CHAPTER X.
ABOARD THE STRANGE POWER BOAT.
"Well, this _is_ a rich joke!" laughed the man. "Just keep your fingersfrom pressing those triggers, please, boys. No danger of my trying thedisappearing act. Fact is, we've been expecting you to come along forsome time now."
Jack was not going to allow himself to be deceived. "Soft words butteredno parsnips," he had often heard his mother say; and because thisunknown fellow chose to talk smoothly, was no sign that he should betrusted.
And so he continued to keep his gun raised, seeing which the others didlikewise.
"That's nice, to hear you say such fine things; but what we want to knowis, what have you done with our chum?" he demanded.
"Yes, tell us that!" said George, menacingly.
"Sure, we want to know, by the same token!" observed the Irish lad.
"Oh! he's aboard our boat, just now, and will be glad to welcome you,"the other party remarked, coolly. "And I hereby invite you one and allto come along to see for yourselves. It's a mistake all around, I guess.Please accept my invitation in the same friendly spirit in which it isgiven, and honor us with your company, boys. Josh is getting back to hisold self, but he had a nasty tumble, I give you my word."
"What's that?" asked Jack.
"He tripped over a root," said the man, earnestly, "and struck his headon a lump of coquina rock. It made a bad cut on the side of his head,and he bled quite a little. Besides, the blow must have knocked himsenseless. My friend Carpenter and myself were just coming back to theboat, after a little side hunt for a deer, when we discovered him lyingthere, and took him aboard. After he came to, he told us who he was, andall about the rest of you. And am I right in believing that you are JackStormways?"
Of course the three boys were more or less thunderstruck by what theyhad just heard. It knocked all their theories "into flinders," as Jimmywould have said. Here they had been concocting all manner of wonderfulstories in connection with the two parties aboard the little power boat.They had even gone so far as to believe the men must be some desperatecharacters, fleeing from the sheriff, who might turn up at any hour infull pursuit.
And now, from what the other had just declared, it would seem that theshoe was exactly on the other foot. Instead of proving to be lawlessmen, criminals in fact, they gave evidence of turning out to be GoodSamaritans. Why, Josh might have been in a bad way, only for them,according to what the man had just said.
But could he be believed? Might it not all be a part of some clevertrap? George, always inclined toward suspicion, would have held back,had the decision been left to him; Jack was inclined to take the man'sword, for he had a frank way about him; while Jimmy was hanging in thebalance, hardly knowing what to believe.
Just then there came a shout from within the cabin of the little boat.
"Hello, Jack; it's all right!"
All of them readily recognized the well known voice of Josh; and hisassurance went far toward alleviating the fear George entertained, thatdanger lurked in their putting themselves in the power of the unknownparties.
"You hear what your mate says, Jack?" remarked the man whose figure wasoutlined against the glow of the cabin's interior. "Tell them to comeaboard, and see what we did for you, Josh."
"That's just what, fellers. Nobody could have been kinder. Don't stopthere, but push your way aboard. Cabin's small; but you can all get yourheads in," Josh went on to say.
Of course, after that even suspicious George saw no reason for holdingback longer. So the three splashed along until they stood hip-deep inthe lagoon. The man even stretched out a hand and assisted Jack aboard,as though he bore them not the least bit of malice for having held himup at the muzzle of their guns.
As Jack clambered aboard, the first thing he saw through the openingwas Josh, with a bandage around his head, which showed signs of gore,telling that he must have received something of a bad cut when hetripped and fell.
Then all those signs around the spot, which they supposed meant astruggle between the boy and his two captors, had in reality been madewhen the men attempted to lift Josh, and carry his senseless form totheir boat near by.
Well, one thing was apparently explained. There was no longer anymystery as to why Josh had failed to respond when they shouted, andfired their guns. If at the time, he was lying there senseless, he couldnot very well be expected to give an answering halloo. But then, why hadnot these two men done something to let his companions know what hadbefallen him?
That was what puzzled Jack. He should have thought that the very firstthing to occur to them would be to send word to the camp of the motorboat boys--unless, now, there was some good reason for holding backuntil they could question Josh, and make sure that he did not have anyconnection with the sheriff and his posse!
"This is my friend, and cruising partner, Mr. Bryce Carpenter," said theone who had thus far been conducting the conversation from their side."My own name is Sidney Bliss. How about your friends, Jack?"
"George Rollins, the first one, and Jimmy Brannigan the other," Jackimmediately spoke. "We've left two more in camp, while we hunted for ourlost chum. Hello! Josh; awful glad to find you alive and kicking; butdon't like the looks of that bloody pack around your head."
"Huh! I guess I got a pretty hard knock on my coco, all right," grinnedJosh; and he did look so comical, with that turban-like bandage, andhis face flecked with little specks of dried blood, that Jimmy burst outinto a merry laugh.
"Sure, ye did, Josh, ye spalpeen!" he declared, thrusting one arm intothe cabin, so as to clutch the hand of the discovered comrade; "but 'tisa tough nut ye're afther having, I do declare, which is a fortunatething for ye this night."
"All that he told you is square as a die, fellers," Josh went on. "Andthey've been mighty kind to me, I give you my word. I didn't know whereI was when I came out of the doze; but they asked me a lot of questions,and in that way we got to be right well acquainted."
"H'm! you see," the man who had called himself Sidney Bliss hastened tosay, "we had some good reasons for feeling suspicious toward your party,Jack."
"I don't know why," returned the boy, instantly. "We've come all the waydown the coast from Philadelphia, and never once bothering ourselvesabout anybody else's business. George, here, got into rather a littlefever because he said you seemed to be watching us through the glasseswhenever we happened to come near each other, but it was none of ourbusiness, and I wouldn't let it bother me."
That was as plain an invitation for an explanation as could be imagined;and apparently so the other looked at it.
"Well, after learning just who you were, and that you couldn't have theleast connection with Lenox and his crowd, we had to laugh at oursuspicions," Bliss went on to say.
"We don't happen to know anybody by the name of Lenox, do we, boys?"Jack took occasion to remark.
"Nixy, not," Jimmy asserted, after his usual manner, while George, too,shook his head in the negative.
"Only Lenox I ever knew was a sickly little chap who went to the sameboarding school I did about six years ago," he remarked.
"Well, Josh says you're all from out Mississippi way," the man continued,glibly; "and this Lenox is a New Yorker. Besides, he's a man of aboutforty, and not a boy at all. Belongs to the same club Carpenter andmyself do; and thereby hangs the tale that sent us away down here, andmade us eye your crowd with suspicion."
"Yes?" Jack said, feeling that he was expected to make some sort ofremark.
"They told me all about it, fellers," spoke up Josh; "and after youhear, I guess you'll understand just why they've been playing thehold-off game they did. It's all as square as you'd want it, take myaffidavy on it."
"Good for you, Josh," laughed Bliss, good-naturedly, as he glancedquickly toward his companion; and Jack plainly saw him wink his eyesuggestively. "After what we did for you, it's evident that you haveperfect faith in our record. But, as I was saying, Jack, at the club oneevening, we got to disputing, and Lenox, who pretends to be something ofa dashin
g small boat sailor, dared Bryce and myself to enter into acompetition with himself and some of his friends. That's what took usdown here right now, you see."
"What sort of competition, sir?" asked George, quickly.
"To prove which party might turn out to be the better sailors, we agreedto make the complete circuit of the coast of Florida in boats no longerthan twenty-three feet; and the ones who reached Pensacola first were tobe declared winners. Neither of us were to accept the least outside aid,on penalty of being declared losers."
It sounded very nice, and yet Jack could not forget that suggestive lookwhich had passed between the men. And he wondered if there might not besomething back of the story Bliss was telling, something perhaps muchnearer the truth.
"Oh!" he remarked, "I see now what you mean. You kept watching us, then,because you suspected we might be your rivals in the race?"
"That's it, Jack," the man immediately burst out with, seeminglypleased; "you see, my boy, our friend Lenox is known to be rather atricky chap. Carpenter and myself came to the conclusion that he mightresort to some scheme to hold us back, and somehow we got to look atyour three boats with suspicion. Of course it was all a silly mistake,as we know now. But we're glad to have been of some assistance to yourmate, Josh, knowing full well that you'd have done as well by us if theoccasion offered. And, by Jove! you boys beat us all hollow, when itcomes to bold cruising; for Josh has been telling us something of whatyou've done. I take off my cap to you, Jack Stormways, as a Corinthiansailor!"