The Motor Girls on Cedar Lake Part 23

This was but a short way from the camp. At the landing stood Ben with his faithful lantern.

"They've got her boat," he blurted out.

"Where?" asked the girls in chorus.

"Just in the cove. But nothin' could hev hurt her there. She ain't drownded in that cove."

"But how could her boat get there?" demanded Hazel.

"No way but to be run in there," answered Ben. "I tell you, girls, this is some trick. 'Taint her fault of course, but she's all right somewhere."

The thought of the man Jones flashed through Hazel's mind. And he had threatened Cora. She had interfered in taking away Kate, the house keeper, she had found out about the man and girl on Fern Island, and she had saved little Mabel Blake! Now all that--

"Trick!" repeated Bess. "That could not be called a trick."

"For want of a better word," said Ben, with apology in his voice.

"But when the boys found the boat they started off in her and left word you were not to follow."

"But we must," insisted Hazel. "We might find her and they might not. But how can we go?"

"I could get you another boat if you're set on it," offered Ben, "but I wouldn't like to displease the young men."

"Oh, we will answer for that," Hazel a.s.sured him, "just get the boat. We will go up the lake."

"Yes, you've got it right. Up the lake, fer I saw Tony comin' down the lake."

Only Hazel understood him. He, too, suspected the man of many names.

It was not more than five minutes later that Dan brought the small motor boat from the dock, and scarcely more than another five minutes pa.s.sed before the girls were off.

There were many small boats dotted about the water, and the girls looked keenly for the flag of the Petrel which they could have distinguished even in the darkness for the white head-light always showed up its maroon and white, but old Ben took no heed of the craft in the lower end of the cove. He headed straight for either Far or Fern Island--the twin spots of land far away.

Out in the broadest part of the water they suddenly came upon a rowboat without a light.

"Look out there!" shouted Ben. "Where's your light?"

There was no answer. Ben turned as far out of his course as it was possible to do at the rate his own boat was running.

"There is no one in that boat," declared Hazel. "See, it is just drifting."

"Might be," said Ben, throttling down his gasoline so that he might turn nearer the other craft for inspection.

"There does not seem to, be any one in it," declared Bess, who also looked over the edge of the smaller boat.

Ben did not reply. He had recognized the other craft as that belonging to Jim Peters, and guessed that the man might be up to some trick. When he had almost stopped his motor he jumped up and peered into the rowboat.

"'Low there!" he called "Sleepin--?"

There was no answer.

"Hum," he sniffed, "thought so. It's Jim. Say there Jim, you're not over friendly."

Thus taunted the man in the other boat moved to the low seat. He growled rather than spoke, but Ben was not the sort to take offence at a fellow like Jim.

"Joy riding?" persisted Ben.

"Say, you smart 'un," spoke Peters, "when you want to be funny better try it on some 'un else. Leave me alone," and he picked up the oars and sculled off.

"What do you suppose he was hiding for?" asked Belle.

"Oh he always has somethin' up his sleeve," replied Ben with a light laugh, "and the best we can do is to follow him."

"But then we cannot look farther for Cora," Objected Hazel.

"The best way to find her is to make sure that he does not find her first," said Ben. "She's all right so long as we keep her away from her enemies," and he turned the boat down the lake toward the landing.

CHAPTER XVIII

FOUND

From the finding of Cora's boat to the landing at Fern Island the boys lost little time. Somehow Jack felt the night's work had to do with the hermit and his daughter; also he feared that the man Jones might know of it, so that he lost no time in hurrying to the far end of the lake in hope of there finding his sister.

Few words were spoken by the three boys as they landed, took the lanterns from the motor boat, and after detaching the batteries, to make sure no one would run off with the craft, they sought a path in the wilderness.

Good fortune, or kind fate, led them in the right direction. They could see that the way had been beaten down. They walked on, one ahead of the other, when Jack, who was in the lead, stopped.

"What's this?" he exclaimed, stooping to pick up a white thing from the ground. "A letter," he finished, holding out a square envelope.

The other young men drew nearer to Jack, to examine what might prove to be an unexpected clew.

"What do you make of it?" asked Ed.

"It's--er--" Jack paused suddenly. On the envelope he had caught, in the light of a slanting ray from a lantern a girl's name--"Laurel." He had been on the point of taking the missive from its cover, but the glimpse of that name prevented him. Somehow he felt that it might have to do with the disappearance of Cora--she was always getting mixed up with girls, he reflected. And it might not be just the best thing to publish broadcast what this was Jack dissimulated.

"I guess it's some shooting license a hunter has dropped," he completed his half-finished sentence. "I'll just stick it in my pocket until we get to a place where I can look at it better. I might lose something from the envelope in the woods. Come on, boys."

"I think we're on the right trail," spoke Walter.

"But where in the world can Cora be?" asked Jack. He was beginning to be very much disturbed and was under a great mental strain.

"Let's yell!" suggested Ed. "If Cora is within hearing distance she'll hear us."

"Good!" cried Jack. "All together now!"