CHAPTER X.

ABOARD THE STRANGE POWER BOAT.

"Well, this _is_ a rich joke!" laughed the man. "Just keep your fingers from pressing those triggers, please, boys. No danger of my trying the disappearing act. Fact is, we've been expecting you to come along for some time now."

Jack was not going to allow himself to be deceived. "Soft words buttered no parsnips," he had often heard his mother say; and because this unknown fellow chose to talk smoothly, was no sign that he should be trusted.

And so he continued to keep his gun raised, seeing which the others did likewise.

"That's nice, to hear you say such fine things; but what we want to know is, what have you done with our chum?" he demanded.

"Yes, tell us that!" said George, menacingly.

"Sure, we want to know, by the same token!" observed the Irish lad.

"Oh! he's aboard our boat, just now, and will be glad to welcome you," the other party remarked, coolly. "And I hereby invite you one and all to come along to see for yourselves. It's a mistake all around, I guess. Please accept my invitation in the same friendly spirit in which it is given, and honor us with your company, boys. Josh is getting back to his old self, but he had a nasty tumble, I give you my word."

"What's that?" asked Jack.

"He tripped over a root," said the man, earnestly, "and struck his head on a lump of coquina rock. It made a bad cut on the side of his head, and he bled quite a little. Besides, the blow must have knocked him senseless. My friend Carpenter and myself were just coming back to the boat, after a little side hunt for a deer, when we discovered him lying there, and took him aboard. After he came to, he told us who he was, and all about the rest of you. And am I right in believing that you are Jack Stormways?"

Of course the three boys were more or less thunderstruck by what they had just heard. It knocked all their theories "into flinders," as Jimmy would have said. Here they had been concocting all manner of wonderful stories in connection with the two parties aboard the little power boat. They had even gone so far as to believe the men must be some desperate characters, fleeing from the sheriff, who might turn up at any hour in full pursuit.

And now, from what the other had just declared, it would seem that the shoe was exactly on the other foot. Instead of proving to be lawless men, criminals in fact, they gave evidence of turning out to be Good Samaritans. Why, Josh might have been in a bad way, only for them, according to what the man had just said.

But could he be believed? Might it not all be a part of some clever trap? George, always inclined toward suspicion, would have held back, had the decision been left to him; Jack was inclined to take the man's word, for he had a frank way about him; while Jimmy was hanging in the balance, hardly knowing what to believe.

Just then there came a shout from within the cabin of the little boat.

"Hello, Jack; it's all right!"

All of them readily recognized the well known voice of Josh; and his assurance went far toward alleviating the fear George entertained, that danger lurked in their putting themselves in the power of the unknown parties.

"You hear what your mate says, Jack?" remarked the man whose figure was outlined against the glow of the cabin's interior. "Tell them to come aboard, and see what we did for you, Josh."

"That's just what, fellers. Nobody could have been kinder. Don't stop there, but push your way aboard. Cabin's small; but you can all get your heads in," Josh went on to say.

Of course, after that even suspicious George saw no reason for holding back longer. So the three splashed along until they stood hip-deep in the lagoon. The man even stretched out a hand and assisted Jack aboard, as though he bore them not the least bit of malice for having held him up at the muzzle of their guns.

As Jack clambered aboard, the first thing he saw through the opening was Josh, with a bandage around his head, which showed signs of gore, telling that he must have received something of a bad cut when he tripped and fell.

Then all those signs around the spot, which they supposed meant a struggle between the boy and his two captors, had in reality been made when the men attempted to lift Josh, and carry his senseless form to their boat near by.

Well, one thing was apparently explained. There was no longer any mystery as to why Josh had failed to respond when they shouted, and fired their guns. If at the time, he was lying there senseless, he could not very well be expected to give an answering halloo. But then, why had not these two men done something to let his companions know what had befallen him?

That was what puzzled Jack. He should have thought that the very first thing to occur to them would be to send word to the camp of the motor boat boys--unless, now, there was some good reason for holding back until they could question Josh, and make sure that he did not have any connection with the sheriff and his posse!

"This is my friend, and cruising partner, Mr. Bryce Carpenter," said the one who had thus far been conducting the conversation from their side. "My own name is Sidney Bliss. How about your friends, Jack?"

"George Rollins, the first one, and Jimmy Brannigan the other," Jack immediately spoke. "We've left two more in camp, while we hunted for our lost chum. Hello! Josh; awful glad to find you alive and kicking; but don't like the looks of that bloody pack around your head."

"Huh! I guess I got a pretty hard knock on my coco, all right," grinned Josh; and he did look so comical, with that turban-like bandage, and his face flecked with little specks of dried blood, that Jimmy burst out into a merry laugh.

"Sure, ye did, Josh, ye spalpeen!" he declared, thrusting one arm into the cabin, so as to clutch the hand of the discovered comrade; "but 'tis a tough nut ye're afther having, I do declare, which is a fortunate thing for ye this night."

"All that he told you is square as a die, fellers," Josh went on. "And they've been mighty kind to me, I give you my word. I didn't know where I was when I came out of the doze; but they asked me a lot of questions, and in that way we got to be right well acquainted."

"H'm! you see," the man who had called himself Sidney Bliss hastened to say, "we had some good reasons for feeling suspicious toward your party, Jack."

"I don't know why," returned the boy, instantly. "We've come all the way down the coast from Philadelphia, and never once bothering ourselves about anybody else's business. George, here, got into rather a little fever because he said you seemed to be watching us through the glasses whenever we happened to come near each other, but it was none of our business, and I wouldn't let it bother me."

That was as plain an invitation for an explanation as could be imagined; and apparently so the other looked at it.

"Well, after learning just who you were, and that you couldn't have the least connection with Lenox and his crowd, we had to laugh at our suspicions," Bliss went on to say.

"We don't happen to know anybody by the name of Lenox, do we, boys?" Jack took occasion to remark.

"Nixy, not," Jimmy asserted, after his usual manner, while George, too, shook his head in the negative.

"Only Lenox I ever knew was a sickly little chap who went to the same boarding school I did about six years ago," he remarked.

"Well, Josh says you're all from out Mississippi way," the man continued, glibly; "and this Lenox is a New Yorker. Besides, he's a man of about forty, and not a boy at all. Belongs to the same club Carpenter and myself do; and thereby hangs the tale that sent us away down here, and made us eye your crowd with suspicion."

"Yes?" Jack said, feeling that he was expected to make some sort of remark.

"They told me all about it, fellers," spoke up Josh; "and after you hear, I guess you'll understand just why they've been playing the hold-off game they did. It's all as square as you'd want it, take my affidavy on it."

"Good for you, Josh," laughed Bliss, good-naturedly, as he glanced quickly toward his companion; and Jack plainly saw him wink his eye suggestively. "After what we did for you, it's evident that you have perfect faith in our record. But, as I was saying, Jack, at the club one evening, we got to disputing, and Lenox, who pretends to be something of a dashing small boat sailor, dared Bryce and myself to enter into a competition with himself and some of his friends. That's what took us down here right now, you see."

"What sort of competition, sir?" asked George, quickly.

"To prove which party might turn out to be the better sailors, we agreed to make the complete circuit of the coast of Florida in boats no longer than twenty-three feet; and the ones who reached Pensacola first were to be declared winners. Neither of us were to accept the least outside aid, on penalty of being declared losers."

It sounded very nice, and yet Jack could not forget that suggestive look which had passed between the men. And he wondered if there might not be something back of the story Bliss was telling, something perhaps much nearer the truth.

"Oh!" he remarked, "I see now what you mean. You kept watching us, then, because you suspected we might be your rivals in the race?"

"That's it, Jack," the man immediately burst out with, seemingly pleased; "you see, my boy, our friend Lenox is known to be rather a tricky chap. Carpenter and myself came to the conclusion that he might resort to some scheme to hold us back, and somehow we got to look at your three boats with suspicion. Of course it was all a silly mistake, as we know now. But we're glad to have been of some assistance to your mate, Josh, knowing full well that you'd have done as well by us if the occasion offered. And, by Jove! you boys beat us all hollow, when it comes to bold cruising; for Josh has been telling us something of what you've done. I take off my cap to you, Jack Stormways, as a Corinthian sailor!"