified at a black-haired body dislodged by a clam-rake, that
+came heavily to the surface and then sank, to be the subject of ten
+minutes frantic dragging, only to be finally revealed as the body of
+an unfortunate dog.
+
+It was heart-breaking work, and the tension was not lessened with
+the appearance on the scene of Mr. Fulton, Tod's father. He said
+nothing, but his hopeless silence was more depressing than any words
+of grief could have been. Jerry and Dave and Frank, feeling in some
+queer way guilty of their friend's death, could not meet his eyes as
+he asked dully how it had happened.
+
+The dreary day dragged to a weary close, and the sun sank behind
+heavy clouds black with more than one rumbling promise of storm. The
+boys toiled doggedly on, weak from hunger, for their lunches had
+gone over with the boat, and, anyway, they would not have had the
+heart to swallow a bite. Lanky, good-natured Tod Fulton--drowned! It
+simply couldn't be. But the fast darkening water, looking cruel now,
+and menacing, where it had laughed and rippled only that morning,
+gave the lie to their hopes. Hopes? The last one had gone when Mr.
+Aikens had said:
+
+"Never heard of anybody's being brought to after more than two hours
+under water. Only thing we can hope for is to find the body. I'm
+going to telephone to town and tell 'em to send out some dynamite."
+
+It was already dusk when this decision was made, and it was after
+nine o'clock before an automobile brought a supply of dynamite
+sticks and detonating caps. In the meanwhile a powerful electric
+searchlight had been brought over from the interurban tracks a scant
+mile west of the river line, and the millwheel had been shafted to
+the big dynamo and was generating current to flash dazzling rays of
+light across the water.
+
+Mayor Humphreys, from Watertown, and Mr. Aikens were chosen to set
+off the dynamite, while watchers lined the shores, sharp-eyed in the
+hope of catching sight of the body when it should come to the
+muddied surface of Plum Run after the dynamite had done its work.
+
+Charge after charge was set off, and countless hundreds of fish were
+stunned or killed by the terrific force of the explosive, but no
+body of a hapless sixteen-year-old boy rewarded the anxious
+searchers. Up and down the river combed the dynamiters, and glare
+and crash rent the night for a mile down the stream. It began to
+look as if other means would have to be resorted to--the saddest of
+all, perhaps--time. Sometime, somewhere, after days or even weeks,
+ten, twenty, fifty, a hundred miles down the river, a sodden,
+unrecognizable body would be washed up on sand-bar or mud-bank. It
+was a sickening thought.
+
+"Have all the river towns been telegraphed?" asked a bystander, of
+the mayor. A nod of the head was his only answer.
+
+"We may as well go home," was the final reluctant verdict. "We can
+come back in the morning." Mr. Fulton alone refused to abandon the
+search, and Mr. Aikens kindly offered to bear him company till
+daybreak brought others to take his place. When all had gone save
+these two and the three boys, Jerry approached and tried to draw Mr.
+Aikens aside.
+
+"Do you suppose," he began with a kind of despairing eagerness,
+"that he could have stayed in the boat?"
+
+Aikens shook his head. "Not a chance in the world," he declared.
+
+"But I thought----" began Jerry, to be interrupted by Mr. Aikens,
+who finally contented himself with merely repeating:
+
+"Not a chance in the world." They were silent until at last Mr.
+Aikens, moved by some impulse of kindliness, for he could hardly
+help guessing how miserable the boy's thoughts must be, added:
+
+"You thought what, lad?"
+
+"The boat was full of water, of course, but when she popped up, it
+looked like there was something black in the bottom----"
+
+"You saw the boat go over, didn't you! It must have turned over and
+over a dozen times down there in that whirlpool, even if he had
+stayed in till she lit. But he couldn't have. And even if----"
+
+"Yes" urged Jerry, but without enthusiasm.
+
+"If he _was_ in the bottom of the boat he would have been drowned
+just the same, knocked senseless as he probably was by the terrific
+force of the fall and the tons of water plunging on top of him. Mind
+you, I don't think there was one chance in a million but that he was
+dashed out long before the boat hit bottom."
+
+"But where's the--the body, then?" objected Jerry miserably.
+
+"If grappling hooks and seines and dynamite couldn't answer that
+question, don't expect me to. Look here, lad, I know you feel all
+cut up over it, but think of how his poor father feels----"
+
+"I am--that's what makes me feel as if it was partly my fault."
+
+"Now--now--don't take it like that. Man and boy I've lived on this
+and other rivers a good many years over forty, and a drowning I've
+known for every one of those years. The water's a treacherous dame--
+she smiles at you in the sunshine, and the little waves kiss each
+other and play around your boat, but the shadows lurk deep and
+they're waiting, waiting, I tell you. The old river takes her toll.
+It happened to be _your_ friend, that's all. But it wasn't anybody's
+fault. Mr. Fulton would be the last one in the world to think so."
+
+Jerry looked over at Mr. Fulton, who had finally ended his mute
+pacing up and down, and now sat, chin in hand, staring out across
+the water. A sudden impulse made the boy go over and stand for
+awhile, silent, beside the grief-stricken man. He wanted to say
+something, but the words would not come. So, after a little, he
+walked upstream to where Dave and Frank huddled against an
+overturned boat; the night was growing a bit chill.
+
+"Moon's coming up," remarked Frank as Jerry settled down beside
+them. No one answered.
+
+"It's awful to sit around and not move a finger to find him,"
+shivered Dave at last. "Seems as if there ought to be something we
+could do."
+
+"Do you know what I think?" replied Jerry, almost eagerly. "I think
+I was right about that boat. I've been trying to remember what we
+left in the boat that could have looked like--like what I saw when
+she came up. There wasn't a thing in the boat--not a thing. It was
+Tod I saw--I know it was!"
+
+"But he never could have stayed in," objected Frank.
+
+"That's what Mr. Aikens said--and everybody else. But tell me what
+else it could have been I saw. I saw _some_thing, _that_ I know."
+
+"We ought to have gone after the boat," admitted Dave, slowly. "We
+didn't do a bit of good here, that's sure."
+
+"But we didn't know that at the time," Frank argued. "Everybody'd
+have blamed us if we'd gone on a wild goose chase down the river
+after an empty boat----"
+
+"But nobody would have said a word if we'd found him in the bottom
+of a boat everybody else thought was empty. If the moon was only
+higher----"
+
+"You don't catch me drilling off down Plum Bun at night, moon or no
+moon. There's a rattlesnake or copperhead for every hundred yards!"
+It was Frank who took up Jerry's thought. "Besides, it would be
+different if we hadn't waited so long. Tod--Tod's--he's dead now,"
+voicing at last the feeling they had never before put into words.
+
+There was a gruffness in Jerry's voice as he answered, a gruffness
+that tried hard to mask the trembling of his tones. "I know it, but--
+but--I want to do something for Mr. Fulton. Won't you fellows go
+along with me? I guess I--I'll go."
+
+"Down river?" asked both boys, but without eagerness.
+
+"Till we find the boat."
+
+"It's no use," said Frank. "Our folks'll cane us now when we get
+home. Going along, Dave--with me?"
+
+"How far do you s'pose the boat's drifted by now, Jerry?" asked Dave
+instead of answering Frank.
+
+"Can't tell. She's probably stuck on a sandbar or a snag, anywhere
+from five to twenty-five miles down. Don't go along, Dave, unless
+you want to."
+
+"Better come home with me," urged Frank.
+
+"Do you _need_ me along, Jerry?" queried Dave uncertainly.
+
+"No--" shortly--"no _I_ don't. Mr. Fulton does--Tod does."
+
+Jerry rose stiffly to his feet and started slowly off in the faint
+moonlight, without so much as a look behind.
+
+"So long, Jerry," called Frank. "Come on, Dave."
+
+But Dave slowly shook his head and reluctantly followed the
+footsteps of his chum.
+
+"Hold on a minute, old man; I'll stick with you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+LOST ISLAND
+
+
+It was only a thin edge of a moon that now stood barely above the
+low line of tree-covered hills beyond the east bank of the river.
+The light it gave was a misty, watery sort of ray that was a
+doubtful help in walking over the broken shore line. The two boys
+were too occupied in watching their footing to do much talking.
+Jerry led the way, bearing to the water's edge, finally stopping
+where a light rowboat had been pulled well up on the rocky beach.
+
+"We'll have to divide forces, I guess. In this uncertain light we
+never could be sure of seeing the boat if she was on the other side.
+I'll cut across while you go down this bank."
+
+"Why not take the boat and go down the middle?"
+
+"Too hard work getting through the shallows, and, besides, this way
+we're closest to the place where the boat would most likely have
+been snagged. We can go lots faster on foot. We'll keep about
+opposite each other; we can yell across once in a while and it won't
+be quite so lonesome. You go ahead till you get below the riffles,
+and wait there till I catch up with you."
+
+Jerry stepped into the boat and took up the oars. Dave gave the boat
+a mighty shove that almost put the stern under the water.
+
+"Hey! What you kids doing?" bellowed a gruff voice that the boys
+hardly recognized as being that of Mr. Aikens.
+
+"Just duck and say nothing," called Jerry guardedly to Dave. "He
+might try to stop us."
+
+So Dave scurried into the shadows of near-by trees, while Jerry bent
+low over his oars and noiselessly shot the boat out into safe
+waters. It was the work of only a few minutes to push the nose of
+his boat high and dry on the sand of the opposite shore. He was in
+the heavy shadow of a big cottonwood and felt safe from peering
+eyes, so without wasting time to mask his movements he jumped out
+and scurried along the bank. A level stretch of a hundred yards
+carried him around a bend; he stopped for a brief rest and a glance
+toward the other side, where a great crashing of bushes told him
+that Dave was safely out of sight and well on his way toward the
+riffles.
+
+A chuckle almost escaped Jerry as he listened to the thrashing
+about, but remembrance of their errand killed the laughter. In fact,
+the chuckle turned to a genuine sob, for Tod Fulton was his closest
+chum. So, without an instant's pause, he made his way to the foot of
+the riffles, where their search would really begin. How soon it
+would end, there was no telling; it might be one mile; it might be
+twenty. But Jerry grimly determined that he would carry the
+undertaking through to the end.
+
+The riffles was really a succession of pools of treacherous depths,
+joined by foaming, rock-broken rapids. The bank was lined with great
+boulders through which a day-time path wound a difficult way. Jerry
+wasted no time in trying to follow it, but skirted far around
+through a waist-high cornfield. A barb-wire fence held him prisoner
+long enough to allow Dave to break cover first on the opposite shore
+and send a vigorous but quavery "hello" across the water.
+
+"I'm stuck on the fence!" shouted Jerry in return. "Go ahead. I'll
+be along directly."
+
+But he noticed that Dave stood waiting on the shore when he finally
+managed to release himself and broke through the thin fringe of
+willows. "All right, Dave," he urged. "Let's not be losing any
+time."
+
+For a while the going was much easier. On Jerry's side a wide reach
+of sand lay smooth and firm in the pale moonlight. On Dave's side a
+few yards of sand lay between a steep bank and the water's edge, but
+every few hundred feet a shallow creek broke through and forced
+wading.
+
+There was no chance for the boat to have stranded here, and the boys
+hurried along. Within a mile the character of the ground changed.
+Now the water lapped along under high, steep banks, with tiny,
+willow-covered islands alternating with bass-haunted snags of
+dislodged trees barricaded with driftwood. The moon cast queer
+shadows and more than once Jerry's heart felt a wild thrill as he
+fancied he saw a boat hull outlined against the silvered current.
+
+Every few hundred yards the two boys stopped and sent encouraging
+shouts across the widening water. It was a lonesome, disheartening
+task, with every step making the task all the harder. Deep bays cut
+into the shore line; the feeder creeks grew wider and deeper. The
+night air was chill on their dripping shoulders. Plum Run was no
+longer a run--it was a real river, and Dave's voice sounded far off
+when he came out on some bare point to shout his constant:
+
+"Nothing doing--yet."
+
+They were now on a part of the river that was comparatively strange
+to them. Jerry had more than once followed the Plum this far south,
+but it had always been by boat, or at best on the west bank, Dave's
+territory, where a chain of lakes followed the course of the river.
+Each new twist and turn sent a shiver of nervous dread through him.
+Many the story of rattlers and copperheads he had heard from
+fishermen and campers--and the night was filled with unexpected and
+disturbing noises, overhead and underfoot. Of course he knew that
+snakes are not abroad at night, but the knowledge did not help his
+nerves.
+
+Moreover, they were drawing near Lost Island, and no boy of
+Watertown had ever been known to cast a line within half a mile of
+that dreaded spot. For Lost Island was the "haunted castle" of the
+neighborhood. It was nothing more than a large, weed-and-willow-
+covered five acres, a wrecked dam jutting out from the east bank,
+and a great gaunt pile of foundation masonry standing high and dry
+on a bare knoll at the north end.
+
+It had a history--never twice told the same. The dam had been
+dynamited, that much was sure. By whom, no one knew. The house, if
+ever a house had been built over those rain-bleached rocks, had been
+struck by lightning, hurricane, blown up by giant powder, rotted
+away--a dozen other tragic ends, as the whim of the story-teller
+dictated. The owner had been murdered, lynched, had committed
+suicide--no one knew, but everyone was positive that there was
+something fearfully, terribly wrong with Lost Island.
+
+It was one of the few islands in Plum Run which was not flooded over
+by the spring freshets, and the land was fertile, yet no one had
+ever been known to live there through a season; this in spite of the
+fact that Lost Island was known as "squatter's land," open to
+settlement by anyone who desired it.
+
+And Lost Island lay barely half a mile farther down the river. Jerry
+fervently hoped that their search would be ended before they were in
+the shadow of that forsaken territory. His nerves were not calmed
+any by the tremble in Dave's voice as he shouted across:
+
+"Lost Island's just below us, Jerry. Shall we go on?"
+
+"Sure thing, Dave!" called Jerry with a confidence he did not feel.
+"It can't be any worse than what we've already gone through--and
+we've gone through _that_ all right."
+
+"Supposing," hesitated Dave, "supposing the boat's grounded on Lost
+Island itself----"
+
+"It's the boat we're looking for, isn't it?" But Jerry knew as he
+spoke, that, hard as the going was, he would be well satisfied to
+discover the boat five weary miles farther on.
+
+Once more they plodded along, the dark, forbidding hulk of Lost
+Island looming nearer and nearer. Just before passing behind the
+northern point Jerry came out to the water's edge and had cupped his
+hands about his mouth for a final reassuring shout, when a sudden
+discovery made him pause. A shout, that seemed to split in mid-air,
+convinced him that Dave too had just then caught sight of the
+astounding object.
+
+It was a gleaming, flickering, ruddy light, and it came from the
+very center of Lost Island!
+
+Jerry's first thought was fright. But that soon gave way to the
+wildest of conjectures. Suppose Tod had been in the boat. Suppose he
+had come to in time, but too weak to do more than remain in the boat
+till it grounded here on Lost Island. A waterproof match-safe easily
+accounted for the fire. Jerry refused to allow himself to reason any
+further. There might be a dozen reasons why Tod had not swum the
+scant hundred yards to shore.
+
+"Do you see it!" finally came a shout from the other side.
+
+"It's a camp fire," called Jerry. "Do you suppose it could possibly
+be----"
+
+"It couldn't be Tod, _could_ it!" came the answer, showing the same
+wild hope that had surged through Jerry.
+
+"Oh--_Tod!_" rang out from two trembly throats on both sides of the
+river.
+
+There was no reply. At least there came no answering shout. But the
+next instant Jerry rubbed his eyes in bewilderment. The camp fire
+had been blotted out as if by magic. Only the deep gloom of thick-
+set willows lay before him.
+
+"The fire's gone!" came in alarmed tones from Dave.
+
+"_Tod--Oh, Tod!_" rang out once more through the still night air.
+
+This time there was an answer, but not the one the boys expected. A
+gruff voice demanded angrily:
+
+"Say, you idiots--what in the thunder you want!"
+
+"We're looking for a boy who was drowned up at----" began Jerry, who
+was closest to the high point where a man was presently seen
+stalking through the fringe of bushes.
+
+"Boy who was drowned? _Calling_ for him! Ye crazy loons!"
+interrupted the man.
+
+"We don't know whether he was drowned or not," answered Jerry hotly.
+
+"Well I'll never tell you," was the surly response. With a disgusted
+shrug of the shoulders the great hulk of a man slouched back toward
+the center of the island, pausing just before he disappeared once
+more in the wilderness to warn:
+
+"Any more of that howling's going to bring a charge of buckshot, and
+I don't care which of you I hit."
+
+"Do you care if we come over and look along the shore of the
+island?" shouted Dave at the retreating figure.
+
+The answer, which was more like a growl than a human response, left
+no doubt of the man's meaning. Neither boy felt the slightest desire
+to swim across to Lost Island. Instead Jerry waved his arms over his
+head and then pointed downstream.
+
+So once more they trudged along, disheartened more than ever, for
+somehow the actions of that weird figure on Lost Island had made
+their search look more of a wild goose chase than ever. The island
+was soon passed, but Jerry found himself peering hopelessly across a
+sluggish, muddy-bottomed slough that promised many a weary minute of
+wading before he could hope to establish communication with his
+companion again.
+
+So it was with a great feeling of relief that, once more on solid
+ground, he heard Dave's call.
+
+"Say, Jerry, we're pretty near down to Tomlinson's wagon bridge.
+What you say that we hustle on down and meet halfway across--and
+wait there for daylight. I'm about woozified."
+
+"Good!" agreed Jerry, pleased that the suggestion had come from
+Dave. "Even the thought of it rests my old legs till they feel like
+new. I'll just race you to it!"
+
+But it was a slow sort of race, for neither boy was willing to take
+a chance in passing the most innocent shadow--which always turned
+out to be a water-soaked log or a back-eddied swirl of foam.
+Nevertheless, it was a spent Dave who sank gasping to the rough
+plank floor of the middle span of the wagon bridge a scant second
+ahead of another puffing boy.
+
+A good ten minutes they lay there, breathing hard. Then both rose
+and walked over to the edge and leaned heavily against the girders
+as they looked gloomily down the river.
+
+"Looks almost hopeless, doesn't it!" admitted Jerry, finally.
+
+"Worst of it is we don't really know whether she's down below yet or
+if we've passed it. She was riding pretty low."
+
+"Wonder what that man was doing on Lost Island?" speculated Jerry,
+crossing wearily to the north edge of the bridge and peering through
+the gray dawn-mist toward the island, barely visible now. A mere
+twinkle of light showed among the trees, and he stood there for a
+long minute. Dave come to his side, and the two waited in silence
+for the dawn. Jerry had almost fallen asleep standing up, when a
+sudden clutch at his arm nearly overbalanced him and sent him
+tumbling off the dizzy height.
+
+"Look!" gasped Dave.
+
+"What is it?" exclaimed Jerry, turning to his companion, all sleep
+gone.
+
+"I'll swear it's the boat--right under us!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+MORE THRILLS
+
+
+It was only a bare few seconds before the floating object had passed
+within the shadow of the bridge, but there could be no doubt about
+it; it was a boat, riding so low that only her outline showed. Jerry
+rubbed his eyes in disbelief, but for only an instant. Then he
+sprang to the other side of the bridge, shedding hat, coat,
+trousers, shirt and shoes, on the way. So, at least, it seemed to
+Dave, who caught his chum's arm, as Jerry poised himself, his body
+white and gleaming in the moonlight, on the high rail that ran along
+the edge.
+
+"What you going to do, Jerry? It's a good thirty feet to the water--
+and you don't know how deep it is down there."
+
+"I'm diving shallow, Dave; two feet is all I ask below. We can't
+take any chances of losing her. Carry my clothes along the bank,
+will you? I'll try to make the east side--it looks a little closer."
+
+In the few seconds they had talked, the boat had drifted under the
+bridge and now cut through the silver-edged shadow of the last
+timbers.
+
+There was a quiver of the flimsy railing, a slender body cut through
+the moonlight, parted the water with a clean _sush!_ and bobbed up
+almost immediately, within three feet of the boat. Jerry Ring did
+not have the reputation of being the best diver in Watertown for
+nothing.
+
+Now ensued a great kicking and churning as Jerry's legs transformed
+themselves into propellers for the salvaged "_Big Four_." Progress
+was slow; the waterlogged craft lay in the river like so much
+cordwood. More than once Jerry had to stop for a few minutes' rest.
+But little by little he neared shore, encouraged by Dave, who
+impatiently awaited the landing, wading out finally waist-deep to
+help.
+
+Neither one said a word as the boat was at last beached. No more
+than the barest glance was needed to tell that there was nothing in
+the boat but water. Theirs had been a fruitless chase.
+
+"Well," said Dave, slowly, after a long silence, "I guess that ends
+our last hope."
+
+"I'm afraid you're right," agreed Jerry dejectedly. "But there's one
+thing that puzzles me--do you notice how much water there is in the
+boat? It's a good ten inches from the top--how full would it have
+been when she popped up from under the falls at the dam?"
+
+"She'd have been right up to the top, I suppose. Why?"
+
+"Well, what I want to know is: How did it get out? And, what's more,
+I'd like to know how it would have taken the boat all these hours to
+float those few miles. Plum Run's got a six mile an hour current up
+above, and it's at least four here. There's something mighty funny
+about it all to me."
+
+"But mightn't it just have been snagged or shoaled up above, and
+finally worked loose?"
+
+"Sure, I know that. But I know the boat was drifting about as fast
+as we were walking, and that being the case, she must have cleared
+Lost Island just about three minutes after we talked with that man!"
+
+"You're getting excited, Jerry--over nothing."
+
+"Nothing! You call the water that was _baled_ out of the boat
+nothing. It _was_ baled out, I tell you. And look at that rope--it
+was _cut_ loose. Somebody was in too big a hurry to untie knots,
+that's my guess."
+
+"But, Jerry, what in the world are you driving at, anyway!"
+
+"I don't know. Something about the way that man back there on Lost
+Island acted set me thinking away in the back of my head. I didn't
+realize what it was that was going on in my cranium until I noticed
+this cut rope and say!" Jerry's voice rose in high excitement.
+"_Dave!_ Dave--do you remember? The _bucket!_"
+
+Dave only stared at his friend in bewilderment. "Wha--what bucket?"
+he at last managed to gasp.
+
+"You remember last week when we were out, and the storm caught us
+and pretty nearly swamped the boat? Tod said he'd bet we'd never be
+caught without a bailing can again--and he put a lard pail on a snap
+hook under the back seat. It's gone!"
+
+"But what if--why, pshaw, it could easy have worked loose and
+floated away. I don't see what there is to be so worked up about."
+
+"But, Dave, don't you see----" Jerry was trembling with excitement.
+"Suppose Tod _had_ stayed in the boat, and he came to, and he didn't
+have any oars. First off he'd try to bale her out, wouldn't he? He'd
+bale out just enough so she'd ride easy, and then he'd try to get to
+shore. Maybe he landed on Lost Island. Suppose he did, and suppose
+that ruffian we saw didn't want him to get off again. What else
+would the man do but cut loose the boat when we came along!"
+
+"Jerry, don't you think we'd better be getting on home?"
+
+"What's the matter with you, Dave?"
+
+"Why, nothing, Jerry----"
+
+"Then what you talking about going on home when I'm running down a
+clew like that?"
+
+"It's almost morning, Jerry, and you've had a hard day and been up
+all night--and the lonesome chase through the dark----"
+
+"Now look here, Davie! If you think I'm getting soft in the head,
+just forget it. I never was more in earnest in my life. Don't you
+understand? I think Tod's alive--_back there on Lost Island!_"
+
+"But we don't know he was in the boat----"
+
+"Look here, Dave, if you were falling, what'd be the first thing
+you'd do? You'd grab at the nearest thing to you, wouldn't you! And
+if you got hold of that boat-seat, for instance, you'd pretty near
+hang on, wouldn't you? I saw _something_ in the bottom of the boat
+when she came up."
+
+"Yes, but we don't know the boat touched Lost Island----"
+
+"No, of course not. But most always when I see a sign that says 'No
+fishing allowed,' I know there's fish there."
+
+"You certainly talk as if you were out of your head. What's fishing
+got to do with it?"
+
+"The man was not overly anxious to have us come out and make a
+search of _his_ island. I'm going back up there and I'm going to
+swim across or _get_ across and I'm going to find out what he has
+there he doesn't want us to see. Are you game to go along?"
+
+"But supposing there's nothing there, and the man----"
+
+"That island doesn't belong to anybody. We've got as much right
+there as he has. The worst he can do is to kick us off, and there's
+only one of him against _two_ of us. Come on."
+
+Before they left, however, they tipped their boat over and emptied
+out nearly all the water. Then, as they had no oars to row her back,
+they tied her by the short length of rope left, to a stout willow.
+Jerry resumed his clothing, and shivering a bit in the cool morning
+air, was eager to warm up with a good brisk walk.
+
+They were on the east side of the river, and the trail would have
+been hard enough even in broad daylight, but Jerry would waste no
+time in crossing over when a few minutes later they halted at the
+bridge. Home lay on the other side of the river, and Dave, still
+unconvinced, stubbornly insisted on following the west bank, but
+Jerry soon cut short the argument by striding off in disgust. After
+a minute of uncertainty Dave tagged along behind. Neither spoke; to
+tell the truth, they were both decidedly cold, hungry and cross. The
+damp, fishy smell of the river somehow set their nerves on edge, and
+the long drill through swamps and across creeks and sloughs appeared
+none too enticing.
+
+"I say, Jerry," called Davie finally, "let's stop for a breath of
+air; I'm about petered out."
+
+"Can't," replied Jerry shortly. "Sky's getting gray now. We've got
+to get _there_ before daylight. If we can catch our friend on the
+island asleep it'll make things a lot easier. Pull your belt up a
+notch and see if you can't put the notch into your legs."
+
+Dave grumbled but obediently hastened his gait. In single file they
+cut across the last stretch of knee-deep mud and halted opposite
+Lost Island. There it lay, beyond the narrow stretch of steaming,
+misty black water, dark and forbidding. There was something shivery
+about its low-lying-heavy outline, with nothing visible beyond the
+border of thick willow growth.
+
+"Looks like some big crouching animal, doesn't it?" remarked Dave as
+they stood an instant peering across.
+
+"Well, we know it can't spring--and it won't bite, I guess."
+
+"I'm not so sure. How are we going to get over?"
+
+"Swim it, unless--no, I guess we won't swim--not, at least, if
+there's a pair of oars in that flat-boat I see yonder. Funny we
+didn't stumble over it when we came down."
+
+"Maybe it wasn't here then. Maybe the man came over in it. We better
+not stand here in the open. We don't know what minute he might be
+back."
+
+"Well, if it is his boat, at least we don't need to worry about
+running onto him over there on the island."
+
+"You're going to swim over, aren't you, Jerry? If the man came along
+and found his boat gone, he'd know _we_ were over there and----"
+
+"And he'd be stranded on this side until we were so kind as to bring
+back his boat. You can bet _he_ isn't going to swim over, and I bet
+you I don't either."
+
+The boat proved to be a cumbersome flat-boat of the type used by
+clam-fishers. In fact the smell that simply swirled up from its oozy
+bottom left no doubt that the boat had been used for that purpose. A
+pair of unbelievably heavy oars, cut from a sapling with a hand-axe,
+trailed in the water from "loose oarlocks." Dave gave a gasp of
+dismay as he "hefted" the rough implements.
+
+"Let's swim it, Jerry," he said disgustedly. "The boat'll never hold
+up the oars and us too. They weigh a ton."
+
+"Pile in," answered Jerry, with the first laugh since that tragic
+moment when he had seen a different boat swept over the dam many
+weary miles up the river. "We'll each take an oar and try some two-
+handed rowing. This craft was built for ocean-going service. Hold
+tight; we're off."
+
+But they weren't. Jerry's mighty push ended in a grunt. "Come on;
+get out here and shove."
+
+"Maybe if we took the oars out we could start her," Dave jibed. "I
+hope you've got a freight-hauling license."
+
+"Get out and push. Your witty remarks are about as light as those
+young tree-trunks we have for paddles. All together now!" as Dave
+bent over beside him. A lurch, a grinding, thumping slide, and the
+flat-boat slid free of shore.
+
+"It's a mighty good thing if that man isn't on the island," remarked
+Dave as he took up his half of the propelling mechanism. "Because
+when our craft took the water she certainly did 'wake the echoes of
+yon wooded glen,' as the poet says."
+
+"Poetry's got nothing to do with this boat. It doesn't rhyme with
+anything but blisters. Let's see if we can move her."
+
+Thanks to some tremendous tugging, the flat-boat moved slowly out
+from shore. Inch by inch, it seemed, they gained on the current.
+
+"The old tub's got speed in her," grunted Jerry, between sweeps of
+his oar.
+
+"Ought to have it _in_ her," returned Dave. "I'll bet you nobody
+ever got it _out_ of her. Ugh!"
+
+"Always grunt out toward the back of the boat--keep your head
+turned. It helps us along."
+
+"I've only got one grunt left; I'm saving it. How far have we gone?"
+
+"All of ten feet. I'll tell you when we hit the island. Lift your
+oar out of water when you bring it back. The idea is to move the
+boat, not merely to stir up the water."
+
+So they joked each other, but their hearts were heavy enough, for
+always in the back of their minds was the thought of their friend,
+who, in spite of the wild hope that Jerry had built up, might--
+_must_, Dave was sure--be lying at the bottom of treacherous Plum
+Run somewhere, drowned.
+
+At last they seemed to be nearly halfway across, and they rested a
+brief spell, for every inch of their progress had to be fought for.
+
+"All right," said Jerry, taking up his oar, "let's give her another
+tussle."
+
+But Dave did not move, although he still hunched over his oar.
+
+"Come on, Dave," urged his friend. "We don't want to lose any time.
+The sun ought to be up almost any minute now."
+
+"Look behind you, old man. Right where we're headed, and tell me
+what you see."
+
+Jerry turned in his seat. He took one quick glance toward Lost
+Island, now less than a hundred feet away, and then gave a low cry
+of dismay.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+A STARTLING CLEW
+
+
+There was a streak of light in the western sky, whether caused by
+the low-hanging, mist-hidden moon or a freak reflection of the
+coming dawn. Against that patch of brightness the northern headland
+of Lost Island loomed up high and barren save for its one tall tree.
+But it was neither headland nor tree that caught Jerry's attention
+and caused the gasp of dismay.
+
+Standing there, bold and menacing, looking like a giant against the
+queer light, was a man.
+
+Whether it was the same one who had hailed them earlier in the
+morning, the boys could not of course know. But there was no doubt
+about the equal unfriendliness of his attitude, for through the
+crook of one elbow he carried a shotgun, while even as Jerry turned
+in his seat, the other arm was raised and a big fist shaken.
+
+The next instant they were assured that this was the same man as had
+warned them away before. There was no mistaking the voice that
+bellowed across the water. Neither was there any mistaking the
+meaning of the brief sentence:
+
+"Get to thunder out o' here!"
+
+Jerry stood up in the boat and waved a friendly hand in the general
+direction of the angry man, and called pleasantly:
+
+"We were just coming over to see about a boy we think landed on
+_your_ island last night or early this morning. We found his boat
+down at the bridge and we figured that he must have----"
+
+As Jerry talked, Dave had been slyly urging the boat closer to
+shore, but at a sudden interruption from the island, both he and
+Jerry paused.
+
+"You come another foot closer, you young idiots, and I'll fill you
+full of rock salt. I loaded up especial for you when you raised that
+rumpus last night; I knew durned well you'd be coming back."
+
+"Have you seen anything of our friend?" cried Dave anxiously, trying
+to smooth things over by being civil.
+
+"If he's anything like you two, I hope I never do."
+
+"You've got no right to keep us off Lost Island," began Jerry hotly.
+
+"I don't need any right; I've got a shotgun. You two just pick up
+your paddles and blow back to shore--and be sure you tie up that
+boat good and tight or I'll have the law on you. Git, now!"
+
+There didn't seem to be anything else to do. The two boys muttered
+to each other, and neither one was willing to admit believing that
+the man would really shoot, but somehow they were unwilling to put
+it to the test. Reluctantly they took up the oars again and turned
+the nose of the boat back toward the east bank.
+
+Facing the man now, Jerry sent one last appeal across the slowly
+widening space.
+
+"We didn't mean any harm. A friend of ours was drowned yesterday, we
+think. We're looking for him--or his body. All we want is to know if
+you've seen anything of him."
+
+"I told you this morning I hadn't."
+
+"But why don't you let us look on the island? We're almost sure our
+boat was stranded there a long while. He _might_ have been in it. If
+you'd just let us look, we'd be satisfied."
+
+"I guess you'll be satisfied anyway, youngster. Just keep on rowing.
+Where was young Fulton drowned, anyway?"
+
+Jerry made no answer. When Dave undertook to shout a reply, Jerry
+silenced him with a savage look. Then he stood up on his seat.
+Making a megaphone of his hands he yelled derisively:
+
+"Yah! He _wasn't drowned!_"
+
+Then he sat down again and caught up his oar and began lunging
+desperately at the water. "Hurry, Dave, hurry!" he commanded
+excitedly.
+
+"What's got into you?" exclaimed Dave impatiently. "You've been
+flying off on about forty different angles lately. What new bug has
+bitten you?"
+
+"Bug! Dave, do you mean to tell me you didn't hear what the man
+said?"
+
+"Course I did--but we're going, aren't we? He didn't say he'd shoot
+unless we kept on coming ahead."
+
+"Oh--_that!_ Well, you've been up all night, so no wonder you're
+half asleep. Didn't you hear him say: 'Where was young Fulton
+drowned?'"
+
+"Sure."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Well what? What in thunder's got into you? Why shouldn't he ask
+that?"
+
+"He should have. He should have asked it the first time we talked to
+him. But, gee whiz, Dave, he shouldn't have known it was _young
+Fulton_ unless--unless it was young Fulton himself who told him.
+Dave--Dave! Don't you see? We never mentioned his name."
+
+"Great guns!" gasped Dave.
+
+That was all he said, and for that matter, all that either one said.
+The man stood on the point of Lost Island till he was satisfied that
+the boys had tied the boat safely and did not mean to loiter in the
+neighborhood. Then he disappeared among the trees of the lower part
+of the island. But the boys did not pay much attention to their late
+antagonist, save for a bare glance as they topped the high ridge
+that followed the river course.
+
+Miles to the north they could see a big square white building that
+they knew as Carter's Mills, really only a grain storage elevator.
+Almost due west of that was the milldam, which was about the only
+place they could hope to be able to cross Plum Run--and Watertown
+lay on the other side. Of course, they might follow the river bank
+on the chance of meeting some good-hearted fisherman or camper who
+would row them across. But the chance was too slim. They decided to
+cut across country till they reached the mill.
+
+It was a long, hard drill on an empty stomach. Up hill and down
+dale, and every step kept time to by a pang from the inner man.
+
+"Do you think it's a sin to steal?" This from Dave.
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"Apples!"
+
+"Apples? A sin? Not if you know where there are any. Lead me to
+them."
+
+"Oh, I don't know where any are. I just wondered what you thought of
+it,"
+
+"Do you think it's wrong to punish criminals?" This from Jerry.
+
+"Put 'em in jail you mean?"
+
+"Well, whatever way seems best."
+
+"No, I can't say as I do. Why, Jerry?"
+
+"I'm going to thump you good and plenty for fooling me about those
+apples, that's why."
+
+"Catching comes before thumping!" and Dave was off with all the
+speed his weary legs could muster. Fortunately Jerry's legs were in
+no better shape, so the race, while exciting enough, was a long,
+slow one. Before Jerry was able to overhaul his chum, he was so
+tired out that anything so strenuous as thumping was quite out of
+the question.
+
+"If you'd just kept running straight ahead, instead of ducking and
+dodging, we'd be home by now," he complained as he released the
+puffing Dave.
+
+But at that they had made good time through their chase and within a
+very few minutes the last bend of the river showed them the milldam.
+The place was deserted.
+
+"I guess Mr. Aikens persuaded Tod's father to go back home and get
+breakfast and rest up a bit," remarked Dave. "If there doesn't
+happen to be a boat on this side of the river we may have to wait
+some time for that breakfast you've been promising me the last
+ninety-eight miles. We sure can't get across the dam, with all that
+water rushing over."
+
+"I'll swim it before I wait," grimly declared Jerry. "Do you suppose
+Mr. Aikens took the mill boat?"
+
+"Most likely. Where'll you try it, below or above? Swimming, I
+mean."
+
+"No chance below, with that current. But I guess we won't need to. I
+see Pete Galpin's clam-boat down at his dock. It leaks like sin, but
+if one bails while the other rows I guess we can make it."
+
+No one was astir at Galpin's shanty, a houseboat pulled high and dry
+on shore, and almost hidden by great piles of driftwood snagged upon
+the bank to serve as winter fuel. Old Pete Galpin lived there all
+alone, fishing and clamming and occasionally taking a wood-cutting
+contract to help out through the scant winter months. Once he had
+been known to work with an ice-cutting gang, but quit because he was
+afraid he'd make so much money that it would tempt somebody to rob
+him.
+
+The flat-boat that was moored down at Galpin's "dock"--four railroad
+ties roped together--was none too substantial looking, having been
+built by Galpin himself from odds and ends picked up from scrap
+heaps and driftage. As Galpin himself said, the only whole part
+about the boat was the name, which had been painted in red on a
+single thin board sticking a full two feet past the stern--
+"UPANATUM."
+
+But the boys did not waste a great deal of time in admiring the
+beautiful lines of their borrowed craft. Jerry made at once for the
+oar seat, leaving Dave to untie and push off. For all the tremendous
+leak which at once developed, the boat responded easily to the
+strenuous tugs of Jerry's muscular arms and back.
+
+They beached the boat and made their way up the bank and across a
+field where oats had just been cut, the bundles lying yellow as gold
+in the early morning sunlight. Just beyond was a narrow, plum-
+thicket bordered lane, which in turn led into the newly graveled
+"county" road. The boys found the walking much easier in a path that
+twisted along next to the fence. However, within a mile, along came
+a farmer, hauling a load of early potatoes to town, and the boys
+gladly accepted his invitation to "hop on."
+
+Within a quarter of a mile both were sound asleep, nor did they
+waken until the springless wagon rattled over the interurban tracks
+less than two blocks from Dave's home. Rubbing their eyes in a vain
+attempt to drive out the sleep, they stumbled along the quiet
+street.
+
+"Where will I find you after breakfast?" asked Jerry, as Dave turned
+in at his gate.
+
+"In bed. I'll be lucky if I stay awake till after breakfast."
+
+"But we've got to tell Mr. Fulton."
+
+"You tell him, Jerry. I just know he won't pay any attention to what
+we say--I don't more'n half believe it now myself----" Dave had to
+stop for a tremendous yawn.
+
+"If that's the case, you might just as well sleep." Jerry was out of
+patience, but Dave was too sleepy to care very much.
+
+"I'll see you--see you--later, Jerry," he said drowsily as he turned
+and staggered up the walk.
+
+Jerry, after an undecided second or two, faced about and began to
+retrace his steps. He cut through the Ellery back yard and came out
+on the cross street at whose corner the Fultons lived. The house was
+a big ramshackle affair of a dozen rooms or so, far too large a
+place for the Fultons, since there had been only the two of them,
+Tod's mother having died when he was only a little tad. Indeed, as
+Tod said, they only used three rooms, the kitchen and two bedrooms.
+But that was hardly true; there was a big basement under all the
+house, the most of it used as a workroom, and here it was that the
+two of them spent the better part of their waking hours.
+
+Mr. Fulton was an odd sort of man, a bit inclined to think his
+business his own business. But it was no secret among his neighbors
+that all sorts of queer contrivances were planned and made in that
+combination machine shop, carpenter shop, forge and foundry below
+stairs.
+
+Mr. Fulton was an inventor. True, for the most part he invented
+useless things; he had inherited money and did not need to make any
+more. But the boys, who were allowed to roam through the workshop at
+will, were wildly enthusiastic over the ingenious devices schemed
+out by father and son, for Tod was a chip off the old block.
+
+Now, Jerry did not go up to the front door, even though it was
+standing ajar. Instead he hurried to the little side porch and
+reached high up under the eaves, where an electric button was
+concealed. He pushed it, hard, well knowing that if Mr. Fulton were
+anywhere in the house he would hear that bell. That was why it had
+been so well hidden.
+
+But there was no response. Again Jerry rang; he could hear the
+shrill br-r-r-r of the bell. After a long time he heard footsteps,
+but something told him they were not those of Mr. Fulton. The door
+swung open. There stood Mr. Aikens.
+
+"Is Mr. Fulton here," demanded Jerry.
+
+"Asleep," nodded Mr. Aikens.
+
+"I've got to see him."
+
+"All right--if you don't wake him up."
+
+"I've got to talk to him--I've got big news."
+
+"Big news? Of--of Tod?" Big Mr. Aikens was not the kind of man to
+become easily excited, but his manner was eager enough.
+
+"Of Tod--yes!" cried Jerry.
+
+"What is it? Have you found his--his body?"
+
+"Better than that, Mr. Aikens--Oh, I'm almost dead sure!"
+
+Jerry was so excited himself that his voice shook. As for Mr.
+Aikens, he leaped over and caught Jerry's arm and was shaking it
+wildly up and down. Neither one noticed that a white-faced man stood
+in the opposite doorway, and that his eyes were simply blazing with
+expectancy.
+
+"What do you mean? What _can_ you mean!" demanded Mr. Aikens.
+
+"I believe that Tod Fulton is----"
+
+"Not alive?" almost screamed a voice from across the room. "Not
+alive!"
+
+"Alive and on Lost Island!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+TO THE RESCUE!
+
+
+This much of the interview was perfectly clear to Jerry afterwards,
+but what followed he could not quite understand at the time or
+later. For a moment it was almost laughable. There stood Aikens
+fiercely clutching one arm and waving it up and down as if to pump
+further information from him. Mr. Fulton, after the first dazed
+instant, darted across the room and grabbed Jerry's other arm.
+
+"_Where_ is he? Tell me--quick!" he demanded.
+
+Then it was that Jerry could not understand, for the look that came
+over Mr. Fulton's face at his reply was neither belief nor doubt.
+His eyebrows almost met in a frown as he repeated mechanically:
+
+"On Lost Island, you say? But--but--how do you know? You weren't
+_on_ Lost Island, were you?"
+
+"No--o," answered Jerry slowly.
+
+A look of relief, quickly hidden, came to Mr. Fulton's face, but
+Jerry saw it, and wondered.
+
+"Did someone tell you he was there, then?"
+
+"Someone told me he _wasn't_ there----" began Jerry, when the ting-
+a-ling of a telephone bell cut him short.
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Mr. Fulton and hurried from the room. His muffled
+voice could be heard in a lengthy conversation. Jerry impatiently
+awaited his return, anxious to tell the rest of his story. Imagine
+then his surprise when Tod's father delayed his return unreasonably,
+and his only response to Jerry's eager sentences was, "Yes, yes, I
+know."
+
+Jerry's heart sank unaccountably--he sensed the fact that Mr. Fulton
+was not listening, was only waiting, in fact, till the boy should
+finish and he could decently get rid of Jerry. The story was
+consequently hurried through. Disappointed beyond description, Jerry
+left the house, not even noticing that Mr. Fulton had left the room
+even before Jerry had reached the door.
+
+Something was wrong somewhere; Jerry had expected that his story
+would be literally snatched out of his mouth; instead it had been
+smothered under the dampest kind of wet blanket. Feeling not a
+little sore over his failure to impress the two men with the
+importance of his discoveries, Jerry plodded along home, determined
+that as soon as he had gulped down a little breakfast he would hike
+back to Lost Island alone and make one more attempt to gain the
+cover of its wooded banks.
+
+Even that plan was doomed to disappointment. Jerry's mother had
+saved a goodly breakfast for him, and bustled about making him
+comfortable. Contrary to Jerry's expectations, she had no word of
+blame for his having remained away overnight without asking consent,
+and even listened with sympathetic ear to the story of his
+adventures. But just at the moment when Jerry was about to announce
+his intention to return, Mrs. Ring was called to the back door, to
+return a few minutes later with the announcement that it had been
+Mr. Aikens, and that Jerry was not to worry any more about Lost
+Island.
+
+"But I've simply got to go back, ma," sputtered Jerry, his mouth
+uncomfortably full of pancake. "Mr. Fulton isn't going to--well, he
+didn't show much interest in my theories---"
+
+"But Mr. Aikens seemed to think he did. You just rest easy, son. If
+two grown men can't take care of your Lost Islander--and your
+theories, too, why, well--you just get ready to pile into bed,
+that's all."
+
+"But, ma--there's the boat."
+
+"It'll take care of itself till you get there."
+
+"But, ma----"
+
+"Hush up, now. Into bed with you."
+
+"But can I go after the boat when I----"
+
+Mrs. Ring caught up a flat piece of wood from the back of the
+kitchen range, and laughingly but firmly put an end to the coaxing,
+Jerry retreating hastily to the shelter of his bedroom.
+
+Both Jerry and his father stood in awe of tiny Mrs. Ring, who barely
+reached to overgrown Jerry's shoulder.
+
+"Wake me up at twelve, will you, ma?" called Jerry, in his most
+wheedling voice. His mother only laughed, but Jerry felt sure she
+would. Besides, there was his dollar alarm clock.
+
+Jerry repented his request when sharp at twelve o'clock he was
+called for noonday dinner. He was sleepy and cross and not a bit
+hungry. His muscles were sore, and the drill to Lost Island did not
+have quite the romance by broad daylight that it had had a few hours
+before.
+
+Jerry watched his father put on his hat and hurry back to work, with
+a great deal of relief. His mother was much easier to handle in a
+case of this sort.
+
+"You won't mind if I don't get back till late?" he asked, hoping she
+would give her unqualified consent to his remaining away as long as
+he saw fit. "You promised me I could go camping this summer--let me
+take it now, _please_, ma."
+
+"Will you promise me to come back and let me pick the birdshot out
+of you after you've made a landing on Lost Island?" she asked in
+mock anxiety. As a matter of fact, Mrs. Ring was about as proud of
+her big boy as a mother well could be without making herself a
+nuisance to the neighbors. From his earliest boyhood she had
+cultivated the independence of spirit he showed with his first pair
+of real trousers, and now she often strained a point to let him
+exercise it. To be sure, she sometimes wondered how much was genuine
+self-confidence and how much was a reckless love of adventure.
+
+Now she raised her eyebrows in denial, but at the eager look on the
+boy's face she relented. "Trot along, Jerry," she agreed, with a
+quick pat at his shoulder--the Rings were not much at kissing each
+other. "If you can't take care of yourself by now, you never will be
+able to. I know you're as anxious as you can be about Tod--I do hope
+it turns out that you are right about him."
+
+With a muttered, "I've got to be right," Jerry set about making
+himself a couple of substantial sandwiches and stuffing them in the
+pocket of his canvas hunting coat, which he took along for
+emergencies. "Good-bye, ma," he called over his shoulder. "I'll be
+back as soon as I can bring Tod with me."
+
+Once outside, he wasted no time but struck off at once cross-lots to
+rout out Dave Thomas and Frank Ellery. Fortunately Frank came first,
+otherwise Jerry might not have been equal to the task of waking up
+Dave. They tried everything they had ever heard of. They tickled his
+feet; they set off a brass-lunged alarm clock under his very nose;
+they dumped him roughly out of his bed, but even on the bare floor
+he slumbered peacefully on. Cold water brought only temporary
+success. They were in despair.
+
+It was Frank who finally solved the problem. Seating himself on the
+foot of the bed, he raised his head much in the fashion of a hound
+baying at the moon--the sound that issued from his throat would put
+to shame the most ambitious hound that ever howled. Jerry caught up
+a pillow and would have shied it at the head of the offender, but
+the perfectly serious look on Frank's face withheld his arm.
+Gradually it dawned on him that the boy was trying to sing--and,
+more than that, it was one of Dave's favorite songs he was
+murdering.
+
+Then it was that Jerry understood Frank's strategy. The bed-clothes
+began to heave; they had piled them all atop Dave as he lay on the
+floor. Frank began on the chorus. A wriggling leg emerged from
+beneath the comforts. Jerry joined in, his voice a villainous
+imitation of Frank's discords. Another leg came to view.
+
+They began to repeat the chorus, further off key than before. One
+line was all they were suffered to torture. A catapult of boy,
+bedclothes and pillows bounded from the floor and sent Frank
+spinning into the bed, while Jerry barely saved himself from a spill
+on the floor.
+
+"You will yowl like a lot of bob-tailed tomcats, will yuh!" yelled
+Dave, dancing up and down on one foot--he had stubbed his toe
+against one of his shoes in his charge across the room.
+
+"You will snore away like six buzz-saws on circus day, huh?" snorted
+Frank, neatly catching Dave in the pit of the stomach with a pillow
+caught up from the floor.
+
+For a second it looked like a free-for-all, but Jerry had no time to
+waste.
+
+"Get your clothes on--hustle. We're going back to Lost Island."
+
+"Suppose my mother won't let me?"
+
+"Suppose you tell her we've got to go and get our boat? She'll let
+you go all right. You just want to get back to bed, that's all
+that's worrying you. Hustle, Dave. We can't lose a minute."
+
+"But didn't you tell Tod's dad about what we--found out?" Dave
+hesitated over the last. It was plain to be seen that he was none
+too sure in his own mind of the importance of their discovery.
+
+"I did, and he--well, he acted so queer about it that I don't know
+what to think. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if they--he and Mr.
+Aikens, you know--never went near Lost Island. They think we're just
+kids."
+
+"But we don't really _know_ anything, Jerry; we're only just
+guessing."
+
+"Guessing, huh? Well, I'm only just guessing that you're wasting a
+lot of time about getting your clothes on, but in about half a
+minute I'm going to climb all over you."
+
+At that Dave bristled up a bit, but his fingers became spryer with
+buttons and hooks and very shortly he stood fully dressed and ready
+to go downstairs. Jerry had already made peace with Mrs. Thomas, so
+little time was lost in waiting for Dave to snatch a bite to eat and
+be on his way.
+
+"I've got four bits loose in my pocket," announced Jerry, once they
+were out on the street. "If we don't let any grass grow on the side
+streets while we're moving we can make the two-five express on the
+Dellwood Interurban. We can drop off when they slow down at Downers
+Crossing; that must be almost opposite Lost Island. It's hard going
+through the swamps to get to Plum Run, but I guess we're good for
+it."
+
+They made the two-five--with about three seconds to spare. Their car
+was empty, so each dropped into a seat and sprawled out comfortably.
+Jerry smiled grimly to himself as he looked back perhaps five
+minutes later and saw how the two had slumped down in their seats.
+It did not need a throaty gurgle from Dave to convince him that the
+pair were sound asleep. "A fine pair of adventurers," he muttered to
+himself, not entirely without some feeling of resentment. It was
+well enough to be the leader, but--well, he wouldn't have minded a
+little snooze himself.
+
+He did not feel quite so critical, however, when, perhaps a half
+hour later, at a terrific jolt of the train, he was roused from the
+doze into which he too had fallen. A hasty glance out the window
+told him that they were at Downers Crossing. With a yell that would
+have done credit to a whole war-party of Comanches, he pounced upon
+the two sleepers and dragged and pushed and pommeled them out onto
+the platform of the car. The train was beginning to move, so their
+descent was none too dignified.
+
+"Why in thunder didn't you wake us in time so I could have got a
+drink?" complained Frank.
+
+Jerry said nothing; he felt too guilty to risk any answer. After
+they had cut across to the wagon road that led in the general
+direction of the river, he consoled his chum with: "Downer's farm is
+only about half a mile in, and we can get all the buttermilk we want
+there----" adding mischievously: "----on Wednesdays, when they
+churn."
+
+Both Dave and Frank promised instant murder for that, so he had to
+admit that they would reach the best spring in Winthrop County
+within three minutes.
+
+"Saved your hide by just twenty-nine seconds," declared Dave as he
+plunged his face into the bubbling surface of the clearest, coldest
+kind of a hillside spring.
+
+Their gait was much livelier after that, and in less than ten
+minutes Plum Run was sighted, But they did not come out as close to
+Lost Island as Jerry had predicted. In fact, they were not certain
+in which direction it lay, for to the north lay a cluster of trees
+apparently surrounded by water, and which might well be the place
+they sought. To the south lay another green spot away from shore.
+
+"It's north of here," declared both Dave and Frank, but Jerry
+exclaimed triumphantly, after the first tangle of argument:
+
+"It must be south. If Lost Island was north the wagon bridge'd be
+between us and it."
+
+So south they went; and as they drew nearer they saw that the patch
+of green was indeed Lost Island. Once they were within close sight
+of it, they went forward with all caution. The last hundred yards or
+so they made on hands and knees, finding cover in every clump of
+bushes or willows on the way.
+
+But finally they were ready to break through the last fringe of
+willow and spy out the prospect. Jerry, who was ahead, waited for
+his two companions to catch up with him.
+
+"Not a sound, now," he cautioned as they crouched beside him.
+
+Stealthily they pushed aside the leaves that obscured their view.
+Suddenly, from behind them a yell, blood-curdling, absolutely hair-
+raising, rang out through the stillness. The three turned.
+
+But it was too late. Breaking cover at the same instant, a half-
+dozen husky young chaps charged on the surprised trio.
+
+"Up and at them, fellows!" came a roar. "They're part of the gang!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE FLYING EAGLE SCOUTS
+
+
+For a minute or two it was hard for the three boys to understand
+just what had happened. They were pounced upon and hurled roughly to
+the ground, in spite of their violent struggles, and there they were
+pommeled unmercifully. They fought back, but they were hopelessly
+outnumbered. It was no adventure-story fight where the lone hero
+engages a dozen husky brutes and by superior science and strength
+lays his assailants out one by one.
+
+Too bewildered to be really angry, the three found themselves pinned
+to the ground. Then they were able to take stock of their attackers.
+Six boys they were, of about the same size and age as Dave, Jerry
+and Frank, They were dressed in some odd sort of uniform, like
+brownish canvas. Just now their faces wore triumphant grins.
+
+"Here comes Phil," remarked one of the three who were standing,
+coming over to sit on Jerry's legs, Jerry having seized a favorable
+opportunity to attempt escape.
+
+"What's the idea?" inquired the newcomer, a tall but well-knit chap
+with a broad, sunburned face and a mop of black hair showing under
+the forward brim of his wide hat.
+
+"We caught them trying to sneak up on us, so we fooled them and
+jumped on them instead. It's part of that Lost Island gang,"
+volunteered Dave's captor.
+
+"We're not either," exploded Dave.
+
+"Shut up!" exclaimed the one astride his stomach. "Didn't we see you
+slinking along through the bushes?"
+
+"Well, so were you. But we didn't try any wild Indian game on you
+just on that account."
+
+"Good reason why. You didn't see us," crowed the one on top, giving
+Dave a vigorous poke in the ribs to emphasize the point.
+
+That was too much for Dave. His usual good nature had been oozing
+out with every passing second. Now he gave a sudden twist, heaved,
+turned, heaved again, and in less time than it was told, was on his
+feet and presenting a pair of promising looking fists to the two
+others who had quickly come to their comrade's assistance.
+
+"Hold on a minute," suggested the one they had called Phil. "Let's
+get the straight of this thing first and fight afterwards. You say
+you don't belong on the island?" he asked, turning to Dave.
+
+"We certainly don't. We were trying to get onto it without being
+seen. That's why we were skulking along that way."
+
+"Trying to get onto it? You haven't any boat."
+
+"We could swim, couldn't we?"
+
+"But what do you want to get onto the island for? Where are you
+from, anyhow?"
+
+"None of your particular business," snapped Dave, but Jerry answered
+as well as he could with his shortness of breath--he too was
+"stomached" by a stout boy of his own size:
+
+"Watertown."
+
+"Know anybody there by the name of Tod Fulton? He's a cousin of
+mine--why, what's the matter?" for the three boys had cried out in
+dismay.
+
+"Why--why--he's the boy we're after. He's our chum," stammered Jerry
+at last.
+
+"Then what you after him for--if he's your chum?"
+
+"Well, he's--he's----" began Jerry, and Dave blurted out:
+
+"Drowned!"
+
+"What!" cried the whole crew at that. "Tod Fulton drowned!"
+
+"We don't know for sure. That's why we're trying to get onto Lost
+Island."
+
+Then the story came out, piecemeal, for all three insisted on
+telling it. Phil stood as if stunned. At the end he said simply:
+
+"He's my cousin. I'm Phil Fulton. We live at Chester. That's about
+ten miles south of here. We're the Flying Eagle Patrol of Boy
+Scouts--maybe you noticed our suits."
+
+"Thought you were some kind of bushwhackers the way you dropped on
+us," complained Frank. "But what was the idea in thumping us because
+you thought we were from the island?"
+
+"We had good reasons enough," declared Phil. "We left town at
+midnight last night, hiked all the way to our boat-landing two miles
+up the river, and made the long pull up the Plum in the dark just
+for the sake of getting an early morning chance at the best bass
+rock you ever heard of--just to get chased out at the point of a
+shotgun after we'd landed the first one--a three pounder too. Can
+you blame us for being sore?"
+
+"On Lost Island?" asked Jerry eagerly.
+
+"No, _off_ Lost Island. A big burly ruffian blew down on us, cussing
+a streak, and wouldn't hardly let us get into our boat. Chucked
+stones at us all the way across and promised us a mess of birdshot
+if we came back. Do you blame us for wanting to lay you out?" It was
+Dave's conqueror who spoke.
+
+"If that's what you do on suspicion, I don't want to be around when
+you're sure of yourself. My ribs'll be sore for a week."
+
+The boys had been talking excitedly; each one was wrought up over
+the fate of poor Tod and this was the only way they were willing to
+show their feelings. It was Phil who brought them back to earth.
+
+"Well, fellows," he suggested, "let's get acquainted first, and then
+let's see if we can't frame up some way of getting across and going
+over that island from end to end. Line up, Scouts, and be
+presented."
+
+The Scouts lined up in two columns.
+
+"This is Sid Walmsly, nicknamed 'the worm,' partly because that's
+the way we pronounce his name, but mostly because it's a long worm
+that has no turn, and Sid says he's always the one to be left out.
+You can remember him by the wart on his left knuckle. Next is Dick
+Garrett; he's assistant Patrol Leader. This thin, long-drawn-out
+morsel of sweet temper is Fred Nelson. We tried to nickname him
+"Angel" but he licked everyone that tried it on him. Now comes our
+joker, we'd call him Trixie if we dared. His ma calls him Algy
+Brown. Frank Willis stands first in the behind row. He goes by the
+name of "Budge," chiefly because he _won't_ unless he wants to.
+Barney Knowles, the littlest giant in the world--the one in the red
+sweater. He wears a sweater in July and shirt-sleeves in December.
+And last of all, but not least--far from it--Ted Lewis, the only
+grouchy fat man in captivity. Smile for us, Teddy." Teddy growled.
+
+Jerry introduced himself and his two chums, and then turned
+anxiously to Phil. "Got any plan?"
+
+"Why not just get into our boat and row over? We can tell that chump
+over there----"
+
+"Thought you told us good Scouts were always respectful to our
+elders?" interrupted Ted, he of the "grouch."
+
+"Respectful where respect is _due_," came the quick response. "We
+can tell the gentleman that we have sent the rest of the gang back
+for the sheriff----"
+
+"And good Scouts never tell lies----" This from Ted again.
+
+"Be still or I'll make it the truth by sending you back after him.
+We ought to make the try, anyway, because that makes our next move
+easier. If we can't get on the island in the open, we've got to use
+a little strategy. If we just could get our boat around to the other
+side of the island----"
+
+"I've got it!" cried Dave. "Our boat's down the river. While the
+bunch of us keep up a demonstration along the shore here, two of us
+could slip down and get the boat and sneak in at the lower end."
+
+"Good. We'd best waste no time about it because it's going to be
+coming on dark before we know it. Who's going along with me?"
+
+"To the island? I'll go. The man knows _me_," agreed Jerry. "Where's
+your boat?"
+
+The rest waited in the cover of the bushes while Phil and Jerry
+quietly made their way down the river bank to where the Scout boat
+was moored. They sprang in at once, Phil pushing off and hopping
+lightly to the oars. There was only one pair, but he sent the boat
+skimming across the ripples. No one was in sight on the island, and
+they were in hopes of making a landing unobserved, but just as their
+boat touched shore the willows parted and the man stepped out on the
+high bank.
+
+"Back again?" he demanded gruffly.
+
+"Oh, yes," replied Phil easily. "We came back to see if you'd let us
+look for a box of tackle one of the boys thinks he left down where
+we were fishing this morning."
+
+"Oh! And you," said the man sarcastically, turning to Jerry. "I
+suppose you came to look for a lock of hair from your drowned
+friend's head?"
+
+The man's tone was so unfeeling that Jerry simply gasped, but Phil
+boiled over at once.
+
+"I'll have you know that that boy was my cousin. We have good reason
+for believing that he's on this island and _we're going to search
+it_!"
+
+"Oh, indeed!" and Jerry could have sworn that there was a twinkle in
+the man's eye for all there was no mistaking the threat in his
+voice. "Well, I can promise you a full-sized spanking unless you
+make yourselves scarce in just about one half minute. This makes the
+third time I've had to chase you off--and third time's the charm,
+you know."
+
+"But why don't you want us to look for our friend? Surely you've got
+nothing against him--or us."
+
+"Not a thing. Not a thing, sonny. Only I live on this place, and I
+can't have a troop of youngsters tracking mud in at my front door.
+That friend of yours couldn't very well be on my island without my
+knowing it, could he?"
+
+"But you've never said out and out that he wasn't on the island,"
+asserted Jerry boldly. "And you've acted so suspicious that--that we
+wouldn't believe you now if you did say it."
+
+The man laughed at that, for Jerry had started out by trying to be
+diplomatic, but his feelings got the better of him before the end.
+
+"I'll be careful not to say it then. As for the tackle box--here it
+is." Jerry opened his eyes wide; he had thought the box a pure
+invention on the part of Phil. "Now back water and keep backing."
+
+"You think you've got us beat," shouted Jerry at his retreating
+back. "Never you worry--I've told Mr. Fulton, and he and Mr. Aikens
+will be coming down here with a posse. They won't be asking your
+permission if they can investigate an island that doesn't belong to
+you any more than it does to me."
+
+"It belongs to Mr. Fulton, I suppose?" challenged the man, and
+turning around for a last laugh. Neither boy answered.
+
+"You tell your Mr. Fulton that I said he was welcome to come any
+time."
+
+"Now what?" asked Jerry, as Phil turned the boat about and headed
+for the other shore.
+
+"What next? Night, mostly. Then I think we'll show your Mr. Billings
+a few Scout tricks he doesn't know about."
+
+"I didn't say his name was Billings----"
+
+"I know--but _I_ did. I've seen him before. That may be the reason
+he's so touchy about having us land on the island. The last time I
+saw him it was down at dad's office. Uncle Ed--that's Mr. Fulton,
+you know--was there, and when I opened the door on them suddenly, he
+and this Billings were having the hottest kind of an argument. Dad
+hustled me out of there in a hurry, but not before Uncle Ed'd called
+him Billings--and a lot of other things."
+
+"You think then that Billings is still sore at Mr. Fulton, and that
+he's holding Tod there----"
+
+"Nothing more likely. We'll know to-night. At least we'll know
+whether Tod is there--and I guess we'll make a good strong try at
+getting him loose."
+
+"How can we do it? What's your plan?"
+
+"Leave it to the Flying Eagle Scouts. I'm not bragging, but we're
+one live crew!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+A VOYAGE IN THE DARK
+
+
+Still, it was some time after the return of Phil and Jerry from
+their unsuccessful sortie into the enemy's country, before a
+practical plan occurred to the ten-brain-power plotters. But the
+scheme, once its details had been worked out, struck them all as
+having a fair chance for success. Briefly, it was this:
+
+Two of the boys--Jerry and Phil were again chosen--were to go down
+the river to the bridge and cross over and get the _Big Four_. They
+were to come back up the river as quietly as possible, hugging the
+opposite shore to a point about two hundred yards below the island,
+where the east bank spurred off into a fairly high hill. Here one of
+the boys was to leave the boat, as near nine o'clock as possible--it
+was now seven--and climb the hill, where he was to signal across to
+Dick Garrett, who would be watching directly opposite.
+
+Then Jerry and Phil were to make all speed to Lost Island, landing
+at the lower end. The Boy Scouts, and Dave and Frank, were to gather
+as conspicuously as possible--a flaring camp fire would show their
+intentions--and pretend that _they_ were about to embark for the
+island.
+
+That _ought_ to leave the lower end of the island unguarded for the
+safe landing of Jerry and Phil. Once they were ashore, the dense
+bushes and the darkness ought to be sufficient cover for their
+search.
+
+Little time had been lost, really, in making the plan, for the
+Scouts had been bustling back and forth, building a camp fire and
+preparing supper. Four of them had set up the tents, finishing the
+task begun by all of them when Jerry and Phil set out on their first
+trip to the island.
+
+It was not a very fancy meal the boys sat down to. The food was
+served on paper lunch plates, so there would be no dish-washing.
+Each Scout carried knife, fork, spoon and tincup. There was no extra
+"silverware" save the cook's big utensils. So the three outsiders
+ate with fingers and pocketknives. A nice mess of perch had been
+caught in a near-by creek, and Frank Willis, whose turn it was to
+act as chef, had browned them most artistically. There were some
+ash-baked potatoes, and a farmhouse close by had provided a generous
+supply of buttermilk.
+
+The last of the meal was eaten by the light of the camp fire, for
+the sky had clouded over and night seemed to drop suddenly from
+above. Licking the last morsel of the delicious fish from his greasy
+finger-ends, and wiping his greasier mouth on his sleeve, Jerry
+jumped to his feet and announced:
+
+"I'm ready, Phil, if you are."
+
+"I've been ready for a quarter of an hour--just waiting for the
+skillet to be empty, because I knew you'd never stir so long as
+there was a crumb left. Where do you put it all?"
+
+"I've got to stow away a lot to balance my brains. I notice you're a
+light eater," retorted Jerry, but Phil only chuckled.
+
+"All right, you two--be on your merry way," put in Dick Garrett.
+"This is no picnic excursion you're starting off on. And don't forget
+your oars, unless you expect to row your boat with your wits."
+
+The two made no reply; a half minute later there were only eight
+boys in camp.
+
+Something like a quarter of a mile inland was the gravel road that
+followed the windings of Plum Run, to cut across at the wagon
+bridge. Two stealthy figures hurried through the woods and across
+the fields, to emerge on the other side of a barbed wire fence and
+trudge off down the dusty road.
+
+"Some woodsman, you are!" snorted Phil in purposely exaggerated
+disgust. "When you skulked through the brush the limbs could be
+heard popping for a mile. How many times did you fall down?"
+
+"Fall down? What you mean, fall down? Every time you stumbled over
+your shadow I thought you were ducking for cover, so I simply
+crouched to keep out of sight."
+
+Phil snorted, and quickened his pace. Jerry put an extra few inches
+on his own stride and easily kept up. They passed a farmhouse--at
+good speed, for a dog came out and after a few suspicious sniffs
+proceeded to satisfy his appetite on Phil's leg. A loud ripping
+noise told that he at least kept a souvenir of the visit.
+
+The dog's excited barking kept them company to the next farmhouse,
+which they passed as silently as possible, not particularly desiring
+to repeat the experience.
+
+"It was your whistling back there that scared up that dog--see if
+you can whistle a patch onto my leggins," Phil suggested when they
+were once more surrounded by open fields.
+
+Jerry did not answer, for just ahead of them the road forked and he
+was trying to remember which turn it was one took to get to the
+bridge. He had never gone this way, but he had once heard a farmer
+giving directions to a party of automobilists. However, Phil
+unhesitatingly took the branch that cut in toward the river, so he
+said nothing for some time.
+
+"Ever been over this road before?" he ventured to ask when the road
+suddenly became so rough that they stumbled at every step.
+
+"No--never been up this way. We always fish on the other side of the
+Plum."
+
+"How do you know then that this is the right road?"
+
+"It turned in toward the river, didn't it? And the other road angled
+off toward Tarryville."
+
+"But the bridge road is graveled all the way, and if this isn't blue
+clay I'll eat my hat. It might just be a private road to some farm,
+and the other road might have swung around after a bit. This muck-
+hole doesn't look good to me."
+
+"All the same, through those trees yonder I can see water. It's the
+old Plum all right. Shake a leg."
+
+"I think we'll gain time by shaking two legs--back to the fork.
+That's the Plum, all right enough, but you'll walk through marsh all
+the way to the bridge if you try to follow the bank. I remember now:
+this is the old wood road. It hasn't been used since they cut timber
+on the Jameson tract."
+
+Jerry did not wait to finish his argument but had already gone back
+a good fifty feet of the way to the other road, when he noticed that
+Phil was not following him.
+
+"What's the matter, Phil?"
+
+"Don't you think we've wasted enough time, without losing some more
+by going back?"
+
+"We'll lose more by going ahead. And we're losing now by standing
+still chewing the rag about it. Come on."
+
+"I'm going ahead. You followed my lead this far; I guess it won't
+hurt you to follow it a little farther. I'm Patrol Leader, you
+know."
+
+Jerry sensed a little resentment in Phil's tone, and remembered that
+once or twice he had spoken to the Scout leader just as he did to
+his chums--and his chums always looked to him for commands.
+
+"I'm not trying to boss you, Phil, don't think that. But I _know_
+that the other way is the best way, and I've _got_ to follow it. So
+you go ahead, and I'll wait for you at this end of the bridge."
+
+Without further word he strode off on the back road. It was so dark
+that he might have done so safely, but he did not look back.
+Nevertheless, a pleased grin spread over his face, for he was soon
+aware that Phil was tagging along not many paces behind. That had
+always been the way. Jerry was a born leader; the other boys
+followed him willingly because they never found any cause to lose
+confidence in his judgment.
+
+"Phil, you're a genuine sport," was all he said as the other boy
+fell into step beside him as once more they reached the gravel
+roadway and turned into the right-hand branch.
+
+Sooner than they expected they saw the gaunt skeleton of the upper
+bridgework against the dark sky. Jerry did not permit himself an "I
+told you so," but he said instead:
+
+"We'll be in a pretty pickle if we get on the other side and find
+our boat gone."
+
+Phil made no answer and in silence they walked across the hollow-
+echoing bridge. A series of giant stone steps led down to the river
+bank, and as soon as they reached bottom they saw that their fears
+were groundless, for there lay the _Big Four_ as Jerry and Dave had
+left her eighteen hours before. Deep footprints in the mud bank,
+dimly visible in the dusk, told that someone had stopped to look the
+boat over. Perhaps had the oars been handy, the boat might not have
+remained so safely.
+
+The boys were glad to relieve their shoulders of the pair they had
+taken turns in carrying, and without pausing to rest, they stepped
+into the boat, Phil finding some difficulty in making the Scout
+boat's oars fit the _Big Four's_ oarlocks. But at last they were off
+and Jerry bent to his task. The _Big Four_ had been built for speed,
+and the craft was trimmed just right for getting the most with the
+least effort. The current was fairly swift here, but Jerry hugged
+the east bank and took advantage of every eddy. It was not long
+before Lost Island swung into sight.
+
+"Let me spell you off," suggested Phil, but Jerry shook his head.
+
+"After we land at the hill you can take her the rest of the way. I
+think I'll pull in at that little cove just ahead. It makes a little
+longer walk, but it's well out of sight of the island. Who'll climb
+the hill!"
+
+"Leave that to me. I kind of want to try out a little signaling
+stunt that Dick and I have been figuring on. Here's a good sandy
+stretch; let's beach her here."
+
+The boat grated on the pebbly shore; Phil sprang lightly out, and
+Jerry was left alone. He could hear Phil scrunching over the rocks
+and through the brush; then all was still. Jerry strained his eyes
+to see if he could make out the figure of Dick, who must be almost
+directly opposite, but only the dense black of the wood met his
+gaze. He waited patiently for the gleam of the flashlight, but
+minute after minute slipped by, and no signal appeared.
+
+So he was somewhat surprised when after perhaps fifteen minutes he
+heard a footstep on the beach and he realized that Phil was
+returning.
+
+"Our scheme worked fine," announced the Scout leader. "Bet you never
+even saw Dick's signal."
+
+"No, I didn't," confessed Jerry.
+
+"Good reason why. You see, I figured out that if you shoot a flash
+straight out in front of you very long everybody can see it. A quick
+flash--well, anyone who saw it might think it was just lightning or
+the interurban. So I just snapped about a dozen straight up into the
+air, until I got a return flash from Dick. Then I used this." He
+pulled out a little pocket mirror. "I pointed my light straight at
+the ground, and gave him a dot and dash message by holding the
+mirror in the light. Some scheme, eh?"
+
+Jerry merely grunted, but way down in his heart a deep respect was
+forming for these Boy Scouts and their resourcefulness.
+
+"Just flash a few signals to those oars," he advised, taking his
+place in the stern. "And be careful with that left oar--she squeaks
+if you pull her too hard."
+
+But Phil soon showed that he needed no advice about handling a boat.
+Without a sound--without a ripple, almost--they moved away from
+shore and cut out into the current.
+
+"Safe to get out into line with the island, I guess. If they're
+watching, it's the shore they'll be most suspicious of."
+
+"They? We've only seen one out there."
+
+"Maybe. But I'm betting on a pair of them at least. It's about time
+for the boys to--listen to those Indians, would you? I'm afraid
+they're overdoing it a bit."
+
+From the far shore, out of sight behind Lost Island, rose a hubbub
+of cries that sounded as if the island were about to be attacked by
+a war party of Sioux. A Boy Scout yell sounded out, the voices of
+Dave and Frank heard above the rest.
+
+"Guess your two must have deserted your banner and joined the
+Eagles," teased Phil.
+
+The island lay dead ahead of them, dark and still. Both boys had a
+shivery feeling of being watched, but no sign was apparent as they
+floated in behind the point of the island and noiselessly beached
+the boat.
+
+"We'd best stay close together," suggested Jerry in a whisper.
+
+"And by all means don't whisper--talk in an undertone. A whisper
+carries twice as far," countered Phil. Jerry marked down one more to
+the score of the Boy Scouts.
+
+But there was little need for talk. The brush was heavy, broken by
+thickets of plum trees and an occasional sapling of hickory; the
+ground was boggy in spots, and once Jerry sank almost to his knees
+in oozy mud. A screech owl hooted in a tree close by, and cold
+shivers ran up and down their backbones. Unbroken by path or
+opening, the island wilderness lay before them.
+
+They walked hours it seemed, trying their best not to advertise
+their coming in breaking limbs and rustling leaves, for the night
+was uncannily still. It was a great relief, therefore, when the
+underbrush suddenly gave way to a few low trees and after that open
+ground. Jerry was for plunging right ahead, relying on the darkness,
+but Phil caught his arm.
+
+"Circle it," he commanded, and Jerry, little used to obeying orders
+as he was, at once saw the wisdom of the idea and agreed. They were
+nearly halfway around the open plot when they struck a path,
+evidently leading to the river. But the other end must go somewhere,
+and they strained their eyes into the darkness.
+
+"A house, I do believe," mumbled Phil.
+
+"Shall we risk going closer?"
+
+"Got to. Not a sound now. Let's take off our shoes."
+
+In their stocking feet they stealthily drew nearer the dark blot
+against the background. When they were within twenty feet they saw
+it was not a cabin, but one end of a long, narrow, shed-like
+structure, perhaps twenty feet wide and running far back into the
+darkness. They approached it cautiously and began feeling carefully
+along the higher side for some sort of door or opening. They had
+gone a good thirty feet, their nerves tingling with the hope of
+next-instant discovery, when Phil broke the silence with a low-toned
+sentence.
+
+"There's a house or cabin of some kind less than twenty feet away."
+
+Jerry did not look. His groping fingers had found something that
+felt like a door-edge. His hand closed over a knob.
+
+"Here's the door!" he exclaimed eagerly, and then felt his heart
+almost stop beating. The knob had been turned in his hand! But
+before he could say a word, a sudden "Sh!" sounded from his
+companion.
+
+"Did you hear it?" gasped Phil.
+
+"What?" asked Jerry, his voice trembling in spite of him.
+
+But Phil did not answer--there was no need. From the cabin came a
+sound that set every nerve on edge. It was a groan--the groan of
+someone in great agony.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+A RESCUE THAT FAILED
+
+
+In the excitement of hearing that groan, Jerry forgot every other
+thought. Both boys jumped at once to the same conclusion: Tod was in
+that cabin! Perhaps he had been hurt, or perhaps, even, that ruffian
+was mistreating him. With one accord they broke for the cabin,
+making for where a thin pencil of light hinted at a door. They
+wasted no time fumbling for the knob, but put all the strength of
+their shoulders against the opening.
+
+The door gave, suddenly, and they tumbled over each other into a
+dimly lighted room. It was fortunate for them that there was no one
+there, for in falling Phil overturned a chair, which in turn managed
+to become entangled in Jerry's legs, who came to the floor with a
+suddenness that did not give Phil time to get out of the way. Half
+stunned, they lay there panting, till a renewal of the moaning
+aroused them to quick action.
+
+Phil jumped to his feet and caught up a leg of the chair, that had
+been broken loose in the triple fall. It was well to have some sort
+of weapon. The sounds seemed to have come from above, where a trap
+door indicated a loft or attic of some sort. The boys looked wildly
+about for some means of getting up to the trap door, but the light
+of the smoky kerosene lamp revealed nothing. The chair might have
+helped them, but it was wrecked beyond hope.
+
+"Perhaps if we called to him, he might answer," ventured Jerry
+huskily.
+
+"First see if you can reach the trap door if you stand on my
+shoulders." Phil made a stirrup of his hands and gave Jerry a leg
+up. Wabbling uncertainly, but managing to straighten himself, Jerry
+caught at the edge of the opening.
+
+"Nailed!" he exclaimed disappointedly as he jumped to the floor.
+"Shall we call?" Phil nodded.
+
+"Tod. Oh, Tod!"
+
+Only silence. Again they called.
+
+"Tod--Tod Fulton."
+
+There was an answer this time, but not of the sort nor from the
+direction the boys expected. It was more like a whine than a groan
+this time, and it came from the far side of the room. For the first
+time the boys noticed that there was a door there, partly open. They
+made a rush for it, Jerry in the lead. But he got no farther than
+the threshold. As he reached it, the door was flung open in his
+face.
+
+In the doorway stood a sixteen-year-old girl, a slim, black-haired
+slip of a thing, her black eyes snapping. One hand was doubled up
+into a fist that would have made any boy laugh, but there was no
+laughter in the other hand. It brandished a wicked looking hand-axe,
+and it was evident from the way she handled it that there was
+strength in those scrawny arms.
+
+"You get out of here!" she commanded, advancing a step.
+
+Jerry backed away hastily, but Phil only laughed, trying to balance
+himself on the two and a half legs of the wrecked chair.
+
+"I've seen you before, Lizzie, and you don't scare me a bit with
+that meat axe."
+
+"It's no meat axe; it's a wood axe--look out for your heads," she
+retorted scornfully. "Clear out of here or I'll make kindling of
+both of you."
+
+"Put down that cleaver, Lizzie, and let's talk sense. We came here
+to get Tod Fulton--he's my cousin, you know----" but that was as far
+as he got.
+
+The girl, her face showing a determination that made nonchalant Phil
+jump up from his chair and beat a quick retreat, walked up on them,
+the axe flashing viciously back and forth before her.
+
+"You're going to get off this island," she exclaimed, "and you're
+going to do it quick. No tricks now! The first one who makes a break
+gets this axe in the back--and I can throw straight. About face,
+now. March!"
+
+There was nothing to do but obey. Sheepishly enough the boys turned
+and meekly let her drive them out into the dark. As she passed the
+lamp she caught it down from the bracket on the wall with one hand.
+
+Thus they marched across the open ground, along the narrow path and
+out on the waterfront.
+
+"Our boat is down at the other end of the island" remarked Phil,
+turning his head ever so slightly.
+
+"I'll have my father bring it over to you in the morning," answered
+the girl relentlessly. "I see your friends waiting for you over on
+the other side, so it wouldn't be fair to keep them in suspense."
+
+"You're surely not going to make us try to swim it?" pleaded Phil,
+pretending great consternation, hoping that he might delay their
+departure till something might happen to give them the advantage.
+
+"That's not all I am going to do." Setting down her lamp on a
+convenient rock, and changing her axe to her left hand, she stooped
+over and picked up a pebble. With a quick jerk she drew back her arm
+and then shot it out, boy-fashion The boys heard the stone hum as it
+sailed through the air. An instant, and then a howl of pain arose
+from one of the Scouts dancing about the blazing camp fire on the
+other shore. It was a good hundred yards away.
+
+"I just did that to show you what'd happen to you if you didn't head
+straight for that gang of pirates over there," she said grimly.
+
+"You're _some_--tomboy!" exclaimed Phil, admiringly, Jerry thought,
+but the girl only laughed sarcastically.
+
+"You first," she demanded. "You're just watching for a chance to
+catch me off my guard. I'm onto you."
+
+Phil had no choice, so without more ado, he plunged in and began
+cutting the water neatly in the direction of the camp fire.
+
+"He swims well, doesn't he?" remarked the girl, so easily that Jerry
+could have sworn she was about ready to laugh.
+
+"He sure does!" he agreed. "He's got me beat a mile. Say," he
+coaxed, "we didn't mean any harm. We were just looking for a boy who
+was supposed to have got drowned up the river a piece but we believe
+landed here on Lost Island. Just tell me whether he's alive or not,
+and we won't bother you any more."
+
+"Oh, you're no bother. In fact, I rather enjoyed your little visit--
+though I will admit you scared me a bit when you held the knob of
+the door to the hangar----"
+
+"Hangar? What's that?"
+
+"It's--it's French for--woodshed," the girl stammered. "It's your
+turn now," motioning toward the water.
+
+"But won't you tell me about Tod?"
+
+"Did you ask my father about him?"
+
+"If it _was_ your father, yes."
+
+"And he didn't tell you!"
+
+"No, and he wouldn't let us search the island."
+
+"Well, I'm my father's daughter. So into the briny deep with you. I
+hope the fish don't bite you."
+
+"But, look here," began Jerry, then fell silent and moved toward the
+waters edge, for the girl had picked up a handful of large pebbles
+and stood plumping them meaningly into the river.
+
+The water was warm, and aside from his clothes, Jerry did not mind
+the swim. After he had stroked along perhaps a third of the way, he
+turned on his back. The light had disappeared from shore. He had a
+moment's impulse to turn back, but was afraid she might be waiting
+in the darkness to greet him with a laugh and an invitation to take
+to the water again.
+
+He turned once more and swam steadily across the current. But after
+a little, once more he turned on his back, only kicking occasionally
+to keep himself afloat. He fancied he had heard some noise that did
+not belong with the night.
+
+There it was again, that regular beat as of wood striking against
+wood. He listened intently, trying to place the sound. Finally, it
+dawned on him that it was a boat, rowed by means of a pair of loose
+oars.
+
+His mind worked quickly. It could not be the Boy Scout boat, for the
+sound was not right for that. It could only be the man of the
+island, "Lizzie's" father--she had as much as said he was away. At
+any rate, Jerry decided, he would wait there and find out. If the
+worst came to the worst he could always dive out of sight.
+
+Nearer and nearer came the boat. Jerry lay in the water with only
+his nose showing. He was too heavy-boned to be very good at
+floating, but the barest movement of hands or feet kept him from
+going under. At first he could make out nothing, but as his eyes
+focused more sharply he distinguished a slow-moving shape against
+the gray of the sky. It was barely twenty feet away, headed almost
+directly at him.
+
+A few noiseless strokes put him inside the boat's path, but when he
+stopped paddling he realized to his horror that the boat had changed
+direction and was cutting in toward the island. It was almost upon
+him when he dived.
+
+He was not quick enough. The landward oar caught him a flat blow
+across his eyes. Blinded, dazed, his mouth full of water, he flung
+up his arms. He had a vague sense of having caught hold of
+something, and he held on. Through a sort of mist he heard a voice
+saying laughingly:
+
+"Hit a snag, John. Better be careful or you'll wreck the ship in
+sight of harbor."
+
+Little by little Jerry's head cleared and he realized that he had
+caught hold of the stern of the boat. He could not see over the
+edge, but he could tell that there were two people in the boat, both
+men. They talked fitfully, but for the most part their voices came
+to Jerry only as meaningless mumbles. Once more the dark outline of
+Lost Island lay before him, and in Jerry's heart arose a new hope
+that perhaps this time he would not come away empty-handed. The boat
+grounded on the beach where he and Phil had stood only a few minutes
+before. The man who had been at the oars jumped out and pulled the
+boat well up on shore. Jerry, finding that he could touch bottom,
+had let go and now stood well hidden in the water.
+
+"You might as well wait here in the boat," said the one who had gone
+ashore. "I won't be gone but a minute."
+
+He moved up the bank. It was the same man Jerry had encountered
+twice before on his island visits. But who was the man in the boat?
+Jerry wished he dared come closer.
+
+The minutes passed slowly, and the water did not feel as warm as it
+had at first. He was greatly relieved when once more he heard the
+rustle of someone coming through the tall grass. But though the
+sound came nearer and nearer, Jerry, his nerves literally on end,
+found the wait a long one. Would the man never get there?
+
+But the delay was quickly explained. There were two instead of one
+crunching across the beach, and the other stumbled as he walked and
+would have fallen more than once had it not been for the supporting
+arm of his companion. Jerry could have shouted from joy had he
+dared, for some instinct told him that that swaying form belonged to
+no one but his chum, Tod Fulton.
+
+And then, in an instant, the mystery was all made clear--at least
+for the instant. The man in the boat rose and struck a match so that
+the other could see to help wobbly Tod to a seat. As the light
+flared up full, Jerry had a good sight of the face of the man who
+stood waiting.
+
+It was Mr. Fulton!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+"TO-MORROW IS THE DAY!"
+
+
+And then it was that Jerry saw that the temporary clearing of the
+mystery only made things darker than ever. For, why should Tod be
+rescued in this weird fashion? Why had the man refused to let Tod's
+friends come on the island? And why, why had Mr. Fulton laughed at
+Jerry's story--and yet followed his clue in this stealthy way?
+Jerry, up to his nose in the water, and deeper than that in
+perplexity, saw that the whole affair was really no longer the
+mystery of Tod Fulton's disappearance, but the mystery of Lost
+Island.
+
+So, although he now felt safe from bodily harm, because of Mr.
+Fulton's presence, he made no sign, but waited there a scant dozen
+feet beyond the stern of the boat. He heard Tod answer a few low-
+toned questions of his father, but could not make out either
+question or answer. He saw Mr. Fulton pick up the oars and poise
+them for a sweep, dropping the blades into the water to exchange a
+last sentence with the shadow who stood waiting on the bank.
+
+"Everything all right, then, Billings!"
+
+"Varnish on the left plane cracked pretty badly, Mr. Fulton. I had
+to scrape it off and refinish it. It really ought to have another
+day to dry."
+
+Jerry repeated, puzzled, to himself: "Left plane--what in thunder's
+that?"
+
+Billings went on:
+
+"You won't forget to bring the timer. Elizabeth will get it at the
+usual place if you can leave it by noon."
+
+"It'll be there, Billings."
+
+Not a word more was said as the boat was swung about and headed out
+into the stream, save that Mr. Fulton chuckled:
+
+"Old Billings rather had you worried, eh, son, until he gave you my
+message?"
+
+Tod laughed, so heartily that Jerry, who had watched his chance to
+cut out into the wake of the boat and hold on behind with one hand,
+could not himself forbear a little happy ripple.
+
+"What was that?" exclaimed Mr. Fulton, a full minute after.
+
+"I don't know," answered Tod. "I was waiting for it to come again.
+Sounded like--only _he_ couldn't be here."
+
+"Who couldn't?"
+
+"It sounded like a laugh--and there's only one person, outside of a
+billygoat, who's got a gurgle like that."
+
+"Your wetting didn't tame you down any, did it? Who's the goat you
+had in mind?"
+
+"Jerry King--_well_, what in the world!"
+
+Over the back of the boat clambered a dripping, wrathful figure.
+
+"I'll be switched if I'm going to be dragged along at the tail of
+this scow and be insulted any longer. I laugh like a billygoat, do
+I? For two cents I'd scuttle the ship!"
+
+But Jerry's anger was more put on than real, and under Mr. Fulton's
+banter and Tod's grateful appreciation of the attempted rescue, he
+soon calmed down.
+
+"What was the matter with you back there on the island? We heard you
+groaning as if you'd green-appled yourself double."
+
+"Groaning? Me groaning? Huh! Say, next time you go bearding damsels
+in distress and rescuing castaway fishermen, you learn how to tell
+the difference between a bulldog who's whining to get out and get at
+you, and a wounded hero. It's a good thing you didn't have a chance
+to follow up that 'groan'--you'd have _groan_ wiser."
+
+"One more like that, Tod," suggested Mr. Fulton wearily, "and I
+think I'll take a hand myself."
+
+"But why," Jerry wanted to know, "didn't you come back home right
+away--if you weren't hurt?"
+
+"Oh, but I was. You try going over that dam once and see if your
+insides-out don't get pretty well mixed up. I got a terrific thump
+on the back of the head when the boat turned turtle, and if I hadn't
+had a leg under the seat, I'd be in Davy Jones' locker right now.
+When I came to I didn't know whether I was me or the boat. I had
+gallons of water in me and--and I think I swallowed a worm or two;
+the bait can got tipped over--and all the worms were gone--
+somewhere."
+
+"But why did you stay----" Jerry began, feeling vaguely that Tod was
+talking so much to keep him from asking questions. But he was not
+allowed even to ask this one, for Mr. Fulton interrupted with:
+
+"I got busy right away after you had told me about your Lost Island
+clue, and soon got a message through to--to Mr. Billings there. When
+he told me Tod was safe and sound, I thought I'd wait until I had
+finished some important business I just couldn't leave. That's how
+it was so late before I got here."
+
+"Mr. Billings came and got you, didn't he?" remarked Jerry, trying
+to keep the suspicion out of his voice. If they had a secret that
+was none of his business, _he_ wouldn't pry.
+
+"Yes," said Mr. Fulton, and made no further explanation.
+
+"But there were two of you on the island after me, weren't there?
+Who was the other hero?" Tod wanted to know.
+
+"Where were you, that you knew there were two of us?"
+
+"I was all doubled up in that little anteroom where the dog was--
+doubled up laughing." Then he added hastily, thinking he had teased
+poor Jerry far enough: "But I was locked in."
+
+"Why locked in, if Mr. Billings had gone to bring your father?
+Afraid you'd up and rescue yourself?" Jerry's tone was downright
+sarcastic.
+
+"No, Jerry--you see, the island--that is," looking toward Mr. Fulton
+as if for permission to go on, "that is, there's something going on
+on Lost Island that Mr. Billings figures isn't anybody else's
+business, and he didn't want to take chances of my nosing around."
+
+"I see," said Jerry dryly. "So of course rather than row you across
+to dry land himself he brought your father here to get you. It's all
+as plain as the wart on a pumpkinhead's nose!"
+
+"Now, Jerry, you're getting way up in the air without any cause.
+I'll tell you this much, because I think you've got a right to know:
+Mr. Billing's secret really is mine. Just as soon as I dare I'll
+tell you all about it. But what became of your friend--if there
+_were_ two of you?"
+
+"I was so peeved that I forgot all about Phil. It's Phil Fulton----"
+
+"What!" cried Tod. "Cousin Phil. Where is he?"
+
+"Standing on the bank just opposite Lost Island and figuring out how
+soon he ought to give me up for drowned or hand-axed by a savage
+female. He may have gone for the sheriff by this time--or the
+coroner. Better take me to shore here and I'll go back."
+
+Mr. Fulton began pulling the boat toward shore. "How did he happen
+to get into this?" he asked.
+
+Jerry told him the whole story of the encounter with the Boy Scouts.
+"They've pitched camp there, so I guess I'll see if they can dry me
+out and put me up for the night," he finished.
+
+As the boat neared shore Tod began to show signs of suppressed
+excitement. Finally, as Jerry was about to jump out into the shallow
+water, being already soaked through, Tod began coaxingly:
+
+"Why couldn't I go on with Jerry, dad? You told me you'd let me go
+camping with the bunch, don't you remember? And I promised Phil I'd
+show him the best bass lake in the country----"
+
+"I ought to take you back to town and let Doc Burgess look you over.
+Maybe the bones are pressing on your brain where you bumped your
+head. You act like it. But the fact is I _didn't_ want to go back to
+Watertown--I ought to chase right down to Chester for that timer. It
+was promised for to-morrow, and there isn't a minute to be lost.
+There aren't any falls down this way, are there?" he asked with mock
+seriousness.
+
+"Come on, dad, say I can go!" begged Tod.
+
+"We-l-l," hesitated Mr. Fulton, "suppose we say I'll let you stay
+till morning--or night, rather. Then we'll see."
+
+Jerry jumped out at this point and splashed his way to shore. He had
+a feeling that the two might want to talk without being overheard.
+Apparently he was right, as for a good five minutes the two
+conversed in low tones. Jerry tried his best not to hear what was
+said, but every now and then a sentence reached his ears. But it was
+so much Greek as far as he was concerned.
+
+He had walked inland a bit, finally striking the narrow path that
+fishermen had cut along the top of the high bank. It swung back
+toward the edge, cut off from view by a rank growth of willows. He
+noticed that the boat had drifted downstream until it now stood
+almost opposite him, and only a few feet from shore. Thus it was
+that, as Mr. Fulton backed water with his left-hand oar and rammed
+the nose of the boat toward the shelving beach, he heard one
+complete sentence, distinct and understandable.
+
+"It's up to you, Tod, to get them away. We can't afford any
+complications at this stage of the game. To-morrow is the day!"
+
+"Trust me, dad!" exclaimed Tod, going up and giving his father's
+shoulder a squeeze. Jerry waited for no more. Bending low, he
+scurried far down the path, so that Tod could have no suspicion that
+his chum had overheard.
+
+"Are you coming?" he shouted when he felt that he had gone far
+enough.
+
+"Hold up a second and I'll be with you. Good night, dad."
+
+"Good night, Mr. Fulton," shouted Jerry in turn, then waited for
+Tod.
+
+The journey to the Boy Scout camp was made in silence, for Jerry did
+not feel that he dared ask any more questions, and Tod volunteered
+no further explanation. Just outside the ring of light cast by the
+deserted camp fire, however, Jerry halted and asked:
+
+"Thought what you'll tell _them?_"
+
+"Why, no. Just what I told you, Jerry."
+
+"You can't--unless you tell them more. They'd never be satisfied
+with _that_."
+
+"I'm sorry, Jerry. I'd like to tell you the whole yarn, but--but you
+see how it is."
+
+"I don't but I guess I can wait. Only I do think you ought to have
+something cooked up that would stop their questions. Will you leave
+it to me?"
+
+"Surest thing you know. What'll you say?"
+
+"That's my secret. You play up to my leads, that's all you've got to
+do. _Hello_, bunch!" he shouted.
+
+"Wow! Hooray! There he is!" came cries of delight from the darkness
+in the direction of the river, and a moment later the boys, who had
+been almost frantic with worry over the non-appearance of Jerry,
+came trooping up. When they found Tod with him, their joy was
+unbounded. Their excited questions and exclamations of surprise gave
+Jerry a much-needed instant in which to collect his story-inventing
+wits. At last Phil quieted down his dancing mob and put the question
+Jerry had been awaiting:
+
+"How did you do it?"
+
+"That's the funny part of it. I didn't. Tod's dad came along and did
+it for me."
+
+"I hope he beat up that old grouch----"
+
+"Huh, you got another guess coming. They're old friends----yes," as
+a cry of unbelief went up, "that's why Tod was in no hurry to be
+rescued. His name's Billings, and Mr. Fulton used to be in business
+with him. Is yet, isn't he, Tod?"
+
+"Uhuh--I think so."
+
+"Well, you may know there's fish around Lost Island. Billings is
+what I call a fish hog. He don't want anybody to know about the
+place--wants it all for himself. Tod drifts onto the island and the
+man can't very well throw _him_ off, half drowned as he is. Then,
+when he gets the water out of Tod, all but his brain, he finds it's
+the son of his partner, and he can't very well throw him off _then_.
+There's a girl on that mound out there, and she comes in with a
+string of the biggest fish you ever saw. You couldn't drive Tod off
+with a club after that. After the fish, I mean, not the girl. He
+gets a message to his father, and makes his plans to stay there all
+summer, but dad comes down to-night and spoils his plans by dragging
+him off. He kind of thinks he doesn't want all the fish dragged out
+by the tails--he likes to hook a few big ones himself. I'd got out
+into the middle of the Plum when I heard the sound of prodigious
+weeping--it was Tod, saying a last farewell to the big fishes--and
+the little girl.
+
+"So I swam back. And here he is and here I am, and we're both
+pledged not to go back on Lost Island."
+
+"Righto!" cried Tod, in great relief, Jerry could plainly see. "And
+dad asked me to coax you chaps to keep away from old Billings--he's
+a regular bear, anyway. But to make up for that, to-morrow I'm going
+to take you to the swellest pickerel lake you ever laid eyes on."
+
+"You mean _bass_ lake, don't you?" asked Jerry maliciously.
+
+"Pickerel and bass," agreed Tod without an instant's hesitation.
+"Let's turn in; we want to make an early start."
+
+It was late, however, before the camp was finally quiet, for someone
+started a story, and that brought on another and another, till half
+of the Scouts fell asleep sitting bolt upright.
+
+But as one lone boy, the last awake, rolled near the fire in his
+borrowed blanket, he chuckled knowingly to himself and said:
+
+"Foxy old Tod! Dad sure can 'trust' him. But I'm just going to be
+curious enough to block his little game so far as I'm concerned.
+_I'm_ going to stick around!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+A MID-AIR MIRACLE
+
+
+Jerry had a hard time next morning explaining just why he couldn't
+go along on the proposed fishing trip. Tod was inclined to accept
+his excuses at face value, but Dave and Frank could not understand
+why Jerry should so suddenly about-face in his notions. Just the day
+before he had talked as if he was prepared to stay a week. But his
+promise of a speedy return--with his own fishing tackle--finally
+silenced their grumblings, especially when he agreed to make their
+peace with two mothers who would be asking some pretty hard
+questions on their own return.
+
+But Jerry was not to get away without taking part in an incident
+that almost provided a disagreeable end for the adventure. It was
+while they were all at breakfast. Tod had been giving a glorious
+account of the thrilling sport he had enjoyed on his last trip to
+the bass lake he promised to guide them to. Suddenly, in the midst
+of a sentence, he stopped dead. His jaw dropped. He positively
+gasped.
+
+"_There she is!_"
+
+Then his face became blank. After a hasty glance about the circle of
+astonished faces, he went on with his fish story. But he was not
+allowed to go far.
+
+It was Phil, taking a cousin's rights, who put the sharp question.
+
+"Is your mind wandering, or what? 'There she is!' Who is _she_--and
+where? We don't want to hear your old fish yarn anyway."
+
+"I guess he's still thinking of that island girl," suggested Jerry,
+realizing that Tod had put himself into some kind of a hole, and
+wishing to help his chum out. But Phil was not to be so easily
+satisfied.
+
+"There's something mighty queer about this whole proposition. That
+yarn of yours last night, Jerry, didn't sit very easy on my pillow,
+and it doesn't rest very easy on my breakfast, either. What's the
+idea? What you trying to hide, you two?"
+
+"Nothing," said Tod, and Jerry repeated the word.
+
+ "Nothing! You make me tired. Now, out with it. I swam across that
+creek last night in my clothes on account of you, and I figure
+you've got a right to tell me why."
+
+"And I figure you've got a right to believe me when I told you why
+last night."
+
+"You didn't. You left it to Jerry to cook up a story that would keep
+us from asking questions. And now you yell out, 'There she is!' and
+sit there gaping at the sky, with your mouth wide open as if you
+expected a crow to lay an egg on your tongue. What does it all
+mean?"
+
+"It means I'm still capable of taking care of my own business!"
+snapped Tod.
+
+"Oh--very well. After this I'll let you."
+
+It was an uncomfortable group that sat about the rest of the
+breakfast, even after Tod had begged his cousin's pardon for
+ungrateful loss of temper, and Phil had said that it was "all
+right."
+
+Jerry was afraid for awhile that the fishing trip would be called
+off, but in the boisterous horseplay that went with the washing of
+the scanty dishes, all differences were forgotten, especially when
+Phil, scuffling in friendly fashion, put Tod down on his back and
+pulled that squirming wrestler's nose till he shouted "Enough!"
+
+It was with feelings of mingled amusement and relief that Jerry
+watched the noisy crowd pile into the two boats, the Scout boat and
+the _Big Four_, and paddle downstream, soon to be lost sight of
+behind Lost Island. His satisfaction was somewhat lessened by the
+fact that Phil had felt it necessary that one of their number remain
+behind to stand guard over the camp, but Jerry was sure that he
+would have no great trouble in keeping away from Frank Willis,
+trusting that "Budge" would live up to his reputation.
+
+He began well, for hardly was the camp deserted before he went back
+to his blankets. "Now some folks like fishing," he yawned, "and I do
+too when the fish don't bite too fast; but I like sleep. It's good
+for what ails you, and it's good if nothing ails you. Take it in
+regular doses or between meals--it always straightens you out."
+
+Jerry did not argue with him. A few minutes later his regular
+breathing told the world at large and Jerry in particular that so
+far as one Budge was concerned the coast was clear.
+
+As a matter of fact, Jerry did not feel that there would be anything
+to see until late in the afternoon at best. The conversation between
+Mr. Fulton and the man Billings had seemed to indicate that nothing
+out of the ordinary was to happen that day, but Mr. Fulton's parting
+words to Tod gave Jerry hope. "This is the day!" he had said.
+
+At any rate, he slipped out of camp and scouted about for a
+comfortable spot in which to keep an eye on Lost Island. But after
+he had sat there a half hour, he began to have twinges of the same
+disease that afflicted Budge and he saw that it would be necessary
+for him to move about a bit in order to stay awake. He regretted
+having left the camp without a fishing pole; that would at least
+give him something to do to pass the time away. With something like
+that in mind he started back toward the shady place where he had
+left Budge snoozing.
+
+But as the walk started his blood circulating again, and his brain
+became active once more, he had a new idea. "Old Tod's a sly fox,"
+he said to himself. "He's not going to be among the missing when the
+fun is on. He's going to take them down to his bass lake, and then
+he's going to slip away. He'll have to come back by land, so he'll
+probably take them to Last Shot Lake. It'll take them an hour to get
+there, but he can come back afoot in half that time if he's in a
+hurry--and I guess he is. He most likely will hang around half an
+hour before he thinks it's safe to make his getaway. That's two
+hours all told. In some fifteen or twenty minutes he ought to come
+skulking along through the woods.
+
+"There's that hill yonder--it ought to make a good spy-post. Little
+Jerry bids these parts a fond adieu."
+
+Something like a strong quarter of a mile down the river, and
+perhaps that much inland, stood a lonesome hill, almost bare of
+trees save a clump of perhaps a dozen on the very summit. It was an
+ideal hiding place. Leaving the road after cutting through the river
+timber and following it a few hundred yards, he plunged into a dense
+growth of scrub oak and hazel brush that extended almost to the base
+of his hill.
+
+He came to one bare spot, perhaps an acre in extent, and was about
+to leave the shelter of the brush for the comparatively easy going
+of the weedy grass, when, almost opposite him, he saw a figure
+emerge from the trees.
+
+At first he thought it was Tod, and he chuckled to himself as he
+thought how quickly his guess had been proved true. But when a
+second stepped out close behind the first, Jerry realized that
+neither one was his friend, even before he noticed that both were
+carrying rifles.
+
+A pair of hunters, no doubt, Jerry surmised, although he wondered
+idly what they would be hunting at this season of the year. Rabbits
+were "wormy" and the law prohibited the shooting of almost
+everything else. But "City hunters," Jerry derided, "from their
+clothes. They think bluejays and crows are good sport."
+
+That the hunters were looking for birds was evident, for they kept
+their eyes turned toward the tree-tops. Thus it was that they did
+not see Jerry crouching in the brush a scant dozen feet from where
+they broke into the woods again. He was near enough to overhear them
+perfectly, but not a word could he understand, for they were talking
+very earnestly together in some outlandish tongue that, as Jerry
+said, made him seasick to try to follow. But as they talked they
+pointed excitedly, first toward the sky and then straight ahead, and
+that part of their conversation was perfectly understandable to the
+boy.
+
+A sudden wild thought entered his mind. Here were two hunters out in
+the woods at a time when no real sportsmen carried anything but rods
+and landing nets. The mystery of their purpose reminded him of
+another mystery, and immediately his mind connected the two, even
+before he noticed the constant recurrence of a word that sounded
+much as a foreigner would pronounce "Lost Island." Jerry realized,
+even as the thought passed through his mind, that it was the wildest
+kind of guess, but it was enough to set him stealthily picking his
+way through the brush in the wake of the two.
+
+He saw, just in time to avoid running smack into them, that just
+before they reached the road, although now out of the heavier woods,
+they had stopped and were talking together more excitedly than ever.
+Something had happened, Jerry realized at once, but he could not
+puzzle out what it was, although he looked and listened as intently
+as they seemed to be doing. He was about to give it up in disgust,
+when he became conscious of a queer droning noise, as of a swarm of
+bees, or a distant threshing machine. Strangely, the sound did not
+seem to be coming from the woods or fields about him, but from the
+blank sky itself.
+
+Then he remembered how Tod had acted at breakfast--how he too, like
+these men, had been apparently staring into space. Jerry read the
+newspapers; he was an eager student of one of the scientific
+magazines; he had sat in Mr. Fulton's basement workshop and listened
+to many a discussion of the latest wonders of invention. But even
+then he did not at once realize that the sound he had been hearing
+really came from the sky, and that the purring noise was the whir of
+the propellers of an aeroplane.
+
+He looked for a full minute at the soaring speck against the blue
+sky before he exclaimed aloud. "I'll be darned--an airship!"
+
+Fortunately, the two men were too engaged to pay any attention to
+sounds right beside them. But Jerry glanced hastily in their
+direction as he dropped back into the shelter of a big clump of
+elderberry. Then he looked again. There could be no doubt the two
+were following the flight of the aeroplane. They stepped off a few
+feet to the right and Jerry could see only their shoulders and heads
+above the bushes. He was curious to see better what they were doing,
+but he dared not cross the open ground between. So instead he turned
+his attention again to the soaring man-bird.
+
+It was coming closer. It swung down lower and circled in over Lost
+Island, barely a hundred feet above the tree-tops. A sudden cry from
+the two men drew his eager eyes away from the approaching aircraft,
+but he looked back just in time to witness a wonderful sight.
+
+Motionless, poised like a soaring hawk, the aeroplane, its propeller
+flashing in the sunlight, hung over Lost Island. For fully six
+seconds it remained there, not moving an inch. Suddenly it lurched,
+dropped half the distance to the trees, the yellow planes snapping
+like gun-shots. It looked as if it would be wrecked, and Jerry
+started forward as if to go to the rescue. In the half instant he
+had looked away, the machine had righted and purring like an
+elephant-size pussy, was darting out over the water. A cheer sounded
+faintly from Lost Island; Jerry wanted to cheer himself.
+
+Now he heard another kind of sound, but this time there was no doubt
+in his mind as to its source. There could be no mistaking the put-
+put-put of a single cylinder motor boat. It was coming up Plum Run,
+probably from the "city"--Chester. He could see it swinging around
+into the channel from behind Lost Island. It crept close along
+shore, and with a final "put!" came to a stop just where the boat
+had landed the night before with Mr. Fulton. Three men crowded
+forward and jumped to shore; one of them, Jerry could have sworn,
+was Mr. Fulton himself.
+
+As if the pilot of the aeroplane had been waiting for their coming
+he circled back toward the island. He had climbed far into the blue,
+but came down a steep slant that brought him within two hundred feet
+of earth almost before one could gather his wits to measure the
+terrific drop. Out across Plum Run he swept in a wide circle, and
+Jerry saw that the aeroplane would pass almost directly overhead.
+
+He had forgotten all about the two men by this time, so keen was his
+interest in the daring aviator. He certainly had nerve, to go on
+with his flight after the accident that had so nearly ended his
+career only a minute back.
+
+And then Jerry was treated to a sight that made him rub his eyes in
+amazement. The accident was repeated--it had been no accident. Now
+only a hundred feet up, directly above him, the big machine seemed
+to quiver with a sudden increase or change of power. A rasping, ear-
+racking sound--a spurt of blue vapor--and the aeroplane did what no
+other flying machine had ever done before; it stopped stock-still in
+mid-air.
+
+Jerry could see every detail of the big machine, its glistening
+canvas, its polished aluminum motor and taut wires and braces. He
+could even see the pilot, leaning far over to one side, a smile of
+satisfaction on his face. Jerry could hardly resist shouting a word
+of greeting to the bold aeronaut.
+
+He did shout, but it was a cry of horror, for all in a moment, a
+streak of flame seemed to leap out of the motor, there was a fearful
+hiss of escaping gas, a report that fairly shook the tree-tops, and
+with planes crumpling under the tremendous pressure of the air
+rushing past as it fell, the aeroplane plunged to earth. Yet, even
+in his intense excitement, Jerry, as he raced to where the flaming
+machine had fallen, caught at a fleeting impression: There had been
+two explosions, and the first seemed to come from close beside him.
+
+The aeroplane had come to earth a good hundred yards away, and Jerry
+made all speed in that direction. He passed the spot where the two
+men had been standing--they were still there, and seemed in no hurry
+to go to the rescue. One of them, Jerry noticed as he rushed by,
+shouting "Quick!" had just thrown his gun under his arm, but the
+action did not impress the boy at the time as having any
+significance.
+
+He raced on, the flaming wreck now in sight. He fairly flew through
+the last dense thicket and jumped out, just in time to collide with
+another hurrying figure. When the two picked themselves up, Jerry
+saw that it was Tod.
+
+"Hurry, Jerry," he cried. "I'm afraid that poor Billings is killed!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+AN EMPTY RIFLE SHELL
+
+
+In that few steps till they reached the smoking mass of wreckage,
+many things became clear to Jerry. He realized that Lost Island had
+been merely a building ground for Mr. Fulton's experiments in
+aeronautics, that this sorry looking ruin was his invention. He
+remembered the long, low shed on the island--that was the workshop.
+
+Then they were at the verge of the twisted and wrecked machine,
+frantically tugging at rods and splintered wood in an effort to get
+at the unconscious form covered by the debris. Fortunately there was
+no great weight to lift, and there was really no fire once the smoke
+of the explosion had cleared away. In a very few seconds they had
+dragged the man clear and laid him out flat on his back in a grassy
+spot, where Tod remained to fan the man's face while Jerry hurried
+toward camp for water. Blackened and bleeding as the man was, Jerry
+readily recognized him as Billings.
+
+He found Budge startled by the explosion and hesitating about
+leaving the camp unguarded to go to the rescue. Jerry's shouted
+command brought him galloping across the field with a pail of water,
+and the two boys made good speed on the way back. They found the man
+still unconscious but beginning to writhe about in pain.
+
+"I think his leg's broken," cried Tod, his face white with the
+strain of helpless waiting. "From the way he doubles up every little
+bit I think he must be hurt inside. The cuts that are bleeding don't
+seem to be very bad. Let me have the water."
+
+"Do you suppose we really ought to----" began Jerry, but paused, for
+Budge had answered his question effectually.
+
+Without a word he stooped over the moaning man. Outer clothes were
+taken off in a trice. Without jarring the man about, almost without
+moving him, garment by garment Budge gradually removed, replaced,
+examined, until every part of the man's anatomy had been looked
+over. Finally he straightened up, and for the first time the other
+two, who had stood helplessly by, saw how set and white the young
+Scout's face was.
+
+"Leg's broken all right," he said slowly. "So's his arm--and at
+least two ribs. Maybe more. Side's pretty badly torn and I think
+he's bleeding internally. We've got to get a doctor without a
+second's loss of time. Tod, you chase along like a good fellow and
+see how quick you can get to a telephone. Jerry, lend a hand here
+and we'll fix a splint for his leg--lucky it's fractured below the
+knee or we'd have a time. I don't know whether I can do anything for
+his ribs or not. Hustle up, Tod--what you standing there gaping
+for?"
+
+"Where--where'd you learn to do things like that?" blurted Tod, as
+he started away.
+
+"What? This?" in surprise. "Every Scout knows how to do simple
+things like this." And he turned back to his bandaging, for he had
+brought along the camp kit, with its gauze and cotton. Out came his
+big jackknife and he cut a thumb-sized willow wand, which he split
+and trimmed. In less than no time he had snapped the bone back into
+place and wound a professional looking bandage about the home-made
+splint. He was just about to turn his attention to the injured side
+when a great crackling in the brush caused both boys to turn.
+
+Three men came bounding across the open space, the foremost, Mr.
+Fulton.
+
+"Is he alive?" he exclaimed before he recognized the two boys.
+
+"Yes," answered Jerry, "but he's hurt pretty bad--inside, Budge
+says. Tod just----"
+
+"Tod! He here? Did he go after a doctor?"
+
+"Here he comes now. Did you get the doctor?" shouted Budge and Jerry
+together.
+
+"I got his office. It's our own Doctor Burgess. I got Mrs. Burgess
+and she says the doctor is out this way, and she'll get him by
+telephone--she can locate him better than I could. He ought to be
+here most any minute. I'm to watch for him along the road." Tod
+darted back toward the line of bushes that marked the highway.
+
+But it was a good half hour before a shout proclaimed the coming of
+the doctor, and in that time Budge had had a chance to show more
+evidences of his Scout training. After a hurried trip back to camp
+he fashioned bandages that held the broken ribs in place; he bound
+the scalp wound neatly, and stopped the flow of blood from an ugly
+scratch on the man's thigh. The others stood about, helping only as
+he directed. It was with a wholesome respect that they eyed him when
+the job was finished.
+
+But it took the doctor to sum their admiration up in one crisp
+"Bully--couldn't have done it better myself."
+
+He felt about gently and at last straightened up and remarked:
+
+"He's good enough to move, but not very far. Where's the nearest
+farmhouse?"
+
+"Half a mile, nearly," answered Tod.
+
+"I think he'd want to be taken--home," Mr. Fulton said hesitatingly.
+"If we could move him to the river bank I guess we could get him
+across all right--to Lost Island, you know. His daughter's there to
+nurse him."
+
+"Lost Island?" questioned the doctor, raising his eyebrows. "We-l-l--
+Son, can you make a stretcher?" turning to Budge.
+
+"Come on, Jerry. Back in a minute," called Budge over his shoulder
+to the doctor.
+
+Jerry followed to the Scout camp, where Budge caught up a pair of
+stout saplings that had been cut for tent poles but had not been
+needed.
+
+"Grab up a couple blankets," he directed, setting off again through
+the brush on a run. Jerry was well out of breath, having contrived
+to trip himself twice over the trailing blankets, when he finally
+rejoined the group. Budge reached out for the blankets and soon had
+a practical stretcher made, onto which the injured man was gently
+lifted. Mr. Fulton and one of the strangers took hold each of an end
+and they set out directly for the bank of Plum Run.
+
+For the first time Jerry had a chance to observe the two who had
+come with Tod's father. Heavy-set, rather stolid chaps they were,
+just beginning to show a paunch, and gray about the temples. They
+looked good-natured enough but gave the impression of being set in
+their ways, a judgment Jerry had no occasion to change later. They
+spoke with an odd sort of accent but were evidently used to
+conversing in English, although the first glance told that they were
+not Americans.
+
+They were plainly but expensively dressed; they looked like men of
+wealth rather than like business men. They had come to see Mr.
+Fulton's invention tried out, Jerry surmised, and, if it proved
+successful, perhaps to buy it. Those two men he had seen with the
+rifles were foreigners too, but of a different station in life and,
+Jerry was sure, belonging under a different flag.
+
+They were soon down to the water's edge, where was moored the launch
+Jerry had heard chugging over to the island not long before.
+Blankets were brought from the Scout camp and piled on the launch
+floor to make a comfortable bed, and poor Billings was carefully
+lifted from the stretcher and laid in the boat. The doctor and Mr.
+Fulton got in. The two men remained on the bank. Mr. Fulton looked
+at them questioningly, but their heavy faces gave no sign. So he
+asked:
+
+"You will wait for me, I trust! I don't want you to feel that this--
+accident----" he hesitated over the word--"makes the scheme a
+failure. There is something about it all that I can't understand,
+but a close examination may reveal----"
+
+"Ah, yes," answered the shorter of the two, "we will want to be just
+as sure of the failure as we insisted on being of the success. But
+you understand of course that we feel--ah--feel considerably--ah--
+disappointed in the trial flight. Oh, yes, we will wait for you. You
+will not be long?"
+
+"Just long enough for the doctor to find out what needs to be done.
+That slim youngster there is my son Tod. He knows almost as much
+about my--about _it_ as I do. Tod, you take care of Mr. Lewis and
+Mr. Harris till I come back. You'd best stay close to the
+_Skyrocket_; we don't want to take any chances, you know."
+
+All the time he had been talking he had been tinkering with the
+motor, which was having a little balky spell. At his last words
+Jerry spoke up hastily:
+
+"I'll chase over and keep an eye on the _Skyrocket_ while the rest
+of you take your time," and he hurried off, adding to himself:
+"_Skyrocket's_ a good name, 'cause it sure went up in a blaze of
+glory, and came down like the burnt stick." But he had other things
+in mind besides the mere watching of the wreck. At Mr. Fulton's
+hesitation over the word "accident" a picture had popped into his
+mind--two men carrying rifles and peering up over the tree-tops.
+
+He was destined to see them again, for as he crossed the road he
+heard a crackling in the underbrush of someone in hasty retreat. He
+blamed his thoughtlessness in whistling as he ran along; perhaps he
+might have caught them red-handed if he had been careful. As it was,
+he saw the two scurrying toward the south, whereas before they had
+been going northward.
+
+He did not go directly to the fallen aeroplane. Instead he picked
+his way carefully over the route the men had followed just after the
+explosion, stooping low and examining every spear of grass. His
+search was quickly rewarded. Just where the trampled turf showed
+that the two men had stood for some time he pounced upon a powder-
+blackened cartridge, bigger than any rifle shell he had ever seen
+before, even in his uncle's old Springfield. That was all, but it
+was enough to confirm his suspicions.
+
+He walked over to the charred and twisted remains of the
+_Skyrocket_, fighting down his strong impulse to pry into the thing
+and see if he could discover the secret of its astounding exploits
+before the crash came. It did not take more than the most fleeting
+glance to see, even with his limited knowledge of flying machines,
+that this one was very much different from the others. He was glad
+when the others came up to save him from yielding to his curiosity.
+
+Tod and the two men were deep in a discussion of Mr. Fulton's
+invention, but Jerry gained little by that, as most of the technical
+terms were so much Greek to him. Tod talked like a young mechanical
+genius--or a first-class parrot. The two men listened to his glowing
+praises in no little amusement, venturing a word now and then just
+to egg the boy on--though he needed none.
+
+Jerry waited for a chance to break in forcibly. "I say, Tod." he
+interrupted a wild explanation of the theory of the differential, "I
+expect I'd better chase along back home. I can just catch the
+interurban if I cut loose now. I--I want to hike back and spread the
+good news that you aren't decorating a watery grave."
+
+"I s'pose I'll have to stay here and help the Scouts mount guard
+over the relics here--when will you be back?"
+
+"To-morrow, maybe."
+
+"You can come back with dad. He'll probably come back to Watertown
+to-night, after he takes these two gentlemen to Chester in the
+launch. He'll probably want you to help him bring down some
+repairs."
+
+"You think he'll try to patch up the _Skyrocket?_" asked Jerry.
+"Doesn't look hardly worth while."
+
+"Worth while!" exploded Tod. "Is a half million dollars worth
+while?" Then he repented having spoken out so freely, reminded by
+the sharp glances of the two men. "Oh, Jerry's all right," he
+apologized. "Dad thinks as much of him as he does of me."
+
+"Well, I'll be off," said Jerry hurriedly. "Tell your father I'll
+see him either to-night or early in the morning--and that I've got
+something important to tell him."
+
+"About the _Skyrocket?_" demanded Tod eagerly, but Jerry only shook
+his head teasingly and began to hurry across the fields and woods to
+the interurban tracks.
+
+He was lucky, for hardly had he reached the road crossing before the
+familiar whistle sounded down the track. The motorman toot-tooted
+for him to get off the rails, as this was not a regular stop, but
+Jerry stood his ground and finally the man relented at the last
+minute and threw on the brakes.
+
+Watertown reached, Jerry could not hold his good news till he got
+home, but to every one he met he shouted the glad word that Tod
+Fulton had been found, alive and uninjured. The open disbelief with
+which his announcement was met gave him a lot of secret
+satisfaction. In fact, he could hardly restrain an occasional, "I
+told you so." His mother was the only one to whom he allowed himself
+to use that phrase, but then, he _had_ told her.
+
+He could hardly wait until Mr. Fulton should return from Chester, so
+eager was he to tell of his discovery there in the woods, but the
+slow day passed, and bedtime came without any sign of a light in the
+big house down the street. Reluctantly he finally went up to his
+room, but for a long time he sat with his nose flattened out on the
+window pane, watching patiently.
+
+At last he was rewarded. Out of the gloom of the Fulton house he saw
+a tiny point of light spring, followed by a flood of radiance across
+the lawn.
+
+"What are you doing, son?" came a deep masculine voice from the
+sitting room. "Thought you had gone to bed hours ago."
+
+"Mr. Fulton just came home, pa, and Tod told me to tell him----"
+
+"Guess it'll keep till morning, won't it? Besides, I expect Tod saw
+his father later than you did."
+
+"I'll be right back, dad----" this from just outside the kitchen
+door. "It's just awfully important----"
+
+The door banged to just then. Mr. Ring chuckled. He believed in
+letting boys alone.
+
+Jerry sped down the dark walk and jabbed vigorously at the special
+doorbell, hurried a little bit by the fact that as he came through
+the wide gate he had a feeling that the big gateposts did not cause
+all the shadow he passed through. "I'm getting nervous since I saw
+those two men to-day," he reminded himself. "I'll soon be afraid of
+my own shadow--but I hope it doesn't take to whispering too."
+
+Mr. Fulton came hurrying to the door, a big look of relief on his
+face when he saw who it was.
+
+"I couldn't wait till morning, Mr. Fulton. I just had to tell you I
+knew the _Skyrocket_ didn't fall of its own free will. I saw two men
+skulking in the woods. They both carried big rifles. I was sure I
+heard one of them go off just before the explosion came, and on the
+ground where they stood I found _this!_"
+
+He handed Mr. Fulton the rifle shell.
+
+"Good boy!" exclaimed the man, almost as excited as the youngster.
+"I'm beginning to see daylight. You keep all this under your hat,
+sonny, and come over as early in the morning as you can. We'll talk
+it over then, after I've had a chance to sleep on _this_." He
+indicated the cartridge. "Tell me, though--was one of the men a
+tall, lean chap with a sabre scar on his jaw----"
+
+"They were both heavy-set, scowly looking----" "Hm. That makes it
+all tangled again. Well, it may look clearer in the morning. Chase
+along, Jerry; I've got a busy night's work ahead of me. No," he
+added as Jerry began to speak, "you couldn't help me any. Not to-
+night. To-morrow you can."
+
+Jerry wanted to tell him about the whispering shadows, but hesitated
+because it sounded so foolish. His heart skipped a beat or two as he
+drew near the tall posts, but this time the gateway was as silent as
+the night about him.
+
+"Some little imaginer I am," he laughed to himself as he skipped
+back into the house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE GAME BEGINS
+
+
+The sun was not up earlier next morning than Jerry Ring. However, he
+waited till after breakfast before going over to rouse Mr. Fulton,
+Who would, he knew, sleep later after his strenuous night's work. He
+spent the time in an impatient arrangement and rearrangement of his
+fishing tackle, for he had a feeling in his bones that this visit to
+Lost Island might be more than a one-day affair.
+
+Mrs. Ring finally appeared on the scene, to tease him over his early
+rising. "I don't need to look for the fishing tackle when you get up
+ahead of me; I know it's there."
+
+But Jerry only grinned. His mother was a good pal, who never spoiled
+any of his fun without having a mighty good reason. Now he saw her
+setting about fixing up a substantial lunch, and he knew that there
+would be no coaxing necessary to gain her consent to his trip. He
+slipped up behind her unawares and kissed her smackingly on the back
+of the neck--perhaps that was one reason she was such a good pal.
+
+Breakfast over, Jerry caught up his pole and tackle box and hustled
+down the street. The Fulton house looked silent and deserted, he
+thought, as he reached up to push the secret button. The loud b-r-r-
+r echoed hollowly through the big house; Jerry sat down on the step
+to await the opening of the door, for he figured Mr. Fulton would be
+slow in waking up. But the minute he had allowed stretched into two,
+so he reached up and gave the button another vigorous dig. Still
+there was no response. Puzzled, he held the button down for fully a
+minute, the bell making enough racket to wake the dead. Vaguely
+alarmed, Jerry waited. No one came. Putting his mouth to the
+keyhole, he shouted: "Mr. Fulton--wake up--it's Jerry!"
+
+Then he put his ear against the door and listened for the footsteps
+he was sure would respond to his call. Silence profound. Again he
+shouted and listened. And then came a response that set him
+frantically tugging at the door--his name called, faintly, as if
+from a great distance.
+
+But the door did not yield. Jerry bethought himself of a lockless
+window off the back porch roof, which he and Tod had used more than
+once in time of need. He quickly shinned up the post and swung
+himself up by means of the tin gutter. In through the window,
+through the long hall and down the stairway he plunged, instinct
+taking him toward Mr. Fulton's bedroom-study. The door stood ajar.
+He pushed it open and looked in. A fearful sight met his eyes.
+
+On the bed, where he lay half undressed on top of the covers, was
+Mr. Fulton, blood streaming down his battered face. "What has
+happened?" gasped Jerry, seeing that the man's eyes were open. But
+there was no answer, and he saw that Mr. Fulton was too dazed to
+give any account of the events that had left him so befuddled. Jerry
+got water and bathed and dressed the deep cuts and bruises as best
+he could. The shock of the cold water restored the man's faculties
+in some measure and he finally managed a coherent statement.
+
+"It was your two friends, I guess. They broke in on me while I was
+working downstairs. One stood guard over me while the other
+ransacked the house. Then, when they couldn't find anything, they
+tried to force me to tell where my papers were hid. That was when I
+rebelled, and they pretty near did for me. I put up a pretty good
+scrap for a while, until one of them got a nasty twist on my arm. I
+guess the shoulder's dislocated; I can't move it. But I guess I left
+a few marks myself--that's why they were so rough. But all they got
+was the satisfaction of beating me up."
+
+"I wish I knew what it was all about," remarked Jerry. "I feel like
+a fellow at a moving picture show who came in about the middle of
+the reel. And there's nobody to tell me what happened before."
+
+"I guess there's no harm in telling _you_--now. You see, Jerry, the
+big outstanding feature of the war across the water has been the
+work done by two recent inventions, the submarine and the aeroplane.
+That set me thinking. The water isn't deep enough around here to do
+much experimenting with submarines, but there's dead oodles of air.
+So aeroplanes it had to be. Now, the aircraft have been a distinct
+disappointment, except as scouting helps, because the high speed of
+the aeroplanes makes accurate bomb-dropping almost impossible.
+
+"That was my starter. If I could perfect some means of stopping a
+machine in mid-flight, just long enough to drop a hundred pounds of
+destruction overboard with a ninety per cent chance of hitting the
+mark, I had it. Well, I got it. The _Skyrocket_ is the first
+aeroplane that can stop dead still--or was. I showed my model to the
+proper government officials, but even after I had cut my way through
+endless red tape I found only a cold ear and no welcome at all. I
+think the official I talked to had a pet invention of his own.
+
+"At any rate I was plumb disgusted. I finally took my idea to the
+business agent of a foreign power--and the reception I got almost
+took me off my feet. Meet me halfway! They pretty near hounded me to
+death till I finally consented to give them an option on the thing,
+But then my troubles began. The man who had made the deal with me
+had to step aside for a couple of old fogies who can't grasp
+anything they can't see or handle. I was about disgusted, when a
+friend introduced me to a friend of his, who hinted that there were
+other markets where the pay was better. The upshot of it was that I
+gave this man--as agent of course for _his_ government--a second
+option on the invention to hold good if no deal was made with the
+first party before August first, when option number one expires.
+
+"Mr. Lewis and Mr. Harris represent--well, the name of the country
+doesn't make any difference, but they hold the first option. They
+are cautious; they won't buy unless they can see a complete machine
+that works perfectly. The others are willing to buy the idea
+outright, just as it stands.
+
+"Of course I have no proof that the two men you saw--and they are
+the same I am sure as the two who burglarized me--have anything to
+do with my invention, but I'd venture a guess that their aim is to
+prevent my being able to demonstrate my machine before August first.
+What do you think?"
+
+"I think we'd better be getting busy."
+
+"There's nothing to do. Of course, I don't lose any money by it--I
+gain some. But I hate to sell my idea to a gang of cutthroats and
+thieves. I resent being black-handed into a thing like that. But
+with Billings laid out, the _Skyrocket_ wrecked and myself all
+binged up, there's little chance. I suppose I could get a lot of
+mechanics and turn out a new plane in time, but I don't know where I
+could get men I could trust. Like as not those two villains, or
+their employer, would manage to get at least one of their crew into
+the camp, and there'd be a real tragedy before we got through."
+
+"I tell you what," suggested Jerry. "If you feel strong enough to
+manage it, you come over to the house and let ma get you some
+breakfast. Then you'll feel a little more hopeful--ma's breakfasts
+always work that way," he said loyally. "There is bound to be a way
+out of this mix-up, and we'll find it or know the reason why."
+
+Over a savory pile of pancakes Mr. Fulton did grow more hopeful,
+especially when Jerry began to outline a scheme that had been
+growing in his mind. He began by asking questions.
+
+"Do you have to have such skilled mechanics to make those repairs?"
+
+"Well, no, not as long as I have skilled eyes to oversee the job. A
+good deal of it is just dub work. Most anybody could do it if he was
+told how. I could do the directing easy enough; but I'm not left-
+handed. However, I'll chase downtown and let Doc Burgess look me
+over; maybe my shoulder isn't as bad as it feels. But I'm afraid my
+right arm is out of the fight for at least a couple of weeks--and
+there's just two weeks between now and August first. I'd not be much
+good except as a boss, and a boss isn't much good without somebody
+to stand over. So there you are, right back where we started."
+
+"Not on your life! We're a mile ahead, and almost out of the woods.
+If you can boss dubs, and get anything out of them, why I know where
+you can get at least nine of them, and they're all to be trusted--
+absolutely."
+
+"Tod could help a lot, and I suppose you are one of the dubs, but
+where are the rest?"
+
+"Phil Fulton and his Boy Scouts----"
+
+"My nephew, you mean, from Chester? I suppose I could get him, but
+just what are these Boy Scouts?"
+
+"You've been so interested in your experiments that you don't know
+what the rest of the world is doing. Never heard of the Boy Scouts?"
+Jerry, secure in his own recent knowledge, was openly scornful.
+
+"Oh, yes, now that you remind me, I do remember of reading about
+some red-blooded boy organization--a little too vigorous for chaps
+like you and Tod, eh?" he teased.
+
+"You'll see what happens before the summer is ended. But that isn't
+helping _us_ out any, now. Phil's patrol is down there with Tod
+right this minute, and I bet you they know a thing or two about
+mechanics. That seems to be their specialty--knowing something about
+most everything. I'm mighty sure that if you tell us what to do, we
+can do it. We may not know a lot about the why of it, but we're
+strong on following instructions."
+
+"I'd be willing to take a chance on you fellows if it wasn't for the
+time. The _Skyrocket's_ a complete wreck. It took Billings a good
+many times two weeks to build her up in the first place----"
+
+"But you're not losing anything. The boys would be tickled to death
+to tackle it, and if we do lose out finally, why we've lost nothing
+but the time. It's like a big game----"
+
+"Yes," observed Mr. Fulton dryly. "A big game, with the handicaps
+all against us. If we win, we lose money, and we have the pleasant
+chance of getting knocked over the head most any night."
+
+"But that isn't the idea. A set of foreigners are trying to force
+some free-born Americans to do something we don't want to do. Are we
+going to let them?"
+
+"Not by a jugfull!" exclaimed Mr. Fulton, getting up painfully from
+his chair. "I'll go on down to the doctor--I expect I should have
+first thing, before I started to stiffen up. You go ahead to Lost
+Island, and see what can be done toward picking up the pieces and
+taking the _Skyrocket_ over to the island. If there are enough
+unbroken pieces we may have a chance. I'll be along by noon."
+
+He hobbled down the street and Jerry, after telling his mother what
+had happened, and getting reluctant consent to his extended absence,
+gathered together a few necessaries and made all speed for the
+interurban. There was no temptation to go to sleep this time, for
+his thoughts were racing madly ahead to the exciting plan to beat
+the schemers who had wrecked the _Skyrocket_. At the same time he
+was conscious of a disappointed feeling in his heart; why could it
+not have been the United States that had bought the invention? That
+would have made the fight really worth while. For, to tell the
+truth, the two unenthusiastic owners of the first option did not
+appeal to him much more than did the others.
+
+He found the whole Boy Scout crew gathered about the _Skyrocket_,
+having given up a perfectly wonderful fishing trip to guard the
+airship. Jerry quickly told the story of the morning's events to
+Phil, interrupted at every other sentence by the rest of the excited
+Scouts. The whole affair appealed to their imaginations, and when he
+came to the proposition he had made Mr. Fulton, there was no doubt
+of their backing up his offer.
+
+"Let's get busy!" shouted Dick Garrett, Assistant Patrol Leader. "We
+ought to be all ready to move across by the time Mr. Fulton gets
+here."
+
+And he started toward the wreck as if to tear the thing apart with
+his bare hands and carry it piecemeal to the banks of the Plum.
+
+"We won't get far, that way, Dick," observed Phil. "First of all we
+want a plan of action. And before that, we need to investigate, to
+see just how much damage has been done and how big the pieces are
+going to be that we'll have to carry."
+
+"But we don't know the first thing about how the contraption works,"
+objected Dick, somewhat to Jerry's satisfaction, for there was a
+little jealous thought in his heart that Phil would naturally try to
+take away from him the leadership in the plan. But Phil soon set his
+mind at rest.
+
+"We don't need to know how it works. All we need to know is whether
+we have to break it apart or if we can carry it down mostly in one
+piece. First, though, we've got to organize ourselves. Jerry's the
+boss of this gang, and as Patrol Leader I propose to be straw-boss.
+Anybody got any objections? No? Well, then, Boss Jerry, what's
+orders?"
+
+Much pleased, Jerry thought over plans. A workable one quickly came
+to him. "First of all we'll follow out your idea, Phil. Let's all
+get around it and see if we can lift it all together. Dave, you
+catch hold of that rod sticking out in front of you--it won't bite.
+Give him a hand, Budge. All right, everybody! Raise her easy--_so_."
+
+To their unbounded relief, nearly all the aeroplane rose together.
+One plane, it is true, gave one final c-c-r-rack! as the last whole
+rod on that side gave way; but the rest, twisted all out of shape
+and creaking and groaning, held together in one distorted mass.
+
+"All right," commanded Jerry; "let her down again--easy, now. That's
+the ticket. Now, Frank--the two Franks--you scout ahead and pick us
+out a clear trail to the water. You'll have to figure on a good
+twenty-foot clearance.
+
+"I guess we might as well finish the work you young Sandows started.
+I see that the right plane--or wing or whatever you call it--is just
+as good as gone. We'll cut her away and that'll give us a better
+carrying chance."
+
+"Why not take her all apart while we're at it, Jerry?" suggested
+Phil. "We'll have to anyway to get her over to the island."
+
+"Just leave it to me and we won't. I've got a little scheme. Who's
+got a heavy knife with a sharp big blade in it?"
+
+"That's part of our Scout equipment," answered Phil proudly. "Come
+on, Scouts, the boss says whack away the right wing."
+
+"Wing?" grunted Fred Nelson, hacking vainly at the tough wood.
+"Feels more like a drumstick to me!" Although the rods were
+splintered badly they did not yield readily to the knives. The two
+trail scouts returned long before the task of clearing away the
+plane was finished.
+
+"There's a fairly easy way if we go around that hazel thicket and
+make for the road about a hundred yards south of here, then come
+back along the road to that cut-over piece by the little creek, go
+in through there to the river trail, and along that, south again,
+till we come just about straight across from here," reported the
+two.
+
+"All right. Now one of you stay here and mount guard over the left-
+behinds, while the other goes ahead and shows us the way. How's the
+knife brigade coming on?"
+
+"Ready any time you are. What's next?"
+
+"Line up on each side the stick of the _Skyrocket_, and we'll pick
+her up and tote her to the beach. Back here, Dave, you and Barney;
+we need more around the motor--it weighs sixteen ounces to the
+pound. All set now? Right-o--pick her up. Lead ahead, Frank."
+
+The unwieldy load swayed and threatened to buckle, and more than
+once they had to set it down and find new holds, but the winding
+road picked out by Frank Ellery was followed without any serious
+mishap, until at last they stood on the high bank overlooking the
+wide stretch of sandy beach beyond which Plum Run rippled along in
+the sunshine.
+
+"Set her down--gently, now," ordered Jerry. "We'll let her rest here
+while we bring up our reinforcements--and the rest of our baggage.
+Phil, you take three Scouts and go back and bring in the wings.
+Leave Frank there until you've gathered up every last scrap. The
+rest of us will stay here to figure out some way of getting our
+plunder shipped safely across to Lost Island."
+
+"Go to it!" urged Phil mockingly. "You've got some job ahead of you.
+You figure out how a rowboat's going to float that load across--and
+let me know about it."
+
+"Yes," challenged a new voice, "you do that, and let me know about
+it too."
+
+Mr. Fulton had stepped unobserved through the border of trees and
+brush lining the river path.
+
+"Huh!" bragged Jerry. "If that was the hardest thing we had to do,
+we could use the _Skyrocket_ for a fireworks celebration to-night!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+PATCHING THE "SKYROCKET"
+
+
+But Jerry gave no explanation of the method he intended to use in
+transporting the unwieldy bulk across the narrow stretch of water.
+While Phil and his helpers disappeared, to bring up the rest of the
+aeroplane framework, he set his crew to work. The Scout camp, which
+was something like a hundred feet north, yielded a couple of
+trappers' axes; with these he soon had two stout saplings cut and
+trimmed to an even length of thirty feet. In the larger end of each
+he cut a deep notch, while to the smaller ends he nailed a good-
+sized block, the nails found in an emergency locker on the _Big
+Four,_ both it and the Boy Scout boat having been brought down and
+hauled up on the beach.
+
+The two boats were now laid side by side, twenty odd feet apart.
+Across the bows he laid the one sapling, across the sterns, the
+other, so that blocks and notches fitted down over the far edges of
+the boats. Mr. Fulton at once caught Jerry's idea and nodded his
+head approvingly.
+
+"All right," he said, "if the saplings will hold up the weight."
+
+"They don't need to," explained Jerry. "The _Skyrocket_ will reach
+over to the inner edges of the boats; I measured the distance with
+my eye. All the sticks do is to hold the two ships together."
+
+Phil's crew made two trips, on the second one bringing in Frank, who
+had wrapped up a weird collection of broken-off parts in a piece of
+varnish-stiffened silk torn from one of the planes,
+
+It did not take long to load the "body" of the _Skyrocket_ onto the
+saplings, the boats being still on shore. Then, all pushing
+steadily, the strange double craft was slowly forced across the sand
+and into the shallow shore-water of Plum Bun. Both boats settled
+dangerously near to the point of shipping water, so it was fortunate
+that the river was as calm as a millpond. At that, there was no hope
+that anyone could get in to row the boats.
+
+"Strip for action!" shouted Phil. "The boss says we're to swim
+across. Likewise, the last one in's a rotten egg."
+
+The splashing that ensued, as ten youngsters plunged in, almost in a
+body, nearly swamped the boats. After his first shout of alarm, Mr.
+Fulton waved his hand gayly and shouted:
+
+"Go to it, fellows. If the doctor didn't have my arm in a splint I'd
+be right with you."
+
+"All right, Scouts," assented Jerry, "but go mighty easy."
+
+They were all good swimmers, and with hardly a ripple they propelled
+the _Skyrocket_ slowly but steadily toward the shore of Lost Island.
+As they drew near they saw that they had spectators on both sides,
+for awaiting them was the girl Phil and Jerry had seen not so long
+before, but under different circumstances. Now she waved her hand
+encouragingly.
+
+"Oh, Liz-z-i-e!" shouted Phil, "where's the meat-axe?"
+
+For answer she caught up a pebble and sent it skimming in his
+direction, so close that Phil felt no shame in ducking, even if it
+did bring a great shout of laughter from his companions.
+
+But it was evident that "Lizzie" or Elizabeth Billings, as they soon
+came to call her, bore no ill will as she came down to the water's
+edge and awaited their coming. But the boys had no intention of
+making a landing so long as she was there, and Jerry was turning
+over in his mind just how to ask her to withdraw, when she
+apparently came to the conclusion that her presence was neither
+needed nor desired. At any rate, she left the beach abruptly and
+disappeared along the island path, only stopping to send a hearty
+peal of laughter in their direction.
+
+"Next time across I guess well wear our clothes," snickered Budge.
+"The young lady isn't used to welcoming savages to her lonely isle."
+
+"Try a little of your savage strength on that rod you're leaning on;
+nobody suggested that this affair was a lawn party," Phil reminded
+him. "Come on, fellows, let's get the old _Skyrocket_ up out of the
+damp."
+
+After some maneuvering they decided to unload from the water, as the
+beach shelved gradually. Within five minutes they were ready to
+make for the other shore, being compelled to swim the boats back
+again, as no one had remembered to throw in the oars.
+
+This time their load was hardly worth calling one so far as weight
+was concerned, and four of the boys piled in, to row the boats
+across, nearly capsizing the whole arrangement in their efforts to
+outspeed each other. This time they were fully dressed. One of the
+boys brought the two boats back, and now all the party crossed over,
+with the exception of poor Budge, who again was the one slated to
+stay behind and guard camp. Perhaps his disappointment was only half
+genuine, however, as he was none too keen about the heavy job of
+freighting the wreckage to the center of Lost Island.
+
+Tod was awaiting them when the last boatload beached on the island.
+It was easy to see that he had been greatly worried over the
+nonappearance of his father, and the bandages in which Mr. Fulton
+was literally swathed were not calculated to set his mind at ease.
+But Mr. Fulton's laughing version of the "accident," as he called
+it, soon relieved Tod's fears.
+
+They made short work of the trip to the long, low shed Phil and
+Jerry had seen on their exploration of the island, and which they
+now learned was a "hangar," a place specially fitted for taking care
+of the aeroplane. When the big sliding door was thrown open the boys
+saw that inside was a complete machine shop, with lathes, benches,
+drills and punches, the whole being operated by power from the
+gasoline engine in the corner.
+
+"The first thing to do," announced Mr. Fulton, "is to understand
+just what we're driving at. So I'll explain, as briefly as possible,
+just what this contraption of mine is. It's simply a device that
+enables me to reverse the propellers instantly at high speed. But
+that isn't all. The same lever throws in another set of propellers--
+lifters, we call them--just above where the pilot sits. They act as
+a kind of counterbalance. Now these planes, or wings, act in the
+same manner as the surfaces of a box kite, and aside from this
+device of mine, which has some details you won't need to know about,
+and a slight improvement I've made in the motor itself, the
+_Skyrocket_ isn't any different from the ordinary biplane, which you
+all know about, of course."
+
+"Of course we don't," blurted Jerry.
+
+"Of course we do," exclaimed Phil. "There isn't one of the Flying
+Eagles who hasn't made half a dozen model flying machines, and
+Barney here won a prize with a glider he made last spring in the
+manual training department of the high school. But we've all studied
+up about aeroplanes--that's why we call ourselves the _Flying_
+Eagles."
+
+"Another reason," chuckled Mr. Fulton, "why there ought to be a
+bunch of Boy Scouts in Watertown. How about it, Jerry?"
+
+"Leave it to us. We'll challenge you Eagles to a tournament next
+summer, and you'd better brush up your scouting if you don't want to
+come off second best. Is that a go, Tod?"
+
+"That's two go's--one for each of us."
+
+"Well," suggested Mr. Fulton, "those of you who don't know the first
+principles of flying go into the second squad. You go to the office--
+that's the railed off space yonder--where you'll find plenty of
+books for your instruction. As soon as I get gang number one
+properly started I'll come back and give you a course of sprouts."
+
+Jerry and Dave and Frank went to the "office," from where they heard
+Mr. Fulton putting Tod in charge of one group, while he took the
+rest under his personal direction.
+
+"First off," he advised, "we'll take the _Skyrocket_ all apart. All
+the broken or strained parts we'll throw over here in this box.
+Anything that's too big we'll pile neatly on the floor. I want to
+know as soon as possible just what I'll have to get from the city. I
+can call on the blacksmith shop at Watertown for some of the hardest
+welding, and Job Western did most of the carpentering in the first
+place, so I know where to go for my trusses and girders. Examine
+every bolt and nut--nothing is to be used that shows the slightest
+strain or defect.
+
+"Phil, you and I will tackle the motor. If she isn't smashed, half
+the battle's won."
+
+Jerry sat back in the corner awhile, trying his best to get
+something definite out of the great array of books he found on a low
+shelf. Looking up and seeing Mr. Fulton's eyes on him, a twinkle in
+their depths, he threw down the latest collection of algebraic
+formulas and walked over.
+
+"I guess I know enough about aeroplanes to unscrew nuts and nip
+wires. You can explain the theory of it to us after working hours."
+
+So, with monkey wrench, pliers, hammers and screwdriver, he set
+about making himself as busy as any of the others--and as greasy.
+
+Dark came on them before they had made enough headway to be
+noticeable. The boys were glad to see the shadows creeping along,
+for, truth to tell, they were all thoroughly tired and not a little
+hungry. Not a bite had any of them eaten since breakfast.
+
+"Hope Budge has taken it upon himself to hash together a few eats,"
+sighed Phil. "I feel hungry enough to tackle my boots."
+
+"Eats?" exclaimed Mr. Fulton in surprise. "You don't mean to tell me
+that you're hungry?"
+
+"Oh, no, not hungry. Just plain starved," clamored the whole outfit.
+
+"Good. One of you go over and get your guard, and we'll see what
+those mysterious signals mean that Miss Elizabeth has been making
+this past half hour. She told me she'd cook us a dinner--if we could
+stand domestic science grub. This is the first time she ever kept
+real house. Let's wash up."
+
+The supper that Elizabeth brought, smoking hot, to the long, board-
+made table the boys quickly set up in the hangar, did not smack very
+much of inexperience. Even Budge declared it was well worth the trip
+across the river. The boys were inclined to linger over the meal,
+and Dave started in to tell a long story about a hunting trip in
+which he and his uncle had been the heroes of a bear adventure, but
+Mr. Fulton stopped him, even if the yawns of his listeners had not
+warned him to cut the tale short.
+
+"We're in for some good hard licks, men," said Mr. Fulton, "and it's
+going to mean early to bed and early to rise. That is," he amended,
+"if you want to go through with it."
+
+"We'll stick to the bitter end," they cried. "What's the program?"
+
+"Two weeks of the hardest kind of work. Breakfast at six; work at
+six-thirty, till twelve; half hour for lunch; work till seven;
+dinner; bed. That may not sound like much fun--it isn't."
+
+"Suits us," declared Phil for the rest. "Do we get a front seat at
+the circus when the man puts his head in the lion's mouth--and a
+ride on the elephant?" he joked, pointing at the dismembered
+_Skyrocket_.
+
+"I'll give you something better than that, just leave it to me,"
+promised Mr. Fulton. "Where you going to turn in?"
+
+"We go over to camp. You'll blow the factory whistle when it's time
+to get up, won't you?"
+
+"No," teased Elizabeth, coming in just then, "I'll drop a couple o'
+nice smooth pebbles into camp as a gentle reminder."
+
+It was a jolly party that crowded into the two boats and sang and
+shouted their way across Plum Run some ten minutes later, but within
+the half-hour the night was still, for tired muscles could not long
+resist the call of sleep.
+
+But bright and early next morning they were all astir long before
+the hour of six and the promised pebbles. A swim in Plum Bun put
+them in good trim for a hearty breakfast, and that in turn put them
+in shape for a hard day's work.
+
+And a hard day it turned out to be, for Mr. Fulton parceled out the
+work and kept everyone on the jump. Jerry and Tod were put at the
+motor, which had refused to respond to its owner's coaxing. They
+twisted, tightened, adjusted, tested, till their fingers were
+cramped and eyes and backs ached.
+
+Lunch gave a most welcome rest, but the half hour was all too short.
+Every one of them welcomed Mr. Fulton's decision when he said:
+"We've got along so nicely that I think I will call this a six-
+o'clock day. Wash up, everybody, and let's see what Elizabeth has
+for us."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+A WILD NIGHT
+
+
+That was merely the first of a whole week of days that seemed
+amazingly alike. Mr. Fulton tried to make the work as interesting as
+possible by letting them change off jobs as often as he could. But
+even then there was little that under ordinary circumstances would
+interest a regular out-of-doors boy. What helped was that the
+circumstances were not ordinary. It was all a big game to them--a
+fight against odds. Perhaps at times the screwing of greasy nuts on
+greasier bolts did not look much like a game, nor did the tedious
+pushing of a plane or twisting a brace and bit look like a fight,
+but every one of the boys sensed the tense something that was back
+of all Mr. Fulton's cheery hustle.
+
+They knew that his arm and shoulder hurt fearfully at times, but
+never a complaint did they hear from him, although he was all
+sympathy over the blood-blisters and cut hands of their own mishaps.
+
+But the second week made up for any lack of excitement that the boys
+had felt. The week was up Wednesday night. On Thursday morning Mr.
+Fulton met them with a white face that somehow showed the light of
+battle.
+
+"Guess you'd better arrange, Boss Jerry, to leave a couple of your
+Scouts on guard here nights," was all he said, but the boys felt
+that something disturbing had happened the night before. They
+questioned Elizabeth when she brought their lunch, which they ate
+from benches and boxes to save time, but she would give them no
+satisfaction. Tod seemed to know something, but he too was strangely
+mum.
+
+Jerry decided to remain over that night himself, and Phil, who had
+dropped a steel wrench across his toes and so had to remain for
+medical attention anyway, offered to share the watch with him. After
+Mr. Fulton had left them at about ten o'clock, they talked for
+awhile together, but finally they both began to yawn.
+
+"What'll it be?" asked Phil. "Two hours at a stretch, turn and turn
+about?"
+
+"Suits me," said Jerry. "Ill take the first trick."
+
+Phil's snoring something like fifty-nine seconds later was
+sufficient answer. All was still, and Jerry set about to await
+midnight, when he could hope for a brief snooze. After a while the
+silence began to wear on his nerves and in every night noise he
+fancied he heard steps. He sat still and watchful, hardly breathing
+at times, his finger poised above a push button that would ring a
+bell where Mr. Fulton lay stretched out on a pallet on the floor of
+the tiny cabin.
+
+But midnight came and nothing had happened. He roused Phil and then
+hunted himself out a soft spot in which to curl up. But he had grown
+so used to listening that now he found he could not stop. He tried
+counting, only it was fish he was catching instead of sheep going
+through the gap in the hedge. It was no use. At last he got up and
+stretched himself.
+
+"Guess I'll take a turn around in the cool air; I can't seem to
+sleep."
+
+"Gee," grumbled Phil, "and here _I_ can't seem to stay awake. Just
+as well have let me slumber on in peace."
+
+"Well, don't slumber while I'm gone, sleepyhead."
+
+Jerry walked across the open ground and after an undecided halt,
+broke through the bushes, heavy now with dew, and made for the
+shore. He stood for a long time on the bank, looking across to where
+the Scout camp lay quiet in the darkness, and then turned and was
+about to go back to Phil. But he paused; a steady creaking sound had
+broken the night. It was drawing slowly nearer. It was a rowboat.
+
+"Great conspirators, they are!" sniffed Jerry. "They might at least
+grease their oars." He heard the mumble of low voices, the _sush_ of
+a boat keel on the sand. Reaching down, he caught up a big handful
+of pebbles; with a hard overhand swing he let them fly.
+
+He heard a muttered "Ouch!" and then, after a moment's silence, once
+more the _creak-crook_ of oars. "Batter out" chuckled Jerry to
+himself as he scurried back to the hangar.
+
+After that he slept.
+
+The boys were all excitement when he told his story next morning,
+but that was nothing to compare with the exclamation that arose that
+same evening when they returned to camp to find that Dave, who had
+been left in charge, had disappeared, and that the place had been
+rifled and then torn all to pieces. Poor Dave was found not far off,
+tied to a tree. His story was somewhat lacking in detail. He had sat
+dozing over a book on aeronautics, when suddenly an earthquake came
+up and hit him over the head. That was all he knew till he woke up
+tied securely to a tree.
+
+"That settles it," declared Phil. "We ought to have done it in the
+first place, but the boss didn't think it was worth while."
+
+"What's that?" demanded Jerry, a bit sharply.
+
+"Well, what's the idea of our coming over here every night to sleep,
+when there's oodles of room there on Lost Island, where we're
+needed? Huh?"
+
+"What's that 'huh'? Boy Scout for sir?" cried Jerry hotly.
+
+Phil jumped to his feet, but to the surprise of Jerry, who had put
+up his fists, the Scout Leader brought his heels together with a
+click and his right hand went to the salute.
+
+"I stand convicted," he said simply. "You're the boss of this
+expedition. What's orders?"
+
+"Orders are to break camp--it's already pretty well broken--and take
+ship for Lost Island. Patrol Leader Fulton will take charge of the
+job while Boss Ring goes off and kicks himself quietly but firmly."
+
+They all laughed and good feeling was restored. The Scouts made
+short work of getting their traps together, even in the dark, and it
+was not many minutes before the first load was on the way to Lost
+Island.
+
+Jerry, Phil and Dave followed silently afterwards in the _Big Four_
+with the rest of the dunnage.
+
+"You think _they_ did it?" asked Dave of no one in particular. No
+one asked who _they_ were, nor did anyone answer, but each knew what
+the others were thinking.
+
+Mr. Fulton showed no surprise when told of their decision to camp
+henceforth on the island. "Good idea," was his only comment.
+
+They were not disturbed that night, and the next day passed without
+incident, save that Budge had the bad luck to break a truss he had
+been all day in making. "Good!" said Mr. Fulton. "That wood might
+have caused a serious accident if it had got into the _Skyrocket_."
+Budge, knowing his awkwardness and not the timber was to blame, felt
+grateful that he had been spared the reproof that would have been
+natural.
+
+They had been making good progress, in spite of their greenness;
+next day Mr. Fulton was planning to stretch the silk over the
+planes; it had already been given a preliminary coat of a kind of
+flexible varnish which was also a part of Mr. Fulton's invention.
+The carpenter had done his part handsomely. The launch had come down
+the day before with all of the heavier framework and trusses. A few
+rods were still to come from the blacksmith, and the rear elevator
+control was still awaited, but enough of the material had been
+mended and put in place to make the aeroplane look less like a
+wreck.
+
+Jerry and Mr. Fulton had finally managed to master the secret of the
+motor; that is, they finally made it run as smoothly as a top, but
+neither one was ever able to tell why it had not done so from the
+start. Oiled and polished, it stood on the bench till a final brace
+should be forthcoming.
+
+Camp had been pitched on the river side of the open ground, close
+beside the path. The second night of their new location Mr. Fulton
+and Elizabeth came over, Dick guarding the _Skyrocket_ and Tod
+remaining at the cabin to look after poor Billings, who, thanks to
+the doctor's daily visits and his daughter's patient nursing, was
+growing steadily stronger. Elizabeth brought along a guitar, which
+she played daintily, singing the choruses of all the popular songs
+the boys could ask for by name. After a little bashful hesitation,
+Dave chimed in, while the rest of the boys lay back and listened in
+undisguised delight.
+
+Into this peaceful scene burst Tod, frightened out of his wits. It
+was a full minute before he finally managed to gasp:
+
+"They've come--they've been here! I didn't see them!"
+
+"What in the world do you mean?" cried Mr. Fulton, shaking the
+excited boy with his left hand. "If you didn't see them, how do you----"
+
+"I didn't. But it's gone--the motor's gone.----"
+
+"What!" yelled the whole crew at once.
+
+"Dick and I sat outside the doorway, listening to you folks having a
+good time, and I went in to see what time it was--and there was the
+hole in the side of the hang--hang--the shed, and the motor had
+disappeared. At least that was all we noticed was gone."
+
+The last of this was delivered on the run, for all had set out for
+the machine shop, Mr. Fulton having promptly vetoed Phil's plan to
+put a circle of Scouts around the shore.
+
+Sure enough, a big gap showed in the side of the hangar, where two
+boards had been pried loose. "Lucky you were outside," grunted Phil
+disgustedly, "or they'd have pulled the whole place down over your
+head."
+
+"We've got to work fast," urged Mr. Fulton. "If they get away with
+the motor the stuff's all off. They're desperate men--I don't want
+any of you trying to tackle them. Scout ahead, and when you sight
+them, this is the signal:" He whistled the three short notes of the
+whippoor-will's call. "I've got my automatic, and I guess I can take
+care of them."
+
+As they hurried out into the night they spread out, working toward
+the east side of the island. Jerry found himself next to Phil, and
+after a few yards he moved over closer to the Scout Leader.
+
+"I say, Phil," he called guardedly; "you ready to listen to the
+wildest kind of a notion?"
+
+"Shoot," came the answer.
+
+"I don't believe our visitors came on the island for that motor at
+all. What good would it do them?"
+
+"It'd stop our launching the _Skyrocket_, for one thing."
+
+"But there are lots of lighter things that would do that. I don't
+trust those two ruffians--or their boss, either."
+
+"Well, who does?"
+
+"That's not the point. Mr. Fulton figures that they merely want to
+keep those others from buying his idea, so that when the first
+option expires, _they_ can. But if they could steal the plans in the
+meanwhile--get me?"
+
+"I get you. Then you think that stealing the motor was just a blind,
+and that they are----"
+
+"Getting us out of the road so they can take their time going
+through the workshop. If we're wrong, there's plenty of Scouts out
+trailing them--it'd be too late anyway, as it's only a few hundred
+feet to where they would have left their boat. What say we sneak
+back, see if there's a gun at the cabin, and take them by surprise
+when they start burglarizing the hangar?"
+
+Phil turned about by way of answer, and stealthily they approached
+the cabin. A light showed dim in the invalid's room, and through the
+curtained window they could see Elizabeth's long braids bent over a
+book. She merely looked up when they stopped at the window, and at
+once came out the back door to where they stood.
+
+"Is there a gun in the house?" questioned Phil.
+
+"A thirty-two Colts," she replied. "Want it?"
+
+"Quick as we can have it. _They_ are on the island."
+
+But she did not wait to hear the rest of his explanation. In a jiffy
+she had brought them an ugly looking revolver. "Be careful," she
+said as she handed it to Phil; "it shoots when you pull the
+trigger."
+
+The boys stole across the narrow space between the cabin and the
+hangar, and flattened themselves against the log walls as they wound
+their way toward the little "night door" near the other end. As they
+passed the big sliding doors they paused an instant and pressed
+their ears close against the planks, but all was still. Both had an
+instant of disappointment, for they were counting strongly on being
+able to crow over the rest.
+
+But when they came to the crack where the two doors came together,
+and looked within, their spirits jumped up till they hardly knew
+whether they were pleased or frightened. For just an instant a flash
+lamp had lighted up the darkness!
+
+Not quite so cautiously now, and a good deal faster, they made their
+way to the little door, guided by their sense of feeling, for the
+night was black as the pitch in the old saying. Jerry turned the
+catch firmly but slowly, and the door swung open without a creak.
+They stepped inside.
+
+They were now in a walled off ante-room used for small supplies. It
+opened into the main workshop by means of a narrow doorway. Standing
+in the middle of the tiny room they had a full view of the whole
+place. Like two monstrous fireflies a pair of dark figures darted
+about, ransacking Mr. Fulton's desk, tearing open the lockers and
+cupboards, searching out every likely nook and cranny where papers
+might be hid, their flashlights throwing dazzling light on each
+object of their suspicion.
+
+The two boys realized suddenly that the attention of the two had
+been focused in their direction, and Jerry jumped back behind the
+shelter of the door-edge just in time to escape the blinding rays of
+the flashlights. Phil evidently realized that their time of grace
+was over and there was nothing to be gained in further delay.
+
+With raised pistol he stepped out into the light.
+
+"Hands up!" he ordered gruffly. "Your little game is ended for to-
+night."
+
+But he had miscalculated somewhat. With startling suddenness
+darkness closed in about them, there was a quick rush across the
+littered floor, a thud as a heavy body dashed against the shed wall
+and crashed through the inch boards. Phil's gun roared out twice. As
+the two boys hastened to the gap in the wall they could hear the
+crash of the pair as they tore madly through the brush. Then all was
+still again.
+
+But not for long. Panting from the run, Mr. Fulton and three of the
+Scouts came chasing like mad through the darkness.
+
+"What's happened?" he cried when he saw it was Jerry and Phil. He
+listened as patiently as possible to their disconnected story,
+laughing grimly at the end. "Well, they'll swim it to shore, because
+we found their boat, and we sunk it under about a ton of stones."
+
+"Yes, but----" began Jerry, a premonition of further disaster in his
+mind and on the tip of his tongue, when from the east shore of Lost
+Island came wild cries of rage and chagrin. "Just what I thought!"
+exclaimed Jerry, by way of finishing out his sentence.
+
+"What's that?" demanded Mr. Fulton and Phil in a breath.
+
+But Jerry did not answer. There was no need. Down the path came an
+excited group, shouting:
+
+"Somebody's made off with the _Big Four!_"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+TRICKED AGAIN!
+
+
+Nothing else happened that night, but the boys had already had
+enough excitement to keep them awake long past their usual time for
+turning in. Some of them, indeed, were for starting out in pursuit
+of the _Big Four_, but Mr. Fulton promptly squelched the plan. There
+was little hope of finding the boat in the dense darkness.
+
+Next morning, before breakfast, Sid Walmaly and Dave were sent out
+on a scouting expedition, but they were not gone long. The _Big
+Four_ had been found, barely half a mile down, stranded on a sand-
+bar. A jagged hole in the side showed where the kidnappers had tried
+to scuttle the craft.
+
+After this event, the boys settled to their work in high spirits,
+undeterred by the fact that the motor was still missing, although
+Mr. Fulton felt sure it could not have been taken from the island.
+Phil ventured to advance a theory, which the boys were inclined to
+scout but which Mr. Fulton finally decided was at least worth the
+time and effort it would take to try it out.
+
+The men had had no time to carry the motor far, argued Phil. They
+had not gone to their boat, else they could hardly have made their
+way back to the hangar. They might of course have picked it up after
+they had been frightened away, but there had been hardly time for
+that. They had undoubtedly hidden it in the first place. The easiest
+place to hide the thing was in the river, and the closest trail to
+the river hit the extreme north end, where there was a steep-sided
+bay.
+
+"Who's the best swimmer in the crowd?" asked Mr. Fulton. "I don't
+dare take very many away from the job, but we've got to have the
+motor"
+
+"Jerry Ring's the best swimmer and diver in Watertown," announced
+Dave without hesitation. Mr. Fulton turned inquiringly to the Boy
+Scouts, but no one answered his questioning look until Phil at last
+spoke up quietly:
+
+"I'll go along if you need another one."
+
+"I do. You two take the Scout boat and bring her around the point.
+I'll go through the woods--be there in half an hour or so, when I
+get things running smoothly here. Be careful you don't find the gas-
+eater before I get there," he jested.
+
+But it was more than half an hour before Mr. Fulton came upon the
+two boys, stripped to their B-V-D's and at that instant resting on
+the bank. He came up just in time to hear Jerry say: "I used to
+think I could dive! Where'd you get onto it?"
+
+"Just Scout stuff," laughed Phil, modestly. "Every Scout in the
+patrol's got swimming and diving honors."
+
+"Good!" broke in Mr. Fulton. "Dive me up that motor and I'll get you
+a special honor as a substitute submarine."
+
+"We've worked down from the point, scraping bottom for twenty feet
+out--that's about as far as they could heave it, we figured. We've
+just got to the place where I'd have dived first-off if I had only
+one chance at it. Here goes for that leather medal," as Phil rose
+and poised himself for the plunge.
+
+It was as pretty a dive as one could want to see. He split the water
+with a clean slash, with hardly a bubble. A minute, another, and
+another passed, the two on shore watching the surface expectantly.
+They began to grow worried.
+
+"He's been beating me right along" confessed Jerry. "I can't come
+within a full minute of his ordinary dives. This one is a pippin--
+there he blows!"
+
+Spouting like a young whale, Phil broke the water and came ashore in
+long reaching strokes.
+
+"I tried my best!" he gasped as he pushed back his hair and rubbed
+the water from his eyes. "But I couldn't make it!"
+
+"Better luck next time," encouraged Mr. Fulton. "If you don't find
+her in two more dives like that, why she isn't in Plum Run, that's
+all!"
+
+"Find her? I was talking about _lifting_ her. Guess we'll have to
+get a rope on her--she's pretty well down in the mud."
+
+"Hurray!" shouted Jerry, giving his chum a sounding smack on the wet
+back. "Man the lifeboats! I chucked a rope in the bow of the boat."
+
+Mr. Fulton stood on the bank to mark the line, while the boys pushed
+the boat out to where Phil had come up, some twenty feet from shore.
+Jerry slipped over the side, one end of the rope in his hand. He did
+not remain long below.
+
+Clambering in at the stern, he shouted: "Hoist away--she's hooked!"
+
+And there was the motor, clogged with mud, to be sure, but
+undamaged. Mr. Fulton stepped into the boat and they rowed quickly
+back to the "dock." While the two boys put on their clothes over
+their wet underwear, he hurried back to the workshop to see how
+things were going. A few minutes later they followed with the motor.
+
+They felt, after this fortunate end of the adventure, that Mr.
+Fulton ought once more to be his own cheery self, but a look of
+gloom seemed to have settled down over his face, and his face looked
+haggard except when he was talking to one of the boys. Jerry finally
+decided to try to cheer him up.
+
+"Luck was sure breaking our way this morning, wasn't it?" he
+exclaimed cheerfully as the man came up to where Jerry sat, removing
+the mud from their prize.
+
+"Fine--fine," agreed Mr. Fulton, but without spirit.
+
+"What's the trouble?" demanded Jerry, sympathetically. "Anything
+else gone wrong?"
+
+"No--Oh, no."
+
+"You look like the ghost of Mike Clancy's goat. Remember how you
+always used to be telling Tod and me to grin hardest when we were
+getting licked worst?"
+
+"I sure ought to grin now, then."
+
+"We're not licked--not by a long shot!"
+
+"Yes we are--by about twenty-four hours. While you were gone I got
+word from the blacksmith. He says he can't possibly have that
+propeller shaft we found was snapped, welded before to-morrow
+afternoon late. Not if we're to have the other things he promised.
+He's lost his helper--quit him cold."
+
+"No!" exclaimed Jerry, his heart sinking at least two feet. Then,
+with sudden suspicion, "Do you suppose----"
+
+"I _know_ it," interrupted Mr. Fulton. "Our two friends are working
+every scheme they know. Blocking our blacksmithing was one of their
+easiest weapons. I'm only surprised they didn't do it before."
+
+"What can we do?"
+
+"Submit gracefully. But I just can't face those two doubters. First
+they were so enthusiastic and then so suspicious, that I can't be
+satisfied unless I convince them. But the stuff's all off--and I
+told Lewis and Harris to come out to-morrow afternoon at three-
+thirty to see the _Skyrocket_ make good all my claims!"
+
+"Can't you beg off and get a little more time?"
+
+"They'd be willing enough, I suppose. They don't seem to be in the
+slightest hurry. But there's that second option that begins
+operations after to-morrow. No, there's no loophole. All we can do
+is just peg ahead, and if the blacksmith comes through sooner than
+he expects, we may have a bare chance. I just sent Tod in to lend a
+hand."
+
+The blacksmith did do better than his word, for Tod came back late
+in the afternoon bearing the mended shaft and two smaller parts that
+were urgently needed.
+
+It took all the rest of that afternoon to lay the shaft in its ball-
+bearings and true it up. The propeller was still to be attached, but
+Mr. Fulton declared he would take no chances with that or with the
+final adjustments in the half light of the growing dusk.
+
+The boys were glad to knock off. They had been working at high
+tension for a long while now and were beginning to feel the strain.
+They were all frankly sleepy, too, after the excitement of the night
+before. As a final precaution against a repetition of the surprise
+attack they all slept in the hangar, finding the hard floor an
+unwelcome change from their leafy beds in camp.
+
+But the night passed quietly. With daybreak they were all astir, but
+the time before breakfast was spent in an invigorating swim in the
+Plum. Elizabeth had done herself proud in the way of pancakes this
+last morning, and the boys did full justice. It was almost eight
+o'clock before anyone returned to the hangar with any intention of
+working. After barely half an hour there, chiefly spent in polishing
+and tightening up nuts and draw-buckles, Mr. Fulton drove them all
+outdoors. "Chase off and play," he insisted. "Tod and I will give
+her the finishing touches; then you can all come back and help us
+push her out into the sunlight for the final inspection."
+
+But Elizabeth called them before Mr. Fulton was ready for their
+services. Heaping platters of beautifully browned perch testified
+both to her skill and that of the boys.
+
+"Lunch time already?" exclaimed Mr. Fulton in surprise. "Where's the
+morning gone to?" But he showed that if he hadn't noted the passage
+of time, his stomach had. As he watched the brown pile diminish
+under Mr. Fulton's vigorous attack, Phil threatened to go back to
+the river and start fishing again. "You oughtn't to be eating fish,"
+he joked. "Birds are more your style. Better let me go out and shoot
+you a duck--or a sparrow; they're more in season."
+
+But Mr. Fulton was at last satisfied, as were all the boys. He
+sauntered back at once to the hangar. "Guess you chaps can give me a
+shoulder now, and we'll take her out to daylight. After that you
+keep out of the way till the show starts--about four o'clock. All
+but two of you, that is. There's a bearing to grind on the lathe,
+and a couple of sets of threads to recut."
+
+Tod could not have been driven away, so Jerry volunteered to be the
+other helper. The whole troop made easy work of running out the
+_Skyrocket_. After standing about admiringly a while, they all
+scattered, some of them, Jerry learned from their conversation, to
+try to teach Elizabeth how to catch bass. Jerry grinned to himself
+at this; he had heard Tod tell of the exploits of this slip of a
+girl, and no boy in camp could do more with a four-ounce bass rod
+than she could.
+
+Tod and Jerry went at once at their grinding, and by two o'clock all
+was in readiness. Every rod and strut and bolt and screw was in
+place, tight as a drum. The nickel and brass of the bearings flashed
+in the sun; the _Skyrocket_ looked fit as a fiddle. There was still
+a little gasoline in the gallon can that they had been using for
+testing the motor, and Tod let it gurgle into the gasoline tank that
+curved back on the framework just above the pilot's seat.
+
+"Try her out, dad," he urged.
+
+"I'll try the motor," agreed Mr. Fulton, "but I'm not going up until
+there's somebody around to watch her go through her paces. I've got
+my shoulder out of splints to-day, but I don't dare use it when
+there's any danger of strain. Think you're going to have the nerve
+to go up with me, son?"
+
+Jerry opened his eyes wide. This was the first he had heard of any
+such plan as _that_.
+
+"Think I'm going to let you go up alone, with a twisted wing that
+might give out?" demanded Tod scornfully. "Huh! I'll take her up
+alone if you'll let me."
+
+"I'll let you fill her up with gas, if you're so ambitious as all
+that. I see an automobile throwing up the dust on the last hill of
+the town road. I expect it's our friends. I'll let one of the boys
+row me across to meet them. Ask Billings, if you can't find the
+wrench to unscrew the cap of the gasoline reservoir."
+
+Billings proved to be sound asleep, napping off the effects of over-
+indulgence in browned perch, so the boys decided to await the return
+of Mr. Fulton, a search of the workshop having failed to reveal the
+wrench, and none of the Stillsons being big enough to take the big
+nut that capped the fifty-gallon tank sunk in the ground on the
+shady north side of the hangar. So they sat down beside it and
+waited for Mr. Fulton to come back with his visitors.
+
+They finally appeared, Lewis and Harris standing about and listening
+in unenthusiastic silence as Mr. Fulton glowingly explained the
+whyness of the various devices and improvements that made the
+_Skyrocket_ a real invention. They did not even venture an
+occasional question, although it was easy to see that they were
+impressed.
+
+"What are they made of? Wood?" exclaimed Jerry in fierce impatience.
+"Do you know--if it wasn't that we've simply got to beat out those
+other fellows, I'd almost like to see these two sleepies get left. I
+don't like them a little bit!"
+
+"Huh! Ask me if I do. They give me the willies. Never did like them,
+and ever since they acted so nasty about that accident I just plumb
+hate 'em. You'd think dad was trying to sandbag them or something
+like that. Just listen to them grouching around. I'd hate to be a
+woman and married to one of them and have dinner late."
+
+Jerry had seated himself on the top of the reservoir, the cap
+between his legs. He caught hold of it with his two hands. "It's too
+blamed bad your dad couldn't hitch up with Uncle Sam!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Yes, and if you believe what the papers say, we're going to need
+it, too. We might be mixed up in the big war any day."
+
+"Well, I expect we'd better not sit here gassing any longer. Tod,
+chase over and ask your dad where that wrench is--unless you've got
+a notion I can twist this thing off with my hands." He gave a
+playful tug as if to carry out his boast.
+
+"Say!" he cried, "what do you know about this!"
+
+"About what?" asked Tod lazily, a dozen feet away on the way to his
+father.
+
+"This," answered Jerry, giving the big cap a twirl with his
+forefinger. "Some careful of your gasoline you people are!" The cap
+was loose.
+
+"Something funny about that," declared Tod, coming back. "I saw
+Billings screw that on last time myself--with the wrench."
+
+There _was_ something decidedly funny about it, as it turned out. At
+Tod's alarmed call Mr. Fulton came on the run. "It's been tampered
+with," was his immediate decision. "Screw on the pump, boys, and
+force up a gallon or so, If there isn't water in that gas we're the
+luckiest folks alive. I might have known those crooks had a final
+shot in their locker!"
+
+"What's the idea?" asked Mr. Harris, with the first interest he had
+showed.
+
+"Somebody's trying to block the game, that's what!" sputtered Mr.
+Fulton. "Here, boys, take the canfull in and put it in the shop
+engine. If she can take it I guess we're worrying for nothing."
+
+For a moment or so it looked as if that were the case; the engine
+chugged away in its usual steady manner. But once the gasoline was
+gone that the boys had been unable to empty out of its tank, it
+began to kick a little. Within another minute it had stopped dead.
+
+"Show's over," announced Mr. Fulton grimly. "It's way after three
+o'clock now, and we can't hope to get a new supply from town this
+side of dark. If we just hadn't sent your auto back!"
+
+"You mean to tell us that you cannot go up--that there will be no
+flight!" cried Mr. Lewis, making up for all his previous lack of
+excitement in one burst of protest. "But, man--it's the last day of
+the option."
+
+"It's worse than that," countered Mr. Fulton. "It's the day before
+the beginning of a new option, held by the people who watered that
+gas--and at least a dozen other sneaking tricks."
+
+"But you told us that you would--why, you guaranteed us a trial
+flight."
+
+"I said you didn't have to buy till you'd seen it work, yes. I'm in
+your hands, gentlemen. After midnight to-night I'm in other hands--
+and you're going to lose the chance of your lifetime to secure for
+your government something that may prove the deciding factor in that
+terrific war you're carrying on over there. I'm sure you don't doubt
+my good faith."
+
+"Faith! It's performances we want."
+
+"Give me gas and I'll give you a demonstration that can't help but
+convince you. I can't use my motor on water. I was willing to risk
+my neck--and my boy's--by going up and trying this contraption with
+my left hand--but I can't accomplish the impossible."
+
+"But surely you don't expect us to buy a pig in a poke----"
+
+"This is no pig--it's a hawk. Will you do this? Will you buy the
+machine and the idea on approval? I'm pledged. If it isn't sold by
+night to you, to-morrow those other people will come with cash in
+hand----"
+
+"Harris, you know," drawled Mr. Lewis, "I half believe the fellow's
+trying to flimflam us, you know. How do we know?"
+
+"How do you know!" Mr. Fulton's eyes flashed fire. "I'll have you
+know I'm a man of honor."
+
+"Sure--sure," agreed Mr. Harris conciliatingly. "But that's not the
+idea, old chap. We don't buy this for ourselves, you understand.
+We're merely agents, and responsible to our chief. What'd we say if
+we came back with a bag of pot metal for our money?"
+
+"What will you say to your conscience when your enemy drops
+destruction onto your brave countrymen in the trenches from the
+Fulton Aeroplane? That's what you'd better be asking yourselves."
+
+"But we've got to be cautious."
+
+"Cautious! If you saw the goose that laid the golden egg getting off
+the nest, you'd hold the egg up to a candle to see if it was fresh!"
+
+"Well, now, Mr. Fulton----" began Mr. Harris, when he was
+interrupted by Jerry, who had been holding himself in as long as was
+humanly possible.
+
+"Don't let's waste any more time talking, Mr. Fulton. Tod and I have
+got a scheme that will pull us out on top yet--even if it does mean
+helping these doubters against their will!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE BIG PLAY
+
+
+"Look here, Mr. Fulton," began Jerry, almost stammering in his
+eagerness. "It wouldn't be any trick at all to get over to the
+interurban tracks in time to catch the four o'clock northbound. That
+gets to Watertown at four twenty-five--say half-past. We ought to be
+able to get the gas and rout out a machine to haul it in inside
+another half hour. That's five o'clock. Then an hour certainly would
+see us back here, with a good hour and more of daylight left."
+
+"I've gone over all that in my mind a dozen times. But I've also
+spent a little time figuring what these men would be doing in the
+meanwhile. There's just one place in Watertown that keeps any
+quantity of gasoline--the rest buy of him. And he'd die of fright if
+he should be caught with more than a hundred gallons at one time."
+
+"But we don't need more than five!" exploded Tod.
+
+"Sure, son, sure. But suppose somebody just ahead of you made it his
+business to buy the hundred--how about that?"
+
+"But there's a chance," objected Jerry, returning to the attack. "We
+might be able to get away without their seeing us."
+
+"Don't worry; they're watching every move we make."
+
+"Then I've got another scheme. See if you can pick it full of holes
+too." There was more than a touch of impatience in Jerry's voice.
+"They're watching this side, that's sure; and they know we're bound
+to figure on either Watertown or Chester. We'll fool them. I'll swim
+across to the other side, reach a telephone, get my dad, who's at
+Corliss these days on business. There's a Standard Oil tank at
+Corliss. Dad'll start the gas out inside of twenty minutes----"
+
+"Corliss is a good two hours' trip by auto, my boy. It would take at
+least half an hour to get the message through, and another to get
+the gas here from the road. That means at least seven o'clock, and
+it would be dark before we were ready to go up."
+
+"All right," agreed Jerry, refusing to give up. "Suppose it does get
+dark: there's such a thing as flying by night, isn't there? All
+we've got to do is to build a dozen flaring bonfires to see by----"
+
+"Now you're talking!" exclaimed Mr. Fulton with sudden enthusiasm.
+"You've hit it. Not brush--that would smoke us out. But there are
+ten or a dozen open air torches here like those they use at street
+shows, and there's not enough water in the gasoline to hurt it for
+that purpose. Moreover, we can switch our engine onto that dynamo in
+the shop, and we'll string incandescent lights all through the
+trees; we've got plenty of them. There's at least a mile of bare
+copper wire about the place--what you two standing with your mouths
+wide open for? Thought you were going to get that gas! Where in
+thunder are all those boys?"
+
+"Here they come--tired of waiting out there in the sun, I guess. So
+long, dad; I'm going with Jerry."
+
+"You are _not_. You're going to be chief electrician. If Jerry can't
+put through his part of the job alone he doesn't deserve credit for
+having thought of the whole scheme."
+
+The first part of Jerry's task proved easy enough. It took him well
+over the half hour Mr. Fulton had predicted, to find a farmhouse
+with a telephone, and Central seemed an unusually long time in
+ringing through to the office Jerry's father had been making his
+headquarters for the past weeks. Then it developed that Mr. Ring was
+out at a conference of business men. Jerry took the telephone number
+the girl gave him, and repeated it to Central, who again took her
+time in giving the connection. Jerry was about ready to drop with
+nervousness before he finally heard his father's gruff voice at the
+other end of the line.
+
+The words simply tumbled over themselves as Jerry told his story;
+fortunately, Mr. Ring was shrewd enough to guess the half that Jerry
+jumbled in his eagerness.
+
+"Where are you--so I can call you back?" was Mr. Ring's only reply.
+
+Fifteen minutes later the telephone rang. Jerry answered, to hear:
+"Ten gallons of gasoline, double strained, left here five minutes
+ago on a fast delivery truck. It ought to reach the road opposite
+Lost Island inside of two hours. You be there to tell them what to
+do. Good luck, Jerry--I'm going back to that conference. This
+skylark may cost me a five hundred dollar profit."
+
+"It isn't a skylark--it's a sky_rocket_, and Mr. Fulton will pay you
+double over!" But it was into a dead transmitter he shouted it, for
+Mr. Ring had not waited.
+
+Jerry did not wait long either, but raced across fields and through
+woods to the river road. He found a shady spot, which he established
+as his headquarters, but he was too restless to wait there long.
+They seemed a mighty long two hours. The sun sank lower and lower;
+Jerry heard a bell ringing far off, calling the farm hands to
+supper--he was getting hungry himself. Shadows began to darken, the
+clouds flared up in a sudden crimson, first low down on the horizon,
+then high up in the sky. The sun dropped out of sight behind the
+trees.
+
+Away down the road sounded a faint drumming noise that grew nearer
+and louder until around the bend whirred a dust-raising black
+monster that came to a halt a few feet away from the boy who had
+sprung out, shouting and waving his arms. "You waiting for
+gasoline?" a grouchy voice demanded. "Are you Mr. Ring?"
+
+"I sure am!"
+
+"Well, come on back here and help h'ist it out. We're in a hurry to
+get back to town--why it's only a kid!" as Jerry came up. "Who's
+going to help you handle it? It's in two five-gallon cans."
+
+"I guess I can manage it all right. I've got some friends waiting
+down on the river bank."
+
+"All right; it's your funeral. There you are, sealed, signed and
+delivered." The motor roared out, then settled to a steady hum; the
+man backed and turned and soon was swallowed up in the dust and the
+growing dark.
+
+Jerry braced his shoulders for the stiff carry to the Plum, a five-
+gallon can in each hand. He was willing to stop now and then for a
+breathing spell, but at last he set the load down on the narrow
+fringe of sandy beach. Cupping his hands about his mouth, he sent a
+lusty shout ringing across the water; he was too weary to swim it,
+and there did not seem to be much need for further concealment.
+There was an instant answer, showing that the boys had been awaiting
+his signal. The splash of oars told him that the boat was on the
+way, and he felt suddenly glad that he could now think of a few
+minutes' rest.
+
+It proved to be Dave and Tod and Phil in the Scout boat. They made
+quick work of loading in the two cans, and then they all piled in,
+Dave and Tod at the oars. They were perhaps halfway across when
+Jerry asked, anxiously, it seemed:
+
+"Can't you get any more speed out of her, fellows?"
+
+"What's eating you? It's as dark now as it's going to get," answered
+Dave, at the same time letting his oars float idly up against the
+side of the boat.
+
+"I'm worried, that's why," exclaimed Jerry, slipping over and
+pushing Dave out of his seat. "Do you hear anything?"
+
+They all listened, Tod holding his oars out of the water. Sure
+enough, a purring, deeply muffled sound came faintly across the
+water. It was unmistakably a motorboat.
+
+"Some camper," suggested Dave.
+
+"It sounds more like--trouble," declared Phil, a significant accent
+on the word. "The enemy, I bet, and trying to cut us off."
+
+"Well, we've got a big start on them. They're a long way off" again
+Dave volunteered.
+
+"You mean you're a long way off. They've got her tuned down--she
+isn't over two hundred yards away and coming like blue blazes. They
+mean mischief--they aren't showing a single light. What's our plan?"
+
+"Keep cool," advised Jerry. "They'll probably try to bump us. We'll
+row along easy-like, with a big burst of speed at the last second.
+Before they can turn and come at us again, we can make shore. Steady
+now!"
+
+The drone of the motor was almost upon them. The dusk lay heavy over
+the water; they could see nothing. Louder and louder sounded the
+explosions, but now they had slowed up. A dim shape showed through
+the gloom.
+
+"All set!" came the low command from Jerry, just as the boat,
+muffler cut out, the engine at top speed, and volleying revolutions
+and deafening explosions, seemed to leap through the water.
+
+"Down hard!" cried Jerry, lunging with his oars. Tod grunted as he
+put all his strength into the pull. The Scout boat seemed to lift
+itself bodily out of the water as it plunged forward--only inches to
+spare as a slim hull slipped by the stern.
+
+"Yah!" yelled Phil, jumping to his feet and shaking his fist wildly.
+"You're beat!"
+
+The Scout boat hit shore just then, and Phil, caught off his guard,
+took a header and landed astride one of the gasoline cans. "I wonder
+if that was a torpedo," he grunted as he picked himself up.
+
+"No," chuckled Tod. "Just a reminder not to crow while your head is
+still on the block."
+
+The boys wasted no time in getting the gasoline out of the boat and
+up through the bushes, sending a lusty shout ahead of them to tell
+the waiting islanders that they were coming.
+
+"Over on the far side of the clearing," directed Tod, who was
+carrying one side of a can with Jerry. "We hauled the _Skyrocket_
+over there as the ground is more level and free from stumps."
+
+They found the whole crew waiting about the airship, their eager
+faces lighted up by the flaring flames of one of the gasoline
+torches. "Hooray for Jerry, the Gasoline Scout!" they shouted as the
+boys dropped their loads at the first convenient spot.
+
+"Bully for you!" exclaimed Mr. Fulton, coming over and clapping
+Jerry on the shoulder. "Have any trouble?"
+
+"You better guess we did," broke in Dave. "A motorboat tried its
+best to run us down."
+
+Mr. Fulton looked grave as he listened to the tale of their
+adventure. As Dave finished a spirited account of their narrow
+escape, the man turned to Tod with:
+
+"Guess you'd better look after filling the tank, son, while I chase
+over to the house and get my goggles and my harness," referring to a
+leather brace the doctor had brought him a few days before to use
+until his shoulder grew stronger. Unfortunately, the thing was not
+properly made and it held the arm too stiffly, so Mr. Fulton used it
+only when he absolutely had to.
+
+The boys all wanted to have a hand in this final operation and
+consequently it took twice as long as was necessary to fill the
+tank. Enough was spilled, as Tod said, to run the _Skyrocket_ ten
+miles. In the meanwhile, one of the boys took the small can and went
+the rounds and filled all the torches with gasoline, while another
+came close behind him and started them going.
+
+Tod finally left the rest to finish the job of filling the
+_Skyrocket_, and disappeared in the direction of the workshop.
+Within five minutes the boys heard the steady chugging of "Old
+Faithful" as they had named the shop motor. An instant later the
+whole field was suddenly lighted up as the twenty incandescent
+lights flashed up brightly.
+
+"_Some_ illumination!" cried Jerry, delightedly, turning to Mr.
+Harris, who happened to be nearest him.
+
+"Yes," agreed the man coldly, "but it's all on the ground."
+
+"Sure. Because there's nothing up in the air to see. Wait till the
+old _Skyrocket_ shoots up," and Jerry walked over to where the boys
+were standing. "Old grouch," he said to himself. "You'd think he
+didn't want to see us win out."
+
+Tod came hurrying back from the hangar. "Where's dad?" he asked.
+
+"Hasn't got back yet."
+
+"That's funny. I saw him leave the cabin as I went in to start up
+the dynamo. He called something to me about hurrying so as not to
+give those fellows any time to think up new tricks. Who's that over
+there with Mr. Harris?"
+
+"Phil, I guess. Your dad hasn't come out yet or we'd have seen him--
+it's light as day."
+
+"What's the cause of the delay now?" came from behind them. Mr.
+Lewis had approached the group unobserved.
+
+"Waiting for my father," answered Tod. "Guess he's having a hard
+time with his harness. I'd have stopped for him only I thought he'd
+have come back ahead of me. I'll chase over now and see if he needs
+any help with his straps."
+
+Tod ambled off across the torch-lighted open. It was a weird sight,
+that flaring line of torches, the paler gleam of the electric lights
+hung high in the trees, the animated faces of the excited boys, the
+two stolid men, and the adventurous looking _Skyrocket_, its engines
+throbbing, the tiny searchlight ahead of the pilot's seat sending a
+fan-shaped road of white light into the trees. It was like a scene
+on the stage--just before the grand climax.
+
+Tod furnished the climax for this scene. Hardly had he disappeared
+within the door of the cabin, before he came running out again,
+shouting at the top of his voice:
+
+"Fellows! Quick!"
+
+There was a note in his cry that went through the boys like an
+electric shock. It was anger and fear and a dozen other emotions at
+once. They fairly flew across the hundred yards or so to the cabin,
+crowding in till the main room was filled.
+
+"What is it, Tod?" cried Phil, as his cousin flung open the door to
+the tiny lean-to bedroom. Tod's face was pasty white and his eyes
+bulged out.
+
+"They've--_got_ dad! I'm afraid he's--killed!"
+
+"No!" exclaimed Jerry, pushing past.
+
+But the first look made him believe the worst. On the floor, toppled
+over in the chair to which he had been bound, lay Mr. Fulton, his
+injured shoulder twisted way out of place, his distorted face the
+color of old ivory. Gagged and tightly laced to the bed lay Mr.
+Billings, his features working in wildest rage.
+
+But Mr. Fulton was not dead. He came to under the deft handling of
+Phil and his fellow Scouts, but it was Mr. Billings who told the
+story of the attack.
+
+While Mr. Fulton had been struggling with the strap that held his
+shoulder-brace in place, two burly men had burst through the doorway
+and quickly overpowered him, handicapped as he was by his useless
+arm. They had bound him to the chair, and then, after gagging and
+tying Billings, had calmly proceeded to ransack the room, one
+holding a pistol at Fulton's head while the other searched.
+
+Papers scattered about on the floor, wrecked furniture and broken
+boxes, testified to the thoroughness of the hunt. But they had found
+nothing until they had thought to go through the bed on which
+Billings lay. Under the mattress was a portfolio packed with
+blueprints and plans. That was when Mr. Fulton had fallen; he had
+tried to free himself from his bonds and get at the two, no matter
+how hopeless the fight.
+
+As Mr. Billings finished the story, Mr. Fulton opened his eyes
+weakly. "Tod----" he gasped--"where's Tod?"
+
+"Here, dad," coming close beside him where he lay on a big pile of
+blankets.
+
+"Look quick and see if they found the little flat book--you know."
+
+Tod rummaged hastily through the disordered mess of drawings
+littered over the bed and floor. "Not here," he confessed finally.
+
+The man gave a deep groan. "We're done for, then. It had the
+contract folded up in it. And it had the combination to the safe at
+the house, and there was the list of the specifications Mr. Billings
+made out for me when we packed away the first draft of the
+_Skyrocket_."
+
+"What difference does that make, if they've already got the
+blueprints'?" asked Jerry.
+
+"Oh-h!" cried Mr. Fulton, despair in his voice, "don't you see? The
+aeroplane itself was made here; Billings did all the work on it. But
+Tod and I did all the experimental work at home. All the data
+concerning the invention is back there in the safe!"
+
+"And they're already halfway there in their motorboat!" groaned
+Phil.
+
+But Mr. Fulton made no answer. His eyes were closed; he had fainted
+dead away.
+
+Tod jumped up from where he had been kneeling beside his father.
+"Look after him, Phil," he directed briskly. "Jerry, you come with
+me. Those villains have got the contract and they will soon have
+dad's secret--it means that we're cleaned out. There's only one
+thing to do in a tight place like this, and you and I are going to
+do it--if you've got the nerve!"
+
+"I've got it," responded Jerry quickly. "What is it?"
+
+"We're going after those crooks in the _Skyrocket_!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+A CLOSE FINISH
+
+
+The incidents of the next hour or so would be hard to picture from
+the standpoint of Jerry's emotions. As they half ran over to where
+the _Skyrocket_ stood ready, snorting like an impatient racehorse,
+his heart was filled with a kind of frightened determination. Once
+he was strapped into his seat, his pulses stopped galloping so fast,
+but as Tod began an endless fumbling with levers, plainly as nervous
+as his chum, Jerry's nerve oozed out at his fingertips; he might
+have climbed out had it not been for the straps--and the two men,
+who now came forward and insisted that the boys give up their hair-
+brained plan. Jerry would have been killed by inches rather than
+give in to them.
+
+A sudden terrifying lurch, a dizzy parting company with solid earth
+that almost made Jerry part company with his stomach. He yelled, but
+it might easily have been through excitement rather than fear. He
+hoped the two and Tod would think so. He dared not look down--all he
+could do was grip the rod before him with a death-defying clutch.
+Faster and faster, higher and higher they mounted, the air whistling
+by them like mad.
+
+"Can't you slow her down a little?" he yelled in Tod's ear, but Tod
+gave no answer. He could hardly have heard above the roar of the
+motor and the sickening whine of the propellers--not to intention a
+steady drumming of taut wires and tightly stretched silk. "Can't you
+tune her down?" Jerry yelled, louder this time, "and get her level?"
+
+"Can't!" shouted Tod. "I've forgotten which handle to pull, even if
+I knew which way to pull it!"
+
+He tried first one and then another, but although they lurched
+dangerously, first this way and then that, they kept mounting into
+the sky. Finally there was but one chance left--Tod cautiously drew
+the lever toward him, then with an "Ah!" heard above all the noise,
+brought it all the way. The _Skyrocket_ quivered, dropped to an even
+keel, and then turned her nose earthward. But Tod was ready for
+that. Halfway back he shoved, the lever and once more the
+_Skyrocket_ rode level.
+
+They had left Lost Island far behind, but in which direction they
+could not be sure. A long streak of flame to the left told them that
+a railroad lay there, and it could be none other than the Belt Line
+that ran into Watertown. Through a rift in the clouds a cluster of
+stars showed briefly--the Big Dipper. "See!" shouted Tod. "We're
+headed north, all right"
+
+They were going much slower now, and the noise was not so deafening;
+they could talk without splitting their throats. Dimly they made out
+Plum Run directly beneath them, while a haze of lights indicated
+Watertown, the goal. Even as they watched it seemed to be drawing
+nearer.
+
+"Were you scared?" asked Tod.
+
+"Stiff," confessed Jerry. "You?"
+
+"Should say. Bet my hair's turned white. Where'll we land?"
+
+"Where can you?"
+
+"Don't know. River, most likely. Say, we're lucky we're alive. I
+thought I knew how to run it until we got off the ground. Then I
+found I'd forgotten more than I ever learned."
+
+"Did you ever run it before?"
+
+"With dad watching, yes. Once, that is. But I've faked running it a
+hundred times there in the hangar. Suppose we could come down in
+your back lot? It's level--and big enough, maybe."
+
+"We might hit a horse. Dad's got Daisy in there nights."
+
+"We'll have to chance it, I guess. But you hold on good and tight,
+because I'll probably pull the wrong strings at the last minute.
+Where are we now?"
+
+"That's the mill yonder, I think. We want to swing west a little
+now. Suppose _they_ are at the house by now?"
+
+"Most likely. They had a good start. Shall we get your dad?"
+
+"Uhuh. And several others--with guns. Better have old Bignold." Mr.
+Bignold was the only night policeman in Watertown. "There's the city
+limits, that switch-tower on the Belt Line. Hadn't we better come
+down a bit. I don't like the idea of falling so far."
+
+Tod obediently let the _Skyrocket_ slide down a few hundred feet,
+till they were just above the tree-tops. They could see that their
+arrival was causing a commotion below. They could even hear the
+cries of alarm. "Bet they think we're a comet," chuckled Tod.
+
+Now he began to circle a bit, for it was hard to identify houses and
+streets in the dark and from this unfamiliar view. At last Jerry
+gave a shout of joy. "There's our house--and I bet that's dad coming
+out to see what's up. Hey, dad!" he yelled, but the running figure
+below made no answer.
+
+"Well, here goes for Daisy!" chuckled Tod, at the same time pointing
+the _Skyrocket_ earthward so sharply that it made Jerry gasp. Down,
+down they shot, the black underneath seeming to be rushing up to
+crush them. At the last Tod managed to lessen their slant, but even
+then they struck the ground with a force that almost overturned the
+machine. Over the rough ground the landing wheels jolted, but slower
+and slower. A final disrupting jar, and they stopped dead.
+
+Not so the object they had struck. With a wild squeal of fear poor
+Daisy struggled to her feet and went tearing out of sight and
+hearing at better speed than she had shown for years.
+
+"That'll bring dad on the jump," declared Jerry, climbing painfully
+from his seat. "Say, to-morrow I'm going to take a good look at this
+rod I've been holding to; I'll bet it shows fingermarks."
+
+"What's the meaning of that rumpus out there?" demanded a stern
+voice.
+
+"Oh, dad--we need you the worst way."
+
+"That you, Jerry? What in tarnation you up to anyhow?"
+
+"We're not up any longer--we're glad to get back to earth."
+
+"Eh?" said Mr. Ring, perplexed, as he came up to them. "What ye
+driving at? What was that thing that just sailed over the house? Did
+you see it? I heard Daisy going on out here like the devil before
+day--or was it you two who were pestering her? What's that
+contraption you're sitting on?"
+
+"The same thing that just sailed over, dad," laughed Jerry, then,
+unable to hold in any longer: "We came from Lost Island in Mr.
+Fulton's aeroplane that he's just invented, and there's robbers in
+Mr. Fulton's house, and we want you to get a gun and Mr. Bignold and
+all the neighbors, and go down and get them!" Jerry stopped, but
+only because he was out of breath.
+
+"Get them? Who are _them?_ And what in thunder you two doing in an
+aero----" "Oh, dad," Jerry almost screamed in his fear that delay
+might make them too late, "don't stop to ask questions. Let's get to
+the house and Tod can be telephoning while I tell you what it's all
+about." He caught hold of his father's arm to hurry him along.
+"There are two men breaking into Mr. Fulton's safe this minute, most
+likely, and we mustn't let them get away."
+
+"Well, what in thunder's Fulton got in a safe that any robber would
+want?" grumbled Mr. Ring, but stepping briskly along nevertheless.
+"Two men, you say? Guess Bignold and I can handle them. I've got my
+old horse-pistol--if it doesn't blow out backwards."
+
+They had reached the house, and Tod went in to telephone, while Mr.
+Ring went upstairs to get his revolver, which, instead of being a
+horse pistol, was an automatic of the latest type. Jerry stopped him
+for a moment at the stair door. "I'm going ahead. I'll be just
+outside the gate over yonder, keeping an eye on the place to see
+they don't get away." He was gone before Mr. Ring could object.
+
+But the house was dark and silent. Not a sign of unwelcome visitors
+was to be seen. All the windows were tightly closed; both doors were
+shut. Jerry felt uncomfortable. Suppose there was no one there--had
+been no one there? The two men would roast him and Tod unmercifully.
+He heard a light step on the walk behind him and turned, expecting
+his father. His words of greeting died in his throat.
+
+Two men, looking unbelievably big and threatening in the darkness,
+were almost upon him. He tried to shout for help. His tongue seemed
+paralyzed and his throat refused to give out a sound. Jerry was
+scared stiff. He knew at once that these two were the men they had
+come to capture, and somehow he had a feeling that they knew _that_,
+too.
+
+Not a word was said. Jerry had backed up against the gatepost, his
+fists doubled up at his sides.
+
+The two pressed in close against him. He felt powerful hands
+reaching out to crush the life out of him, but still he made no
+outcry. Then one of them spoke.
+
+"You came in the airship?"
+
+Jerry started, for the man's English was perfect, though heavy and
+foreign sounding in an unexplainable way. He repeated his question
+when the boy did not answer at once.
+
+"Yes--yes," stammered Jerry, hoping that perhaps he might gain time.
+
+"You came alone?" insinuated the same speaker as before, but now an
+ominous note of threat in his voice.
+
+Jerry was in a quandary. He realized that if he told them that he
+had come alone, that they would kill him. On the other hand, if he
+told them the truth, they would get away.
+
+"Answer!" commanded the man, catching Jerry by the throat and
+shaking him till the back of Jerry's eyeballs seemed to be red,
+searing flames. A sudden rage came over him, numbed as he was by the
+pressure on his windpipe. With a mighty wrench he freed himself.
+Kicking out with all his might, he caught the farther man full in
+the pit of the stomach. He fell, all doubled up. But the man who had
+choked Jerry, laughed scornfully as lie caught the boy's arms and
+gave the one a twist that almost tore it from its socket.
+
+"More spirit than brains," he laughed derisively. "I'll break you in
+two over my knee if you make another break like that."
+
+"You'll kindly put up your hands in the meanwhile," suggested a
+pleasant but firm voice which Jerry could hardly recognize as that
+of his father. "I think I'll take a little hand in this game
+myself."
+
+"Look out, dad--there's one on the ground!" warned Jerry. "I kicked
+him in the stomach."
+
+"Pleasant way to treat visitors. Why didn't you invite them into the
+house, son? Oblige me, gentlemen." He waved his automatic in the
+general direction of the Fulton front porch. "I'd ask you to my own
+house, but, you know, womenfolks----"
+
+Jerry stepped out of the way. His assailant passed him and turned to
+go in the gateway. Then something happened, just what, Jerry was not
+sure. Afterwards it developed that he had been picked up bodily and
+hurled full at his father. Mr. Ring went down like a tenpin when the
+ball hits dead-center. As he fell, his finger pressed the trigger
+and six roaring shots flashed into the air. When father and son
+regained their feet, they had a last dim glimpse of two forms in
+rapid flight. Then the darkness swallowed them up.
+
+"We bungled it," said Mr. Ring, ruefully feeling of a certain soft
+spot in his body where Jerry's weight had landed.
+
+"And here come Tod--and Chief Bignold, just a minute too late."
+
+"Hi there, Mr. Ring," called the burly constable. "What is it--a
+riot?"
+
+"A massacre, but all the victims escaped. Two blooming foreigners
+trying to steal an airship out of Mr. Fulton's safe down there in
+his cellar--wasn't that what you said, boys?"
+
+The boys tried to explain, but both men seemed to insist on taking
+the whole affair as a joke, though they talked it over seriously
+enough when the youngsters were out of hearing. Tod opened the door
+and let them inside the house, but did not go in himself, motioning
+to Jerry to stay beside him.
+
+"You two youngsters chase along over to the house and tell Mrs. Ring
+to give you your nursing bottles and put you to bed."
+
+"Huh," snorted Tod, "we daren't leave the _Skyrocket_ unguarded."
+
+"Why it's Fulton's kid," exclaimed Bignold, for the first time
+recognizing him. "Say, you tell your dad that he's been stirring up
+this town till it's wild with excitement. Three telegrams this day,
+not to mention a special delivery letter that they've been hunting
+all over the country for him with. And on top of that, an important
+little man with brass buttons and shoulder-straps, struttin' all
+over the place and askin' everybody if he's Mr. Fulton, the
+inventor. When'd your dad get to be an inventor?"
+
+"Well, he had to be born sometime," answered Tod dryly.
+
+"Eh? Well, you'd best tell that same little busy-bee where your
+father can be found. And the telegrams; don't forget them."
+
+"I won't," answered Tod, starting off toward town on the run. "Watch
+the old _Skyrocket_ till I get back, will you, Jerry?" and he was
+gone.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Two stiff, sleepy, disgusted boys sat up in their nest of blankets
+and looked at each other through the framework of the _Skyrocket_
+next morning at something like seven o'clock.
+
+"And you said you wouldn't go to sleep," each said slowly and
+accusingly to the other, then both grinned sheepishly.
+
+"Oh, well, the machine's still here, so why grouch over a couple
+hours' sleep?" Tod defended. "Huh--I suppose not. But I'll bet dad
+had a good laugh over us when he came down here about breakfast
+time. What's that pinned to your blanket?"
+
+Tod crawled out of his nest and pulled loose the scrap of paper that
+had been pinned in the region of his big toe.
+
+"It's a note. Want to hear it? It says, 'Mother Ring tells me
+pancakes are ready for you when you've finished your guard-mount.
+Signed--A Burglar.' That's sure one on us."
+
+It was scant justice that the two did to breakfast that morning.
+Four telegrams were burning holes in Tod's pockets; he could hardly
+keep from tearing them open, so curious was he to know their
+contents. Even the newspaper that Mrs. King brought in and laid
+beside their plates, could not entirely hold their attention, in
+spite of the startling news headlined on the front page. "BREAK WITH
+GERMANY--U. S. on Verge of Being Drawn Into World War."
+
+"We'll take it with us and read it after we get there. No--not
+another cake, Mrs. Ring. Excuse us, please--we've got to go."
+
+"It seems a shame----" began Tod, when they were once more outside,
+then asked abruptly: "Willing to take a licking, Jerry?"
+
+"And go back on the _Skyrocket_? Did you think we were going any
+other way? And leave the machine here for anybody to come along and
+study out--or steal? Not much! I'll take a dozen lickings!"
+
+But he didn't. When the _Skyrocket_ finally circled about Lost
+Island and settled down over the narrow landing field as easily as a
+homing pigeon, to come to a stop with hardly a jar, it was bringing
+news to Mr. Fulton that was bound to soften the heart of any dad.
+
+Tod's father was out in front of the little cabin, a bit pale and
+shaky, but cheerful. His face lighted up wonderfully when he saw the
+_Skyrocket_ aground and the two boys safe. He tried to rise to greet
+them, but had to be satisfied to wave his hand instead. The two boys
+came running over to where he sat, eager to tell their story.
+
+"What's happened?" Mr. Fulton asked excitedly before they could
+begin. He was pointing at the newspaper Jerry had been waving wildly
+as they raced across the open.
+
+"War--maybe--with Germany! But we've more important news than that--
+for us just now, at least. Telegrams--four of them--look. And an
+officer's been looking for you----"
+
+"Police?" asked Mr. Fulton gravely.
+
+"Army!" exploded Tod and Jerry together. "Bet it's about the----"
+
+They paused, for Mr. Fulton was not listening to them. He had torn
+one of the telegraph envelopes open and was reading the brief
+message, his face going first red and then white.
+
+"What's all the excitement?" demanded a slow voice in which there
+was a trace of resentment. It was Mr. Harris, who had appeared in
+the doorway of the cabin.
+
+"Nothing much," answered Mr. Fulton. "Nothing at all. In fact, the
+excitement's all over. I'm certainly very glad that you balked
+yesterday on buying that 'pig in a poke,' my dear baronet. It
+seems," flapping the opened telegram against his other hand, "it
+seems, my very dear sir, that the American government, being
+confronted by a situation which bears more than a promise of war,
+has offered to buy the ideas which are embodied in the _Skyrocket_."
+
+"Hooray for Uncle Sammy!" shouted Tod.
+
+All the boys had come crowding around, slapping Tod and Jerry wildly
+on the back and cheering till their throats were hoarse. It was
+fully five minutes before anyone could make himself heard above the
+din. Finally Mr. Fulton raised his hand for a chance to be heard,
+and after one rousing shout of "Three cheers for the Scouts of the
+Air!" the noisy crew quieted down.
+
+"Phil asked me one day if I'd promise you all a front seat at the
+circus and a ride on the elephant. Well, I'm going to keep my word,
+I've got a piece of timber about forty miles up the river from here,
+and on it there's a log cabin and one of the greatest little old
+fishing lakes in the country. I'm going to take you all up there for
+a month of the best sport you ever had."
+
+"Bully for you, dad!" shouted Tod, then turned to Jerry with:
+
+"And while we're there, what say we learn the first principles of
+Boy Scouting, so that when we get back to Watertown we can organize
+a patrol of----"
+
+"The Boy Scouts of the Air!" finished Dave and Frank and Jerry in a
+breath.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Boy Scouts of the Air on Lost
+Island, by Gordon Stuart
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOST ISLAND ***
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