The Motor Girls on Cedar Lake Part 3

"Well it is sensible not to fuss, Bess, so we will grant your point," finished Cora as they stepped on the boardwalk that led to the boat landing. "Why, I didn't suppose they would light up with that moon," she said. "That's the old watchman over there."

A man was swinging a lantern from the landing. He held it above his head, then lowered it, and it was plain he was showing the light to signal someone on the water.

Cora's heart did give a quickened response to her nerves as she saw that something must be wrong. But she said not a word to her companions.

"What are they after?" asked Belle timidly.

"Probably some fishermen casting their nets for bait," Cora answered evasively. "You stay here, while I speak with old Ben."

Bess and Belle complied, although Bess felt she should have been the one to ask questions. What if anything had really happened to the boys! Jack was Cora's brother.

"Have you seen anything of some boys in a canoe?" Cora asked of the man with the lantern. "They set out this afternoon, and have not yet returned."

"Boys in a canoe?" repeated Ben, in that tantalizing way country folk have of delaying their answers.

"Yes, my brother and two of his friends went out toward Far Island--"

"Fern Island?" interrupted the man.

"No, when we last saw them they were going away from Fern and toward Far Island," said Cora.

"Well, if they're on Fern Island at night I pity them. There ain't never been anyone who put up there after dark who wasn't ready to die of fright, 'ceptin' Jim Peters. And the old boy hisself couldn't scare Jim. Guess he's too chununy with him," and the waterman chuckled at his joke.

"But you have not heard of any accident?" pressed Cora.

"I saw them young fellers myself. They was in a green canoe; wasn't they?"

"Yes," answered Cora eagerly.

"Well, I asked Jim Peters if he had sawed 'em, and he said--but then you can't never believe Jim."

"What did he say?" excitedly demanded Cora, as Bess and Belle stepped up to where she was talking.

"He said they had tied their boat up at the far dock, and had gone on the sh.o.r.e train to the merry-go-'round."

"But they were in their bathing suits!" exclaimed Cora.

"There! Didn't I tell you not to take any stock in Jim's news! I knowed he was fibbin'. But--say miss. There's this about Jim. He don't ever take the trouble to make up a yam unless he has a motive.

Now I'll bet Jim knows something about them lads."

"Where does this man live?" asked Cora.

"He don't live no place in particular, but in general he stays at the shanty, when he ain't on the water. But he's a regular fish.

The young 'uns calls him a fish hawk."

"How could we get to his place? Do you think he is at the shanty now?" went on Cora, determined to find out something of the man, for she had reason to believe that the dock-hand knew what he was talking about.

"Bless you, child! It ain't no place for young girls like you to go to any time, much less at night. But I'll tell you what I'll do.

I'll jest take a look around myself. I sort of like a girl who knows how to talk to old Ben without being sa.s.sy."

"Thank you very much, Ben, but I really must hurry to trace the boys. I suppose you have no police around the island?"

"Wall, there's Constable Hannon. He is all right to trace a thing when you tell him where it is, but Tom Hannon hates to think." Ben raised the lantern above his head and then, as if satisfied that the signaling was all finished, he placed the lantern on a hook that hung over the edge of the dock.

"Oh, Cora," put in Bess, "it is almost eight O'clock. We must hurry along."

"I know, Bess dear, but I had to find out all this man knew. Now I am satisfied to start for the other end of the lake."

Cora's voice betrayed the emotion she was feeling in spite of her outward calm. The matter was now a.s.suming a very serious aspect.

"One thing seems certain," she said to all who were listening, "they could not all have been drowned. They were all expert swimmers.

Nor would they go to any merry-go-'round and leave us waiting for them. The question now is, what could have detained them?"

"Well, here comes Jim now," said Ben. "Just you keep quiet, and I'll pump him."

A man came slouching along the dock. He had the way of seeming much younger than he pretended to be--that is he walked with his head down although his shoulders were straight and broad as those of any well trained athlete. The three girls instantly decided that this man had some strange motive in his manner. He was shamming, they thought.

"h.e.l.lo there, Ben," he called to the dock hand jokingly. "How's the tide?"

"Not much tide on this here lake," replied Ben sharply. "Never knowed much about them tides, as I've lived at this hole most all my born days. But how was business to-day? That was quite a fleet.

How'd you make out?"

"Oh, same as usual," and Jim Peters looked from under his big hat at the girls. "Got company?"

"Yes, a couple friends of the old lady's. They're camping here."

"Oh," half-growled the man understandingly as he made his way to the water's edge.

"Where're you goin' now?" asked Ben.

"Up the lake," replied the man.

"Oh, say," spoke Ben as if the thought had just occurred to him, "where did you say them young fellers went? The ones who started out in a canoe?"

Now Cora saw that this was the man who had come down the lake with the canoe trailing behind his rowboat. He stepped into the lantern's light, and both Bess and Belle must also have recognized him, for they shot a meaning glance at Cora.

"What fellows?" drawled the man in answer to Ben's question.

"The ones I asked you about. You said they went to the merry-go-'round. Did they?"

"Yep," replied the man sententiously.

"Where is that?" asked Cora, unable to restrain herself longer.

"At the Peak," he said vaguely. Then he stepped into his rowboat and before anyone could question him further he was pulling up the lake.

"Well, I'll be hung! Excuse me ladies, but I am that surprised,"

said Ben apologetically. "Say, that fellow knows about the kids, and we've got to follow him. But how?"