Part 21 (1/2)
A MIDNIGHT ADVENTURE
Half an hour after her start, the _Viper_ glided alongside the island froo up the afternoon before He could not forbear to take a glance at Barton as the ensign ordered the engines stopped
The itation; but by the tre of his hands Merritt could tell that the felloas apprehensive of soht involve hihy was drawn up alongside and the ensign and Merritt boarded it The others were left on board the _Viper_ hispered orders from the officer to watch Barton's every hest point it was possible to see all around it To Merritt's bitter disappointht Their quarry had flown
”There's but one thing to do,” declared the ensign; ”we hly It ht the events of the preceding night Hardly had they entered the door before Merritt gave a start of surprise and a swift exclamation
”Look! Look there!” he cried ”There's Rob's hat!”
Sure enough, lying in a corner was the boy leader's can hat, which he had lost in the scuffle with Mike and Gyp
”Well, that shows conclusively enough that he was here last night, and fros, I should iine there had been a pretty lively scrap here,” con
”But where can Rob be now?”
”Probably fearing discovery if they remained here, the men who have taken the plans and the models carried him off, too”
”Hoill it ever be possible to obtain a clew as to where they have gone?”
The ensign's answer appeared enigmatical
”Could you describe the motor boat you saw off here yesterday?”
”Well, she was of a very re up ah”
”Good Such a boat as that ought not to be very hard to locate”
”I don't quite understand”
”Well, then I'll explain These waters are fairly well traveled, and by working our wireless we et into communication with soreen ood idea,” cried the ado back and try it at once”
”Yes, it's s about here The rascals overreached us by getting away as quick as possible I suppose they didn't want to run any chances of discovery”
The return to the _Viper_ was quickly made, and the motor boat was driven back to the Subht to overhear as said in the bow of the boat where the Boy Scouts had gathered; but the ensign was careful to keep his voice low, and then, too, the noise of the engines precluded thea word, hard as he strained his ears
Under the tutoring of Hiram Nelson, the wireless scout, the others had all becoht one of thereen n's opinion that the craft would not put into a port i a hue and cry, but would cruise about or hide in some little frequented part of the coast But he hoped that if the wireless ”caught” some vessel that had spoken to her, he could at least obtain a line on which direction she had taken
The first ”session” at the wireless was taken by Hiram, then caht Donald, who had learned wireless on his father's yacht, careen motor boat Several shi+ps had been spoken to, but not one reported anything to give the boys hope