CHAPTER V.
A MYSTERY.
Huddled together on the shore, the boys began to talk it over. Rattleton did not remember seeing Bart after the second appearance of the black schooner, while Diamond was sure Hodge had been with them till they were near the mouth of the cove. All wondered why they had not seen him when he plunged overboard.
“Perhaps he felt that he had a better show to get ashore if he swam for it than he had if he remained in the boat,” suggested Browning.
“Hodge was not a fool,” said Frank, a bit sharply. “He knew he had no show at all if he left the boat.”
“Then why did he leave it?”
“That the rest of us might have a better show. He thought the boat would keep afloat longer.”
“Do you think that?”
“It seems that way.”
They talked it over and over, wringing the water from their clothes. Despite the fact that four of them had escaped, all felt that a frightful calamity had occurred. At one time it had seemed there was not one chance in a hundred for any of them to escape, but, now they were ashore, the horror of the loss of a single man made them sick at heart.