CHAPTER XXIV

THE SECRET OF THE COVE

The boys made inquiries the next morning and found it would be impossible to hire another motor boat. The season was at its height and all the craft were engaged. Several of their newly-made friends offered them the use of their boats for a part of each day, but the boys did not want to take them on this condition. Besides, they wanted to be away by themselves, as they had much to talk about.

“Hadn’t we better warn Mr. Hardack?” asked Ned, when they had exhausted the possibilities of hiring a boat.

“I’ve been thinking of it,” Jerry said, “and I don’t see what particular good it would do. We only know half the story. Besides, those fellows might only have been talking to hear themselves talk. It’s a mighty risky thing to wreck a vessel and tamper with a lighthouse. They wouldn’t dare do it.”

“But it wouldn’t do any harm to tell the keeper what we know,” Ned insisted.

“Only to get laughed at for our pains, in case nothing happened. Besides, how are we going to get to the lighthouse without a boat?”

“We can walk around by the shore, it’s not more than ten miles,” went on Ned.

“Love will find a way,” sang Bob, and he had to jump back to escape a playful blow Ned aimed at him.

“I suppose we could,” remarked Jerry. “Maybe it wouldn’t do any harm to go around there and see how the land lays. We can sort of give him a hint, and warn him to be on the lookout for Bill Berry.”

“That will be a good plan,” agreed Ned. “When can we start? The sooner the better.”

“Not until after dinner, I vote,” from Bob. “I can’t walk on an empty stomach.”

“I don’t believe you ever tried,” Jerry said.

The boys inquired the best way to get to the lighthouse by going along the shore, and learned it was about eight miles. They started after lunch, and hard enough walking they found it, as most of the way lay through deep sand.

“This is awful,” groaned Bob as he toiled along.

“Dry up, Chunky,” from Ned. “It will do you good. Besides, think of what a service you may be doing.”

“I’m thinking about my chances for supper.”

The boys had gone about half the distance and were going along a series of high sand dunes, covered with a growth of tall, rank grass, when they were suddenly halted by a voice calling to them:

“Where you fellows going?”

They looked up, to see a roughly dressed man barring the path.

“I don’t know’s it’s any of your business,” Jerry replied hotly, for he resented the man’s tone. “This is a free country.”

“That’s all right, my young friend,” the man said with a sneer, “but this is private property, and we don’t allow any trespassing on it. So you’d better be off if you know what’s good for you.”

“Can’t we go along the beach?” asked Ned.

“No, sir, you can’t go anywhere along here. We own for two miles back, and if you try to pass here you’ll get into trouble. So be off!”

The boys hesitated. There was no way of proving that what the man said was not so, and they did not want to get into trouble. To get past meant walking two miles back in shore. As they stood there, wondering what to do, another man came from somewhere in the tall grass and said to the first:

“The boat’s in the cove. Floated in at high tide.”

“That’ll do!” was the quick retort, as though the first man feared his companion would say too much. “I’m warning these chaps off our land.”

“Yes, and they’d better go if they know what’s good for them,” said the other.

“Oh, we’ll go,” came from Jerry. “We don’t care about walking on your property. I guess we can manage without doing so.”

The three lads turned and began to walk inland, across the waste of sand, which was hot with the afternoon sun. The coast at this point was rather high, there being a series of bluffs, which sloped abruptly down to the beach.

“What shall we do?” asked Jerry when they were out of earshot of the men.

“Nothing to do but to go around their place,” said Ned. “It will mean about four miles more.”

Bob groaned.

“It’ll get some of that fat off you, Chunky,” Jerry remarked with a laugh.

“It’s all right enough for you to joke,” growled the fleshy youth. “But I can’t help it.”

“I wonder what he meant by saying the boat was in the cove?” came from Ned.

“I was thinking about that myself,” Jerry put in. “I didn’t know there was a cove along here.”

“Let’s take a look,” suggested Ned.

“How can we, without going back and meeting the men?”

“Easy enough,” came from Jerry. “We’ll walk along for a mile or so, then cut down along parallel to the coast and walk back toward the beach. We ought to come out right back of the cove, if there is one, or very near to it.”

This was voted a good plan to follow, and, with no further objections from Bob, the boys trudged along. It was hot and hard work, but they were very anxious to find out the secret of the cove, as they believed the men had some object in not allowing them to pass.

The locality was a deserted one. It was half way between two summer resorts, and there was not a house in sight. It was about as lonesome a place as one could find in the midst of civilization. Nothing was to be seen but sand and rank grass.

“Do you s’pose these men had anything to do with stealing our boat and with the lighthouse plot?” asked Bob, as he and his chums walked along.

“I’m not good at riddles,” returned Jerry. “First we’ll see what the cove holds.”

They kept on for an hour and began to work their way in toward the shore again. They kept a careful watch for the men but saw no one. They came to a place where the weeds and grass were quite high. It was tangled together by the wind and they had to struggle to get through it. Jerry, who was in the lead, emerged on a clear, sandy place. He gave one look down and uttered a low cry.

“What is it?” called Ned.

“The secret of the cove!” exclaimed Jerry.

He pointed to a small body of water below them as they stood on a high sand bank. As the boys looked they saw a sailing vessel and another craft floating near a small dock.

“There’s the sloop!” cried Bob.

“And there’s our boat!” exclaimed Ned. “We have found her again!”

“Easy!” whispered Jerry as he sank down, pulling his companions to the earth. “There are the men!”

As he spoke three roughly dressed men came from a small shack near the dock, and walked to where the sloop was moored. They were carrying boxes and bales aboard.

“Looks like the stuff we picked up from the broken-backed steamer,” whispered Ned.

“I guess they’re wreckers, who gather stuff that floats ashore,” came from Jerry.

“And I’ll bet they’re the men I heard plotting about the lighthouse,” said Ned. “We are on their track!”

“But how did they get their boat in here, and how did they float the _Dartaway_ in?” asked Jerry. “This looks like a little lake.”

“Isn’t that a sort of creek over there?” asked Bob, pointing to an opening in the midst of the rushes that surrounded the cove.

“So it is. That’s what he meant about high tide. They can only get in the cove when the tide is up, and makes an entrance by way of the creek.”

“And, for the same reason, we can’t get our boat out until high tide, and that will not be until late to-night,” said Bob. “We’ll have to wait until then.”

“Lucky we have the chance,” came from Ned. “I hope the coast will be clear.”

“We’ll get our boat, anyhow!” exclaimed Jerry. “I’d like to see those men keep her.”

“We’ll wait until there’s water enough in the creek to float her out, and then we’ll sneak down there, get in and start off before they know what’s happened,” spoke Ned. “I hope she’s in running order.”