CHAPTER XXIII

THE MYSTERIOUS VOICE

The shock threw the _Dartaway_ back. Jerry had already turned off the power, and was slowing down for the reverse when the smash came. The motor boat had fairly poked her nose into the side of the schooner.

“Are we damaged?” cried Ned.

“I guess not,” replied Jerry, seizing one of the oil lanterns and holding it over the side of the bow. He could see a big dent in the wooden hull of the motor boat, and a larger one in the schooner. The two boats were now drifting apart.

Aboard the schooner there was much confusion. Several persons seemed to be talking at once. Lights flashed here and there.

“Look out, I’m going to back away,” said Jerry to Bob and Ned. “Is it all clear to the rear?”

He swung the search lantern so that the beams cut a path of light aft.

“Nothing in the road,” sung out Ned.

Slowly the _Dartaway_ separated from the side of the schooner. As she did so the stern of the larger vessel swung over toward the motor boat, and Bob, who was watching it gave a sudden cry.

“What’s the matter? Is she going to hit us again?” called Jerry, slowing up the engine.

“No!” cried Bob. Then lowering his voice and crawling to where Jerry stood he whispered:

“This boat has the name of _Bluebird_ on her stern!”

At the same instant there came floating over the water the sound of a voice from some one aboard the larger craft.

“We’re sinking! Quick Bill! Get the boat over and find me a life preserver. I don’t want to drown!”

At the sound of the mysterious voice, coming so plainly amid the stillness that followed the crash the boys were startled.

“Doesn’t that sound just like--” began Bob.

“Hush!” cautioned Jerry in a whisper. “Wait a while before you talk.”

“I tell you we’re sinking!” the voice went on. “They rammed a hole clear through us. They did it on purpose! They want to capture me!”

“Keep quiet, you numbskull!” the boys heard some one exclaim in reply. “You’ll be caught quick enough if you don’t keep still. Do you want to give the whole thing away? Get below before they flash that search light on the deck and see who you are!”

Silence ensued, broken only by the sound of some one moving about on the deck of the schooner.

“Flash the light on ’em!” called Ned.

Jerry swung the big gas lamp around on its pivot, and the blinding white glare illuminated the schooner. The only person to be seen on deck was a man at the helm, and, by the beams the boys could see he was roughly dressed.

For an instant the steersman stood plainly revealed in the beams. He wore nothing on his head, but, as soon as the glare set him out from the darkness he caught up from the rail a slouch hat which he pulled over his eyes, screening the upper part of his face.

“What’s the matter with you?” demanded Jerry with a pretense of anger, as he wanted to hear the man’s reply. “Couldn’t you see our boat?”

“If I could have d’ye s’pose I’d a stood here an’ let ye run int’ me?” the man asked in answer. “Them gasolene boats is gittin’ too dangerous. I’ll have th’ law on ye for this.”

“What about the law requiring sailing boats to carry lights at night?” asked Jerry. “I guess if there’s going to be any suing done we can do our share.”

The steersman made no answer. The wind freshened just then, and the schooner gathered way. The helmsman put her about, and she heeled over as the breeze came in powerful gusts.

While the after part of the sailing vessel was still in the zone of the search light the boys observed a second figure aboard. It came up the companionway leading down into a small cabin.

“Git down there!” the steersman exclaimed. “They’ll see you!”

The figure disappeared suddenly. The boys, seeing it would be no further use to argue with the surly skipper, put their boat on her course and resumed the trip to the island. They found beyond a slight loosening of the engine, due to the shock, no damage had resulted.

“Well, I think we ran into something that time,” remarked Ned.

“Two things I would say,” put in Jerry. “If that mysterious voice, the steersman tried to hush, wasn’t that of Noddy Nixon’s I’ll eat my hat.”

“I was just going to say the same thing,” added Bob. “I was sure I recognized it.”

“Then he isn’t kidnapped at all,” said Ned.

“I never believed he was,” came from Jerry.

“I wonder who the other person was,” said Bob.

“I have an idea it was Bill Berry,” said Jerry.

“It didn’t sound like his voice,” interposed Ned.

“If you noticed,” went on Jerry, “he talked with two voices. When he spoke to Noddy his tones and words were much different than when he addressed us and threatened to have the law on us. I’m sure it was Bill Berry.”

“Then those two are up to some mischief, I’ll bet,” ventured Ned. “There must be some game afoot when Noddy lets it be thought he is kidnapped, and when we find him away off here in a schooner.”

“There is,” spoke Jerry. “It’s the same game that began with the reference to something ‘blue’ that Bill Berry made that day. It’s the same game that we nearly discovered when we almost ran into the _Bluebird_, and now we have the same schooner away down here on the lake and we nearly sink in consequence of hitting her, or of her hitting us, for I believe they got in the way on purpose.”

“But what is the game?” asked Bob.

“That’s what’s puzzling me,” replied Jerry. “I’m inclined to think that the gang Chief Dalton is after will be found to have some connection with this vessel, and while I have only a mere suspicion of it, I believe the robbery of Mr. Slade’s store is--”

“Look out there! You’re going to hit me! Keep to the left!” exclaimed an excited voice.

Jerry rapidly spun the wheel around and the _Dartaway_ veered to one side with a swish of water, just grazing a rowboat with a man in it, that loomed up dead ahead.

“Almost had me that time,” said the rower pleasantly as the _Dartaway_ slowed up. “It was my fault though, I ought to have had a light.”

His frank admission of his error, and his failure to abuse the boys for nearly colliding with him, as most rowers would have done under the circumstances, made the boys feel at ease.

“Sorry we caused you such a fright,” said Jerry. “Can we give you a tow?”

He swung the search light about to illuminate the rowboat. As he did so he gave an exclamation of astonishment. The rower was none other than the ragged tramp who had been rescued from the hay barge, and who had been given a ride in the _Terror_ following the unsuccessful chase after the motor boat thieves. He recognized the boys at once.

“Oh it’s you, my young preservers!” the tramp said. “Well, we seem fated to meet at odd moments. First you save my life, and then you nearly take it from me. Well, it evens matters up.”

“Can we tow you anywhere?” asked Jerry again.

“Thanks, noble sir,” replied the tramp with the same assumed grand air he had used when talking to Chief Dalton. “I fain would dine, and if you can take me to some palace where the beds are not too hard, and where I could have a broiled fowl, or a bit of planked whale, with a sip or two of ambrosial nectar, I would forever call you blessed.”

“Do you mean you’re hungry?” asked Bob, who had a fellow feeling for all starved persons.

“As the proverbial bear,” answered the tramp. “You haven’t a stray cracker about your person, have you?”

“No, but I’ve got a couple of ham sandwiches,” said Bob.

“Well if you’re not at it again, Chunky,” said Jerry. “Where’d you get ’em?”

“I put ’em in my pocket at the feed this afternoon,” replied Bob, taking the sandwiches out and passing them to the tramp, whose boat was now alongside. “I thought they’d come in handy.”

“As indeed they do,” the ragged man put in, munching away at the bread and meat with right good appetite. “I thank you most heartily.”

“If you care to come to our camp we can give you something more and a little coffee,” said Jerry. “You could also sleep under shelter. We have a tent ashore you can use and we can sleep on board the boat.”

“If it would not discommode you, I would be glad of the opportunity,” the tramp said, dropping his assumed manner and speaking sincerely. “I was about to spend the night in the woods,” he went on, “but I much prefer shelter. I have a mission here, and while I am on it I have to rough it at times. But I am almost finished.”

“Will you come aboard, or shall we tow you?” asked Ned.

“Perhaps it would be as well to tow me,” replied the tramp. “I have some things in my boat I would not like to lose.”

The tow line was soon made fast to the _Dartaway_, and the boys resumed their trip which had twice been interrupted by accidents. They reached the island in safety, and soon were preparing some coffee and a light supper. The tramp fastened his boat to a tree that projected over the water, and, then sat at the rough table the boys had constructed under a canvas awning.

“I don’t believe I have been presented to you gentlemen,” said the tramp, as the night dinner was about to begin. Jerry laughing, introduced himself and his chums.

“Are you Aaron Slade’s son?” asked the tramp excitedly, as Ned’s name was mentioned.