CHAPTER X.

WHERE IS JOSH?

They weighed anchor shortly after six o'clock. The wind, which had been increasing in strength since four o'clock, was blowing hard from the north-west and the sky looked threatening but Captain Ole assured them that there would be no great storm as the glass had fallen only a couple of points. He proved to be a good weather prophet for, although it began to rain shortly after they had gotten under way, at the same time, the wind began to fall and by noon there was only a light breeze although it was still raining.

At the first opportunity, which did not come until after dinner as Mr. Lakewood, complaining of a severe headache, remained in his bunk until nearly noon, they told their uncle of the mate's actions.

"I get these headaches once in a while," he told the boys as he joined them just as they were sitting down to dinner.

"Is it better now?" Bob asked anxiously.

"Yes, in fact it's all gone. I took some aspirin and got to sleep again and the two knocked it."

He remained silent for fully two minutes after Bob had told him about the happenings during the night.

"I almost wish you had called me," he finally said.

"What would you have done, sir?" Jack asked.

"I don't know as I could have done any more than you two did. Of course we might have pounced in on him while he was sending but I don't know that it would have done any good. I suppose he would have had some plausible excuse and, on second thought, I guess it's just as well you didn't."

It was just after sundown when they again sighted land. In this latitude there is very little twilight and darkness comes very soon after the sun sinks below the horizon. So they had made but a short distance toward the distant island before it was blotted from their sight. But Captain Ole had the direction and, turning on the powerful searchlight, he kept on at full speed.

"We'll get near enough so that we can anchor for the night," he told them.

"At the rate you're going you want to be careful or you'll jump clear over it before you know it," Jack laughed.

"It looked to me, what I could see of it, as though it would be a pretty good jump," Bob smiled. "I'd say it's a fairly good sized island."

"Maybe it's the one we're after," Jack suggested.

"We'll know in the morning," his uncle promised him.

"Seems as though we ought to pick it up pretty soon," the captain said a little later.

"I reckon it must have been further off than it looked," Mr. Lakewood said.

But when another half hour had passed and there was no sign of the island it was plain that the captain was beginning to be worried.

"It's mighty strange," he muttered.

"Isn't it possible that we've gone past it?" Bob asked.

"Hardly, unless something has happened to the compass and that's not likely."

When another half hour had slipped by and they had not picked up the island the captain gave the signal to stop and the boat slowly lost headway.

"We've gone by it or else it's moved," he declared, "See how much water there is under her," he shouted to the first mate who was standing in the bow.

"Seven and a half fathoms, sir," the mate announced a few minutes later, after he had cast the lead.

"Let go the anchor, then. We'll stay right where we are till morning."

"Yes, sir." And the anchor was run out and soon the Valkyrie was riding at the end of a hundred feet of chain.

The captain still wore a troubled look when, some time later, the boys joined him in the main cabin where he was poring over a large map which was spread out on the large center table.

"Where in thunder do you suppose that pesky island went to?" he asked looking up as they entered the room.

"Maybe one of those whales, Mr. Kelley was telling us about the other night, swallowed it," Jack grinned.

"You don't want to believe all you hear, especially from a sailor," the captain told them with a broad smile, adding: "I don't suppose there was much more'n room on the Atlantic ocean for that whale to turn round in, eh."

"Well, maybe it wasn't quite that bad but I reckon it could have swallowed that island all right without making more'n two bites at the outside," Bob laughed. "But don't you think that it's possible that that island was only a mirage?"

"But we saw it after the sun had gone down."

"I know it, sir, and, of course, my theory may be a bit far fetched but, owing to the refraction of light, isn't it possible for a mirage to happen after sundown?"

"Can't say for sure, but I never saw one then, I mean after the sun had set. But if we don't see it in the morning I reckon we'll have to let it go at that."

"I think you're wrong, Bob," Jack said as the captain paused.

"How come?"

"Because the refraction of light wouldn't do it."

"How do you know it wouldn't?"

"Because we really see the sun for some time after it has set. That's because of refraction. So after we can't see it it would be too far below the horizon. I'll have you understand that I didn't make 97% in physics last term for nothing."

"You win. Go to the head of the class," Bob laughed.

"And another thing you seem to have overlooked, it was too cloudy when the sun set for a mirage anyhow."

"Bull's eye again, professor," Bob laughed. "And now maybe you can tell us just where the island really did go."

"It didn't go anywhere," Jack retorted, flushing slightly at Bob's tone. "It's right where it's been all the time."

"And that's where."

"Right ahead of us."

"How do you know that?" Captain Ole asked quickly.

"I--I don't know it, but I think it is."

"Then you think it was farther off than it looked?"

"Yes, sir. That's what I think."

"And you may be right at that," Captain Ole mused, scratching his head thoughtfully.

The boys learned a little later that the first mate would have the watch after midnight, so, after telling him what they had seen the night before and cautioning him to keep an eye out for signals, they retired soon after eleven o'clock.

"The boy was right."

The above statement shouted in loud tones by Captain Ole whose head stuck in through the half opened door of their cabin, awoke the boys a few minutes before six the following morning.

"You mean the island's in sight ahead of us," Bob asked sleepily.

"That's what I mean and it's a good way ahead at that," Captain Ole told them as he pushed the door wide open and stepped into the room. "There must have been some condition in the atmosphere last night that made it look a whole lot nearer than it was," he explained. "Anyhow it's there now all right."

"Are we under way?" Jack asked as he leaped from his bunk.

"Not yet, but we will be in about two shakes of a mackerel's tail," the captain said as he turned and left the room.

"Never again will I doubt your wisdom," Bob declared solemnly as he started pulling on his clothes.

"'Twas only a lucky guess," Jack said modestly.

"Never hide your light under a bushel, son."

"Aw, quit your kidding."

"I'm not kid--" Bob began, but Jack had gone.

Bob followed him out onto the deck a moment later and found that the anchor had just been raised and the bow of the Valkyrie slowly swinging around to the north.

"Where's Mr. Kelley?"

The captain shouted the question to the first mate who was standing at the foot of the stairway.

"Haven't seen him this mornin' sir," was the reply.

"Any you men seen him?"

No one had seen the second mate since the night before and the captain ordered one of the hands to go to his room and call him.

"Never knew him to oversleep before," he said to Bob who had mounted to the bridge.

"He ain't there, sir," the sailor called a moment later from the deck.

"What you mean, he isn't there?" the captain demanded. "Did you look in his room?"

"Yes, sir."

"And he wasn't there?"

"No, sir. There wan't no one there an' his bunk hadn't been slept in neither, sir."

"Well, you and a couple of others make a search of the ship and hurry too."

"Aye, aye, sir."

"What's wrong now?" Mr. Lakewood asked as he joined Bob on the bridge.

"The second mate seems to be missing, sir," Bob told him.

"Josh Kelley?"

"Yes, sir."

"What do you make of it, captain?" Mr. Lakewood asked leaning over the sill of the window of the wheel house.

"Oh, I reckon probably he's somewhere about the boat."

"You think so?"

"Where else could he be unless he's fallen overboard and that's hardly likely?"

But the captain for once in his life was wrong. The second mate was not on board the Valkyrie. His personal belongings were, so far as they could judge, still in his cabin but the man had disappeared completely. As soon as that fact was thoroughly settled Captain Ole called the first mate into his cabin, leaving the wheel in charge of one of the sailors.

"You didn't see Kelley during the night?" he asked.

"No, sir."

"Nor hear anything suspicious?"

"No, sir."

"Well, did you see anything that might have been a signal?" was the next question.

"Niver a bit uv it," Pat replied and then, after a moment's pause he added: "'Twas thot dark last night thot it's meself as couldn't see inything ter spake uv, sir."

"I know. Now look here, Pat, either he jumped overboard, which isn't likely, or else someone came in a small boat and took him off. Would it have been possible for a small boat, say a canoe, to have sneaked up to the Valkyrie without you knowing it?"

"Faith an' it's meself as thinks as how 'twould have bin aisy enough if he knew jest where to come to," Pat declared after a short pause.

"And you think that's what happened?"

"Mor'n likely, sir."

"But, since it was so dark, how could anyone have seen where to come? That's what gets me."

"'Tis a bit strange, sir."

"It's more than that, it's uncanny."

"'Tis all uv thot, sir."

"Well," the captain said as he got to his feet, "tell Jim Herrin that he's to have the second mate's berth till further orders. He's the best one for it, don't you think?"

"He's a broth uv a bye an' he'll make a good one," Pat assured him as they left the room together.

Mounting to the bridge he found Mr. Lakewood and the boys looking at the island which was now quite plainly visible.

"I've made Jim Herrin second mate," he announced.

"Then you really think he's gone?" Mr. Lakewood asked.

"Sure he's gone."

"But how?"

The captain told him what had seemed most probable to him as well as to the first mate and he agreed with him that it had probably happened that way.

"Then he's joined whoever he's in league with," Mr. Lakewood said when he had finished.

"Looks like it," the captain agreed.

"Then we may look for something to happen most any time?"

"Not till we find what we're after, I'm thinking."

"It's good riddance to bad rubbish, I'm thinking," Jack declared.

"I agree with you provided the riddance is permanent," Bob added.

"Which it won't be if I'm any kind of a prophet. We haven't seen the last of that fellow yet," Mr. Lakewood contributed.

"Well, never trouble trouble till trouble troubles you," Jack laughed as he turned his eyes again toward the distant island which was now rapidly coming into plain view. "What do you think of it, uncle?"

Mr. Lakewood took the glasses from his eyes, "Looks kind of like it but I can't be sure yet. See that high point on that end?" he asked pointing.

"Yes," both the boys told him.

"Well, that's what makes me think it may be the place. But I reckon we'll have to wait a bit and see."

The Valkyrie was plowing through the water at a high speed as the captain had passed the word to "step on her," and it was only a few minutes before Mr. Lakewood said: "Unless there are two islands almost exactly alike that's our island."

In another twenty minutes the captain gave the signal to slow down and finally the Valkyrie came to rest about a quarter of a mile from the island and near the center.

"Made up your mind yet," he asked as he stepped from the wheel house.

Mr. Lakewood looked slightly doubtful as he answered the question.

"Seems as though I ought to be sure one way or the other but, to be honest, I'm not. It looks like it especially out at that high end and then again it doesn't. It doesn't seem to me that there were near so many trees on it as there are now. There's quite a forest over on that other end."

"But they might have grown there since you were on the island," Bob suggested.

"Perhaps," his uncle agreed slowly, "but it's not usual for new trees to spring up out of the sand on these islands. You can see that the island's pretty sandy."

"I'll say it is," Jack agreed.

"Can you see the trees where you got the cocoanuts?" Captain Ole asked.

"No, I can't, and that's another thing that bothers me."

"Maybe someone has cut them down," Jack suggested.

"Maybe," his uncle said doubtfully.

It was now about nine o'clock and, after a short discussion, it was decided to pay a visit to the island at once and settle the matter. The captain ordered a boat lowered and, leaving the Valkyrie in charge of the new second mate, the four together with the first mate, were soon on their way.

"We'll go up to the top of that hill, though it isn't much of a hill, and see if we can find any trace of that grove that ought to be there," Mr. Lakewood said as the boat pushed its bow on to the sand.

It took them but a few minutes to reach the top of the rise and they all began to look eagerly for marks which would identify the place. But those marks they failed to find. There was no indication that a cocoanut tree had ever graced the spot.

"It looks doubtful," Mr. Lakewood said shaking his head.

"But twenty years more or less can make a big change even in a place like this, I reckon," Captain Ole reminded him.

"That's true, and I'm not saying it isn't the place," the other returned.

"Well, there's one way we can tell," Bob spoke up.

"And that's to go over to the high end, I suppose you mean," Mr. Lakewood smiled.

"You guessed it," Bob smiled back.

"Come on, then, let's beat it," Jack said as he started to lead the way.

But before they had taken a dozen steps there came a startling interruption. A queer half stifled cry, coming from some distance behind them, made them turn quickly.

"What was that?" Bob gasped, in surprise.

"Sounded like someone shouted from over in those woods," Jack said, his eyes fixed on the distant grove.

"But I never heard a human make a noise like that," Captain Ole declared.

"Faith an' it's a quare human thot'd make thot kind of a noise, I'm thinkin'," Pat agreed with him.

"Let's wait a minute and see if we hear it again," Mr. Lakewood advised.

But, although they waited some five minutes the cry was not repeated.

"Well shall we go on?" he asked.

"Might's well, I reckon," Captain Ole said, and they started on again.

But they had hardly turned their backs when the weird sound reached them again.

"I reckon we'd better investigate that a bit before we go any further," Captain Ole advised as he turned in his tracks.

"I think you're right," Mr. Lakewood agreed, adding: "It's a whole lot better to be careful than sorry."

So they started back the other way and, after stopping every little while to listen, in the course of some fifteen minutes, they had nearly reached the other end of the island which, as Mr. Lakewood had said, was timbered with a thick growth of trees. No repetition of the cry had been heard during the time and now, as they stopped about thirty feet from the edge of the woods, they strained their ears to catch the faintest sound which might come from them.

"What kind of trees are they?" Captain Ole asked Mr. Lakewood in a low tone.

"I'm not sure but I think they're a species of a cocoanut," he replied.

"But I've seen lots of cocoanut trees and I never saw any like them," the captain objected.

"Nor I, but it seems to me I can see some big nuts on that nearest one," he said pointing to a large tree which stood a little apart from the others.

"I can see them," Bob agreed with him.

"And they sure do look like cocoanuts to me," Jack added.

"Well, you may be right, and I reckon you are," the captain gave in.

"What we going to do now?" Bob asked after a moment's pause.

"Have you got your revolvers with you," their uncle asked.

"Sure," Bob replied pulling the weapon from his pocket.

"I too," Jack said.

"I left mine on board," the captain confessed a bit chagrined.

"Me too," Pat acknowledged.

"Well, I've got mine so I reckon we're well enough armed," Mr. Lakewood told them. "But, before we enter the grove let's try turning back as though we were going off to the other end."

They fell in with his plan and, no sooner had they turned their backs and started walking away from the grove, than the cry came again and this time it was so loud and weird that, as Jack afterward confessed, it made his skin crawl.

"That's a man," Captain Ole declared as they came to a stop.

"But what would a man be doing on this island?" Mr. Lakewood asked skeptically.

"I don't know, but if that wasn't a man I'm a Dutchman."

"Then it's meself as believes yer Dutch," Pat grinned.

"But I ain't," the captain retorted somewhat hotly, "and to prove that I ain't I'm going to get that fellow and show him to you."

Before he had finished speaking he had turned and started back toward the grove on the run and they barely caught the final words. But, as if by common assent, the others quickly followed him and were at his heels by the time he had reached the edge of the grove.

"Better take it easy," Mr. Lakewood cautioned as he caught hold of the captain's arm.

But he shook him off and plunged into the woods, and for a moment, was lost to sight. In a very short time, however, the others caught up with him and together they worked their way as rapidly as possible through the trees which grew so closely together that anything more than a slow walk was out of the question. Every few feet they stopped to listen but no sound, indicating the presence of anyone outside their party, reached them and in less than twenty minutes from the time they had entered the wood they emerged from the other side and found themselves only a few feet from the ocean.

As they stood for a moment looking out over the water was it fancy or did Jack's sharp ears catch a faint sound of what seemed to him to be a wild mocking laughter far back in the depths of the woods?

"Did you hear that?" he asked turning to Bob who was standing a few feet away.

"Did I hear what?" Bob asked.

"Sounded like laughter to me."

"No, I didn't hear anything except the swaying of the trees back in there."

"Maybe that was what I heard," Jack said but he did not look as though he believed it.

"Well, what now?" Mr. Lakewood asked a moment later.

"Let's walk along the edge here," Captain Ole suggested. "We'll come to your end of the island about as soon that way as to go back," he added as he started to lead the way along the edge of the grove. "I reckon you were right about these being cocoanut trees," he said after they had gone a hundred feet or so. As he spoke he stooped and picked up from the ground beneath one of the trees a large nut which looked like an ordinary cocoanut except that it was much smoother.

"Break it open and see what's inside," Jack suggested.

"Just what I was going to do," the captain said throwing the nut with all his strength against a large rock.

The blow cracked the nut wide open and nearly a half pint of white milk ran out on the ground before he could pick it up.

"It's a cocoanut all right," he declared as he showed them the white meat inside. "And it has a mighty good flavor," he added as he broke off a piece and thrust it into his mouth.

They all sampled it and found it, as the captain had said, of excellent flavor.

"Maybe that was Mr. Burbank," Jack grinned as he swallowed a good sized mouthful of the meat. "He may have moved out here and is inventing a new kind of nut."