CHAPTER XXV

AT THE LIGHTHOUSE

The boys remained concealed in the high grass for some time. They watched the men moving about on the sloop and near the hut, but the thieves seemed to pay little attention to the motor boat.

“I wonder if they’re getting ready for a trip?” said Bob. “That will make it easier. If they leave we can go down there and get something to eat.”

“Oh, Chunky!” exclaimed Ned. “You--” but he could think of nothing appropriate to say, and so stopped short.

“They’re all boarding the sloop,” Jerry remarked, as he saw four men come from the shack and go on the sailing vessel. “Going out of the cove maybe.”

“Can’t, with the water as low as it is.”

“I only hope they go to sleep in the shack,” Ned remarked. “It will be easier for us then.”

Through the long afternoon the boys waited. The little camp on the shore of the hidden cove seemed deserted. None of the men was to be seen. Toward evening there arose a thin column of smoke from the galley of the sloop.

“They’re getting supper,” remarked Bob, with a sorrowful note in his voice.

“Never mind, Chunky, you’ll get yours sooner or later,” said Jerry as comfortingly as he could.

As it grew darker the boys noticed that the water in the cove was agitated. The sloop, and the motor boat rocked at their anchorages.

“The tide’s coming in,” said Jerry. “It will soon be time to act. I hope we can get to the _Dartaway_ without being seen.”

“We’ve got to,” spoke Ned. “If they see us it means we’ll have a lot of trouble. We must crawl along until we get close to her. Then we’ll get in. I’ll crank up, you can steer, and Bob can use a boat-hook to fend us out from the shore.”

“Lucky she’s headed the right way to get out of the cove,” Jerry remarked. “It will save time by not having to turn her.”

Thus it was arranged, and the boys, tired and hungry, remained hidden in the grass until it was dark enough to put their plan in operation.

They watched the sloop closely. After their supper aboard, the men came on deck and stood conversing a while. The boys could just make out their forms in the dusk. One seemed to be doing the most talking, and he frequently motioned off toward the sea.

“Acts as if he was trying to get them to go somewhere,” spoke Bob softly.

But in the end the men went ashore, and after looking to the fastening of the motor boat and a small rowing craft tied near it, they went into the shack. Presently lights shone from it, and Jerry said:

“I guess we can sneak down now. Go easy, everybody.”

Cautiously the boys left their hiding places and began to descend the slope that led from the bluff to the shore of the cove. Every now and then they paused to listen. They could hear the men laughing and talking in the hut.

Foot by foot they crept nearer. There was a path leading from the top of the sand dune to the hut, but the boys did not take this, fearing they would be seen. Instead they crawled on their hands and knees through the grass. The process was a painful and slow one, for their arms and legs came in contact with sand burrs, while innumerable insects attacked them. But they suffered in silence.

“Easy now, we’re almost there,” came from Jerry.

At that moment the door of the hut opened, and a man looked out. The boys, with wildly beating hearts, crouched down. They feared they had been discovered.

“See anything?” called some one from inside the hut.

“No,” was the answer, “I thought I heard some one at the boats, but I guess it was the tide swinging the sloop. Looks like a storm. Hope we’ll get one by to-morrow night. It’ll be just what we need,” and the man re-entering the hut, closed the door.

For a few seconds after this the boys remained silent in the grass.

“Lucky escape, that,” murmured Bob. “Five seconds more and he’d caught us.”

Cautiously they resumed the progress toward the boat. Nearer and nearer they came until Jerry, who was in the lead, was able to step over the side into it. Ned and Bob followed. The latter grasped a boat-hook and stood ready to fend off when the start was made. Ned and Jerry cut the bow and stern lines with which the _Dartaway_ was made fast to the little dock. They worked quickly and silently.

Jerry turned on the gasolene, and waited a few seconds to allow it to fill the carburettor, as the boat had not been run in several hours. Then he switched on the spark.

“Turn her over!” he whispered to Ned, who was in the engine cockpit.

The big flywheel went around under the impulse of Ned’s sturdy arm. There was a sort of cough from the engine. Then came a chug, followed by a splutter, and the motor got into action.

“Fend her off! She’s headed into the bank, and I can’t steer her out quick enough!” cried Jerry to Bob.

Chunky pushed with all his strength, on the pole, against the bank. Slowly the nose of the boat came out from the shore. The screw was churning the water into foam. Jerry spun the wheel around, and headed the craft for the channel, the opening of which he could just make out.

At that instant the door of the hut flew open, and in the light which streamed forth several men could be seen running toward the shore.

“Hi there! Stop! Bring that boat back!” they called.

“Guess not! She’s ours!” Ned called back.

“We’re off!” exclaimed Jerry in a low tone. “She’s running like a charm. They’ll never catch us!”

There was the sound of feet on the dock. Then came a squeaking of a pulley block, the creak of ropes and the rattle of the boom on the mast.

“What’s the use going after them in the sloop?” they heard some one cry. “There’s no wind. Take the rowboat!”

The thud of men jumping into the small craft tied near the sail boat could be heard. There was the rattle of oars, and then the splash of them in the water.

“They’ll never get out of the channel,” the boys heard one of the men say. “We’ll catch ’em before they strike open water.”

“You will, eh?” thought Jerry. “We’ll see about that.”

The engine was speeded up. Jerry was beginning to distinguish things better as his eyes became accustomed to the darkness on the water. The channel was a narrow and winding one, but the incoming tide had made it plenty deep enough.

The boys could hear the men frantically rowing after them, but it was a hopeless race. The _Dartaway_ was speeding ahead. It kept Jerry busy steering to avoid running into the bank, but presently the channel widened and he had no more difficulty. On sped the craft until the little creek emerged into a small bay, which, in turn, opened into the ocean.

“We’re safe now!” cried Jerry. “Let’s light the lamps, and put for home.”

The men in pursuit had been left far behind. While Jerry held the boat on her course up the beach Ned and Bob kindled the red and green side lights and the search lantern. In about two hours the _Dartaway_ was safe at her dock, and the boys were telling their story to a number of their friends.

“We must notify the police and get after those thieves,” said Captain Jenkinson. “They’re dangerous men to have around. It’s a good thing you discovered that cove. They probably have been hiding there a long time.”

But the primitive police system of the shore summer resort could not be gotten in readiness for a raid that night, and when some constables did go to the cove the next morning they found the sloop gone and the hut seemingly deserted.

The boys found their boat had suffered little damage at the hands of the thieves. Some tools had been removed as had a few of the cooking utensils, but these were easily replaced.

“Now I guess we’d better make a trip to the lighthouse,” remarked Ned, the next afternoon, when the _Dartaway_ had been put in shape. “We ought to warn Mr. Hardack.”

“And, incidentally, I suppose, Jessica,” added Bob.

“I think they’ll give the whole plan up, now they see we are after them,” Jerry added. “I believe they’ve cleared out for good.”

“It’ll do no harm to go over and see Mr. Hardack,” Ned insisted. “If we find out there’s no likelihood of the thing coming off, we needn’t say anything.”

They got to the lighthouse about five o’clock. Mr. Hardack greeted them warmly.

“Come right in,” he said. “Sorry Jessica is not home. She was just wishing some visitors would come, and about an hour ago that Nixon chap came along in his boat and took her for a ride.”

Ned seemed less happy than when the start had been made.

“But come in,” the lighthouse keeper went on. “I’ve got some fresh milk and Jessica baked some cookies this morning.”

Bob was the only one who looked pleased.

As the boys were getting out of their boat they saw a man coming down toward where the oil lamps were usually filled. At first they thought it was Bill Berry, but a second look showed them it was not.

“Got a new helper?” asked Jerry, trying to speak calmly.

“Yes, my other one skipped off yesterday. This chap came along and I hired him. Had to have some one in a hurry.”