The Rushton Boys at Treasure Cove Part 8

"It's a mighty suitable name, considering what you're using her for,"

laughed Teddy. "Let's hope she'll be sleuth enough to get on the trail of the smugglers."

"She will," said Ross with decision; and a look of determination leaped into his eyes, while his lips compressed themselves into a straight line.

His chums drew in the fenders and ran up the sail, while Lester took his place at the tiller and eased the _Ariel_ off, until a s.p.a.ce of twenty feet separated the two boats.

"We'll run a few rings around you, while you get the engine to working,"

called out Lester.

"All right, if you insist upon it," laughed Ross. "That's easy enough to do now, but some day we'll have a race, and then it may be a little tougher job.

"Here it comes now!" he exclaimed a moment later, as the engine gave a few preliminary barks.

The sparking was fitful at first, but it soon settled down into a smooth steady buzz.

"Listen to that music," cried Ross jubilantly. "Richard is himself again!"

He started the boat, and she darted ahead like a bird. He tested the steering gear and it worked perfectly.

"Capital!" cried Fred delightedly.

"Hurrah!" echoed Teddy.

"She's a pippin!" exclaimed Bill enthusiastically.

Ross flushed with pleasure at the praise of his craft.

"Well," he called, "I owe it all to you fellows that I'm on board of her to-day. I hope you'll never get into similar trouble, but if you do, I only hope that I'm on hand to help you out."

Their courses lay in opposite directions and amid a chorus of good wishes and hand wavings they rapidly drew apart.

"Well!" remarked Teddy, drawing a long breath when they were out of ear shot, "this has been an adventure with a great big A."

"Who'd ever have thought when we started out yesterday that we'd run across anything like this?" added Fred, as he settled down with his hand on the sheet.

"That's the beauty of the sea," remarked Lester, as he brought his boat up a little more into the wind. "On the land, things jog along steadily and there aren't so many surprises. But at sea, anything can happen. You never know what's going to turn up."

"I don't know about that," replied Bill, moved to a defence of his beloved prairies. "Plenty of unexpected things turn up on land too. I guess Fred and Teddy didn't find things very tame out at the ranch this summer."

"We surely did not!" returned Fred. "What with ghosts and rattlesnakes and bears and cattle rustlers, we didn't find time hanging heavy on our hands."

"Not so that you could notice it," chuckled Teddy.

"Of course there are exceptions," admitted Lester, "but I was speaking in a general way. My father was a sailor and the sea is in my blood. I never get tired of it and I'm always finding in it something new and exciting."

"How do you like our new friend?" asked Fred.

"Fine," said Teddy promptly.

"All to the good," was Bill's verdict.

"He seems to be the real thing," agreed Lester.

"He's certainly had hard luck," said Fred. "If his father had been able to carry through his plans, life would be a mighty different thing to Ross from what it is."

"It must be an awful strain on a fellow to be on a still hunt like his,"

mused Bill.

"Yes, and with so little to work on," chimed in Teddy. "If he had anything definite to go on, like a map or a letter or a confession, it would be another thing. But he seems to be relying altogether on chance and the ravings of his father. And a crazy man may say anything. What does his speaking about Bartanet Shoals mean? It might have been just chance that he didn't mention Cape Horn or Baffin Bay or any other place."

"Do you think," asked Lester slowly, "that Ross has told us everything he knows?"

The others looked at him in surprise.

"Why, what makes you ask that?" inquired Teddy.

"I don't know just how much there is to it," was the answer; "but did you notice how he checked himself last night, when some one asked him whether those were all the clues he had?"

"Now that you speak of it, I do remember that he said he hadn't anything else, and then he used the word 'except,'" said Fred. "Then he stopped suddenly and didn't explain what that 'except' meant."

"He acted as though something had slipped out before he thought,"

volunteered Bill.

"You can hardly blame him, if he felt a little doubtful about us,"

observed Teddy. "He had never seen us before, and I think he went pretty far in telling us even as much as he did."

"You're right there," said Lester. "How did he know that we wouldn't blurt out the whole thing to any one who would listen. It might spoil all his chances of recovering anything. There are plenty of fellows who would spy on his every act and make life a burden to him. Others might plan to follow him and take the gold away from him by force if he should find it."

"It would be a big temptation," agreed Bill. "There are some fellows who would sell their souls for a ten dollar bill. How much more, if the reward were a chest of gold!"

"I don't blame Ross a bit under the circ.u.mstances," said Fred, "but I'm sorry just the same. We have so little to go by that we can't afford to lose the slightest thing that may help us out."

"We'll see him again before long anyway," put in Teddy hopefully, "and he may grow to know us well enough to put us wise to all that he's been keeping back."

"We'll live in hopes," said Lester. "But look over there, boys, and see a sight to gladden your eyes. We are almost home."

They followed his gaze and saw the Bartanet Shoals Lighthouse, its great reflector sparkling in the rays of the morning sun.

CHAPTER IX

THE BEACON LIGHT

The lighthouse was a ma.s.sive structure, over a hundred feet in height.

It had been built in obedience to a general demand, owing to the number of vessels that had been wrecked in the vicinity. There were treacherous currents and swiftly running tides due to the peculiar conformation of the Maine coast at that point, and if a s.h.i.+p once grounded on the shoals while a storm was raging its hours were numbered.