CHAPTER XV. CROSS PURPOSES.
Following out his prearranged plans, Ralph ordered the _River Swallow_to be made ready for her run to Cardinal that night. After a good supperthe three young Border Boys, now changed to motor boatmen, sauntereddown toward the dock somewhat ahead of the time they had decided onleaving.
Harry Ware was in advance of his comrades, and as he turned an angle inthe patch he came into full view of the _River Swallow_ lying at herdock.
"What a pretty picture she makes lying there," he thought. "My, to lookat her you'd never think she could hustle over the water the way shecan!"
Malvin and Hansen were standing near the craft, and the former turned asHarry came round the corner.
Instantly a long, low whistle came from the fellow's lips, and Harrycould have sworn that at the same instant a third figure arose from thedeck of the _River Swallow_, where it had seemingly been lounging, andvanished down the forescuttle.
Harry Ware rubbed his eyes.
"Well, I'll be jiggered!" he exclaimed. "Am I seeing things, or what?There are Malvin and Hansen on the dock. Besides the servants, they arethe only men on the island, and that man on the deck--or the man Ithought I saw on the deck--is most assuredly not one of them."
He stood there puzzled exceedingly by what he had seen, for he wasalmost certain that his eyes had played him no tricks. Yet if he hadreally seen a third man on the _River Swallow_, how had he come there?No boat had come into the dock that afternoon, and there was no otherway of landing on the island except at a point which was commanded bythe house. It was another mystery to be added to the strange events thatappeared to be piling up around the boys in baffling confusion.
"Shall I tell the others about it and risk getting the life joshed outof me?" thought Harry to himself, as his comrades' steps drew nearer.
After a minute's cogitation, he decided to remain silent about what hehad seen--for that it was no optical delusion he was certain.
"But I couldn't convince them of that," he mused. "They'd say I had beenseeing spooks again, and Persimmons would kid the life out of me. No, Iguess I'll keep my mouth shut and do some detective work on my ownaccount."
With this resolution in his mind, he joined his chums, and, arm in arm,the three strolled down to the _River Swallow_.
"All ready, sir," declared Malvin, "but you're a little bit ahead of thetime you said, sir. I wasn't expecting you."
Harry looked sharply at the man.
"No, I'll bet you weren't expecting us," he thought.
"All right," responded Ralph to Malvin. "Percy, get below and tune theengines up. It is almost dusk. I would like to get under way beforedark."
Persimmons dived below, donned his engineer's overalls and began to testup his engines for the night run. To his surprise, they respondedsluggishly to his efforts to get them in working order.
"The first time they've laid down on me," he muttered, as, monkey wrenchin hand, he tried to locate the source of the trouble.
"What's the matter?" hailed Ralph impatiently down the tube. "Aren't youready yet?"
"Not yet. There is some trouble here I can't locate."
"Bother! I wanted to get under way as soon as possible. What do youthink is the matter?"
"Impossible to say yet."
"Well, hurry up and do the best you can."
"You bet I'll do that. It may take some time, though."
"But they were working all right when we tied up this afternoon."
"That makes it all the more puzzling. Something has happened to thembetween then and now, that is certain."
The young engineer went vigorously to work. Systematically he went overwiring and ignition and tested the compression. All were in perfectworking order, and yet the engines only responded with a lifeless seriesof "shoo-oo-o-oofs-s-s!" to all his efforts.
Percy Simmons knitted his brows. He sat down on a leather-covered benchthat ran along one side of the engine room.
"Let's see; I've been over everything," he mused, "gasoline valves,spark plugs, wiring, batteries, magneto and all. They're all running assmoothly as a hundred-dollar watch. What the dickens----"
He broke off suddenly.
"I'm a fine engineer!" he exclaimed. "The carburetors!"
Industriously he commenced examining the carburetors, the "hearts of themotors." There were four in all on the twin four-cylinder engines of the_River Swallow_. After he had worked a while, Percy Simmons made adiscovery that brought him to his feet with a yell.
In the bowls of all the carburetors sand had been placed. This, ofcourse, prevented the proper mixture of air and gasoline taking place,and made it impossible to start the engine.
"Now what wretch can have done such a thing?" exclaimed Percy to himselfas he made this discovery. "Somebody with a knowledge of engines and howto cripple them in just the last place any one would think of looking tolocate the trouble!"
Malvin's was the first name that flashed into his mind, for suspicion isone of the most infectious of mental maladies, and Ralph's attack of"nerves" in regard to the former captain of the _River Swallow_ hadcommunicated itself swiftly and forcibly to his two young chums.
But a moment's reflection caused Persimmons to reject this explanationof the sanded carburetors. Malvin, while capable of running an enginewhen it was in perfect working order, had no technical knowledge ofmachinery such as the person who had maliciously "doped" the carburetorsmust have possessed.
Hansen? No, the Norwegian was even less skillful about a motor thanMalvin. Who, then, could have been responsible for such a wanton act ofvandalism?
"Gee! If we get up against any more mysteries I'm going to quit and goback home," breathed Persimmons agitatedly to himself. "What with spookmotor boats, mysterious ghostly lights and strange doings on uninhabitedislands, and lastly these sanded carburetors, life along the St.Lawrence is getting too rich for my blood."
In response to Persimmons' summons, Ralph came below. The youngcaptain's shipmate explained the state of the case to him.
"What do you make of it?" he concluded.
Ralph could only assume a puzzled expression.
"I don't know what to say," he said.
"Well, Malvin and Hansen are pretty well eliminated, don't you think?"
"I guess so. I agree with you that neither is possessed of enoughtechnical engineering knowledge to enable him to cripple a motor in thisfashion."
"That settles that, then. But it is equally certain that none of us didit."
"That goes without saying."
"Then we come down to one culprit," announced Percy, looking important.
"Who is that?"
"One of Harry Ware's ghosts," declared Persimmons soberly, but with atwinkle in his eye nevertheless.
"I guess we can safely call the ghosts out of it," laughed Ralph, inspite of his vexation. "The thing is, who would have a motive to try toprevent the _River Swallow_ leaving Dexter Island to-night."
"There's only one motive that I can suggest," said young Simmonsseriously.
"And that one is?"
"A desperate desire to prevent us from communicating to the authoritiesour experiences of last night."
"But who could know anything about that? We agreed to keep that part ofthe object of our journey to ourselves. Nobody could know of it."
"Unless somebody overheard us when we talked it over."
"What do you mean?"
"That maybe Harry Ware wasn't so far off as we thought he was, when hedeclared he heard a rustling in that shrubbery."
"But, even so; even if anyone did overhear us, Malvin, for instance,we've already decided that he couldn't cripple the engines in such askillful manner."
"That being so, there is only one explanation. The sand is there. Someone placed it there. It wasn't one of us. It is practically impossiblethat it could have been Malvin or Hansen. That lets everybody out."
"Yes," said Ralph slowly, "unless----"
&
nbsp; He paused.
"Well, unless what?"
"Unless there is somebody on board this boat that we know nothingabout."
Percy Simmons broke out in a frantic yell.
"Holy Mackerel! You're getting 'em, too. We'll all be seeing thingsbefore we get through."