The entire party emerged from the bungalow, descended the steps to the street, and started forthwith for the water front. Katz led the way out upon the same pier at which Clancy and Hill had taken, the glass-bottom boat to view the marine gardens. Well out on the pier, they came to a halt, and swept their eyes over the dark waters of the bay.
"By cracky," said Katz, pointing, "the Sylvia ain't got away yet. There's her lights, if I'm not mistaken."
Probably thirty or forty boats, most of them small, were anchored in the bay. Each carried lights, and picking the Sylvia's lights out from among the others was no easy matter.
"I guess you've got it right, Katz," said Clancy. "Unless the yacht changed her anchorage, that's about where she ought to be."
"We can tell to a certainty by goin' down to the floats and seein' if the Sylvia's dinghy is tied up at the pier."
"If the dinghy isn't there," spoke up Burton, "it wouldn't prove that the Sylvia wasn't still in the harbor. She may be at anchor, Katz, with no one ashore."
"Right-o," answered Katz. "On t'other hand, Burton, if the Sylvia's dinghy is at the pier, then it's a lead pipe that the yacht isn't far away. We'll go look."
They went down the stairs to the floats. There were several boats chained and locked to the floats, and among them was the Sylvia's dinghy. The dinghy, however, was not locked to the float post, and a pair of oars lay across the thwarts.
"She's here, by Jerry!" muttered Katz. "Hogan and Wynn haven't left us yet–not just yet! I allow they're whoopin' it up, some'r's, and are show gettin' out to the yacht."
"Maybe they're on the Sylvia," said Burton, "and some of the crew's ashore."