CHAPTER VIII.

TRACKED TO THE BAYOU.

"Oh! I hope it won't turn out as bad as that, Jack!" gasped George.

"The poor spalpeen!" whimpered Jimmy, apparently shocked by what their leader had just remarked.

"Now," Jack hastened to say, "don't make up your minds, boys, that Josh has run against that sort of a hard deal, just because it flashed into my mind. You wanted to know why I was in such a sweat, and I told you. But, honest Injun, after I've spoken my mind, I just can't bring myself to believe it. We'll find our chum, sooner or later. Perhaps, after all, it'll turn out that he had a bad tumble, and hurt himself so he wasn't able to let us know."

"Well, as long as we're able to follow his trail, we hadn't ought to give up in despair," George asserted, very sensibly.

"Sure, we've shown in the past that we're not built that way," Jimmy thought fit to remark, firmly.

"Then let's be going on," Jack wound up the conference by saying.

For the fifth time the trail approached the water again. Josh evidently hated to give up the idea that had been in his mind when he left camp. If there were any of those dainty little shore birds to be had, he wanted to get a crack at the same; though by this time he must have become aware of the fact that he was wandering much farther away than he had intended doing in the start.

This time there happened to be quite a deep-seated cove, with a point of land running out that would completely shut out all sight of the spot where the three motor boats were anchored, with the camp-fire ashore.

Jack noted this fact; somehow it was impressed on his mind, though he could not have exactly explained why this should be so, had he been asked.

The tracks grew fainter, so that it was only by pushing the glowing and useful lantern down close to the sand that Jack was able to follow the line by which Josh had pushed his way along.

"Here is where he dropped on his knees, the better to crawl forward," whispered the guide; and both George and Jimmy could make out the deeper impressions that undoubtedly must have been made by a pair of knees pressing down.

There was a screen of saw palmetto in front of them, hiding the water. Perhaps Josh had discovered a flock of the coveted birds on a bar, and was making his way to a point he had in mind, where he might suddenly rise, and fire. But something must have prevented his carrying out this plan, then, for certainly the sound of a heavy shotgun charge could have been heard at the camp, had he pulled trigger. "Wait here for me, and keep quiet," whispered Jack, as, leaving the lantern on the ground, he started away.

His two companions were rendered almost speechless by his strange action. They could only stare at each other, and nod their heads, as though striving in this way to communicate their fears.

In two minutes Jack came back. He looked disappointed as he stooped to pick up the lantern again.

"Nothing doing, boys," he said, quietly.

"They don't seem to be, and that's a fact," mumbled Jimmy, much depressed.

"See here, what did you expect to find when you went on there?" demanded George, immediately suspicious. "Was it anything about that bally old boat, the one that's been dogging us all the way down from Jacksonville? Tell me that, Jack, old top!"

"H'm! perhaps it may be the people aboard that same boat have come to the conclusion _we're_ doing the dogging. They run across us in all sorts of unexpected places. And if you stop to remember, George, it's the other boat that has always slipped away secretly, not us!"

"You're right, it was," George flashed up; "but you didn't answer my question, Jack."

"Well, I did have your pet hobby in mind when I went on just now, to take a look at this fine little lagoon; because, with that point of land standing in a half-moon curve, it looks like a splendid harbor for small boats. And, to tell you the truth, I picked up the butt end of a cigarette just back there five feet, one that was thrown away recently, because no rain or dew had fallen on it!"

"Whew! now, that does look suspicious, I must say," George exclaimed, in a low and cautious voice.

"But there isn't a sign of any boat in the bayou, as far as I could see," Jack went on. "Of course, it's so dark now that I wasn't able to take in the whole bay; but, anyhow, there isn't a light visible."

"And now, what nixt?" asked Jimmy, eager to get at the solution of this perplexing problem, which was thrilling their nerves more and more as they made progress.

For answer, Jack moved forward, this time using the friendly lantern as before. Brushing through the screen of saw palmettos, they could see the water lapping the shore of the lagoon, though there were still bushes and tall grass between.

"Hello!"

Uttering this exclamation half under his breath, the leader of the trio suddenly came to a halt. Jimmy half raised the gun he was carrying, as though under the impression that they were about to be confronted by something, either a human enemy or one in the way of a wild beast, that would bar their further progress.

Then he saw that Jack, instead of showing signs of preparing for battle, was on his knees, eagerly examining certain marks in the sand.

"What have you found?" asked George, in an awed tone.

"As near as I can make out, there are tracks that seem to tell of a scuffle!" was the ready reply, as Jack pointed here and there.

"By the great horn spoon, but I believe you're right!" gasped George.

"It's either that, now, or else the gossoon's been and had a fit," Jimmy declared, though he could not remember that Josh had ever been addicted to such things.

"No; there have been two men here," said Jack.

"Glory be!" ejaculated the Irish lad.

"Tell us how you know that, Jack?" asked George, his face struggling between a grin and a look of alarm.

"Why, it's as plain as print; and if you look here, you'll see the marks of their shoes. Both seem much larger than Josh ever made, and yet they are different, for one had heels, and the other must have been wearing some sort of moccasin, perhaps the kind I've got, to be used aboard a small, varnished decked boat, so as to avoid scratching."

"Didn't I say so?" burst out George, unable to hold in any longer. "After this you won't think I'm off my base when I mention my suspicions about fellows who run away in the night, peek through marine glasses at us every chance they get, and just act like a parcel of sneaks. Jack, that fly-up-the-creek power boat must have been in this bayou when our chum came crawling through these bushes, and took a look out."

"That's about what I'm thinking, now," admitted the other.

"Some of the men happened to be ashore, and saw him spying on the boat? Is that in line with what you think, Jack?"

"It looks that way. Two unknown parties certainly dropped down on Josh while he was lying here. He put up as good a fight as he could, but they were too much for the poor fellow," Jack went on, looking as though he might be reading all these things from the marks upon the sand.

"But you don't say any signs of blood, do ye, Jack darlint?" asked Jimmy, with a plain vein of horror in his quavering voice.

"No, I'm glad to say I don't," replied the other. "So, on that account it would seem that the fellows haven't actually hurt Josh, only made him a prisoner."

Jimmy gave a bleat, not unlike the pitiful sound a distressed goat might emit.

"Och! thin the bally rascals have carried him away wid them, and we'll niver set eyes on our chum agin. Whirra! whativer will Nick do about his rations, if the cook of the bunch be lost, strayed or stolen?" he whimpered.

"Nick be hanged!" said George, vehemently, though in a low tone; "never fear but he'll get all he wants to eat. What we have to find out is where they've gone, and why they dared carry Josh Purdue away with them. And we'll just do that same, if it takes the whole of the winter. You hear me speaking, don't you? Oh! what did you do that for, Jack?"

This last sentence was caused by a sudden action on the part of Jack. He had raised the lantern, and with a quick, downward motion caused the light to go out--a trick readily learned by any one who will take the trouble to experiment. And thus they were left standing there in the dark.

"How under the sun did it happen that none of us saw it before?" Jack was softly saying, in a vexed tone, as though he had made a discovery that agitated him.

"Saw what?" asked George.

"Bend your head this way, and look yonder through the bushes," Jack told him.

"Great governor!" whispered the _Wireless_ skipper, hoarsely; "it _is_ a light, as sure as shooting! And on the water, too, Jack. Say, that power boat must be over there, in another bayou just beyond. There's a neck of land runs out, and it's covered with trees and scrub. That's why we didn't glimpse that light before."

"You've hit the nail on the head, George, for that's just the way the land lies," Jack went on, trying to control his voice, which would tremble a little despite his utmost endeavors. "But perhaps that light wasn't shining a bit ago. There, look! it's disappeared again."

"That's what it has," Jimmy observed, having been an interested observer all the while; "just for all the worrld loike a windy had been opened, and shut again. I do be thinking mesilf that somebody was afther coming out of the cabin to take a look around, and lift the door open the while, that's all. Now he's gone in again, by the same token."

"I hope, then, he didn't just catch a glimpse of our light moving, before I doused the glim," was the fervent wish expressed by Jack.

"I hardly think he did, Jack," George said, nervously. "You see, it was standing on the ground up to the time you grabbed it up again. But what ought we do now?"

"Make our way around that tongue of land the best way we can, and see how things are there," Jack replied, without the slightest hesitation.

"Why not follow the beach around?" George suggested.

"Now, that wouldn't be a bad scheme. It's so dark that if we kept low, they couldn't see us moving. And, besides, it'll save a lot of scrambling through that brush, without the help of the lantern. All right; come along then, boys. And let's remember to keep as quiet as an owl in the daytime."

Saying this in a whisper, Jack led the way, the others following along in Indian file at his heels. Whenever he halted for any reason, both George and Jimmy would also draw up instantly. And no doubt, on every occasion of this sort, their excited pulses would cause their hearts to beat like trip-hammers.

Just as they had guessed, there was a point of land running out all of seventy feet into the water, and hiding the next bayou. Sometimes these extend from the main Florida shore around Barnes Sound like the fingers of a human hand. Again they will be in the form of reefs, composed of small, sharp-edged 'coon oysters, that stick up out of the salt water at low tide, but are entirely submerged when the flood comes on.

Before reaching the extreme point, Jack concluded that it would be wise for them to pass over here, rather than risk discovery by going to the limit of the cape; where, with the white sand to serve as a background to their darker bodies, some one on the watch might discover their approach, and give warning.

"Jack, I see it!" whispered George, presently.

"The boat, you mean," replied the other, in the same guarded tone. "Yes, I've caught her, too. But everything seems to be dark around."

"I wonder now, have they deserted the ould craft," suggested Jimmy.

"Not so loud, Jimmy; we've got to find that out for ourselves," Jack went on.

"By going aboard, you mean, don't you, Jack?" from eager George.

"There's no other way; and if these people are holding our chum a prisoner, we've just got to let them know we object to such a high-handed business. Are you both willing to stand back of me, George, Jimmy?"

"Every time," George replied; and Jack could easily imagine how his excitable chum must be nerved up to the highest tension.

"Ye c'n count on me, through thick and thin, sink or shwim, survive or perish," Jimmy put in, as solemnly as though he might be holding up his hand, and subscribing to the oath before the court.

"Then come on, and we'll take the bull by the horns," said Jack, moving forward through the thin growth that marked the spit of land near its terminus.

"And don't let's forget, fellows, that we're armed to the teeth," whispered George, as he set out to trail close behind his leader.

In this manner, then, the three motor boat boys crawled across to the shore of the other little bayou, bent upon making a bold move looking to rescuing their comrade, if so be Josh were found to be a prisoner in the hands of the strangers.