Then to his ears came a faint sound; before he could grasp its meaning he heard footsteps overhead and a moment later Rawlins and Tom descended the ladder with Mr. Pauling close behind them and Mr. Henderson, who had been keeping watch on deck, bringing up the rear.
“Gee, I’m glad you’re back!” cried Frank. “I thought sure something had happened to you! Did you find them?”
“Not a sign!” replied Rawlins. “Don’t believe they’ve got over here yet.”
“Gosh, but it was black!” exclaimed Tom, “and weird. What did you think could happen to us?”
Frank, rather ashamed of his unwarranted fears, tried to explain, but Rawlins laughed.
“Don’t you worry over anything of that sort,” he told him. “We can take care of ourselves.”
“And, as Bancroft said, if anything went wrong we’d let you know,” said Mr. Pauling. “Remember, all of you, if you have trouble or are attacked or anything goes wrong don’t hesitate to call for help or give information. Safety first is the rule and it’s better to lose the game by having the rascals hear us than to come to grief ourselves. I should never forgive myself if anything serious happened to any of us through lack of communicating with the means at hand, regardless of the results as far as catching the criminals is concerned.”
“Didn’t you hear anything on the detector?” asked Tom.
“Nothing but the splash of your oars when you came and went and, yes, I heard something once I thought was a screw, but is was too faint to be sure and Mr. Bancroft didn’t think it was.”
“Funny,” commented Mr. Pauling. “Of course we didn’t go very far—it was slow work getting about in the dark—and we had to turn back as the moon began to rise. They are either not here or else were not talking through their instruments. To-morrow night we’ll have an hour longer and can go farther.”