The Motor Girls on Cedar Lake | Page 7

Ben without being sassy."
"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 assuming 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.
"Hello 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?"
"In my motor boat," proposed Cora quickly. "We could overtake him in that before he had any idea we were following him!"
"Have you a motor boat? Good! Where is it? Here, I'll call Dan. He kin run faster than a deer. Dan! Dan! Dan!" shouted the old man, and from a nearby rowboat, where, evidently, some boys were having some sort of a harmless game, Dan appeared. He was a tall youth, the sort that seems to grow near the water. "Hey Dan, I want you to go where this girl tells you, and fetch her boat," said Ben. "Quick now, we've got something to do."
"It's up at the new camp," said Cora. "It's the new boat you must have seen come up this afternoon."
"Oh, yes'm, I know it, and I know where it is," replied the lad, and then he was off, his bare feet making no sound. He called back through the darkness "Got any oil or gas?"
"Yes," replied Cora, and away he ran.
"Ain't he a regular dock rat," said Ben with something like pride in his voice.
"I hope we do not lose sight of that man," remarked Cora.
"Oh Jim can't pull as hard as he thinks, especially on a lazy day when he has been out some," affirmed Ben. "Now suppose you girls just sit on this plank while you wait? 'Twon't cost you nothin'."
He dusted off the big plank with his handkerchief, and upon the board, Cora, Bess and Belle seated themselves.
"I suppose Dan will haul the boat down," said Cora. "It isn't locked, but he may not want to start the motor."
"Oh, you can trust to Dan to get her here.