Frank was thinking of him. Where, when and how had it happened?
Frank remembered that Bart had been silent all along, but he was sure Hodge had been in the boat when the black schooner so nearly ran them down.
He was in the boat after that. The others remembered that he had helped them bail.
The mystery of his disappearance was appalling. It crushed down upon them all like some mighty weight.
He had helped them bail. Frank kept thinking that over. He understood Bart better than anyone else, and he knew Hodge had realized that the Jolly Sport was overloaded.
Then came a thought to Frank that brought an exclamation from his lips.
“Did he jump overboard purposely?”
That was the question that gave Frank a shock. He realized that Hodge might have done so. Bart might have felt that his added weight was helping to sink the catboat and that the others would stand a better show of reaching shore if he were gone. Then——
Merry did not like to think of that. He did not like to fancy Hodge slipping overboard to lighten the boat so that the others might have a better chance to reach land.
Still he could not help thinking, and his fancy pictured Bart struggling with the surging waves, trying to keep afloat a few moments, rising on the crest of a wave and straining his eyes through the darkness for one last glimpse of the boat that contained his friends—his friends for whom he had sacrificed his life.