“Jail is the place for him,” declared Mr. Racer. “He is a desperate criminal to have followed Paul about as he did. Now, boys get aboard, and we’ll take Mr. James Shallock in with us also. Cast off the raft, and we’ll go home.”
“Wait until I get Paul’s papers!” cried Frank.
It did not take long to remove one of the engine cylinder heads, and there, between the two walls, were the important papers, safe. They involved the possession of much property that Shallock hoped to get under his control.
They set out for the mainland with their sullen prisoner. He soon realized that his games were up, and when turned over to the authorities he made a partial confession. He admitted that he had followed Paul, soon after the lad left the hotel, hoping to get the papers. When the lad left in his motor boat the scoundrel lost track of him for a while. Then he learned of Paul’s efforts to escape and set out after him. From the Racer boys the man learned of Paul’s rescue, but naturally he would not tell what he wanted of him, and hurried away. He hung about Harbor View, hoping for a chance to get hold of the helpless lad, or steal the papers. That was the cause of his midnight visit to the Racer home.
Then he had an idea that the papers were in the boat, and he made a search for that. He found it floating at sea, and hiring a sailboat, started to tow it to land.
He was frightened by the Racer boys, however, and soon afterward, a storm coming up, the tow line parted and the Swallow was once more afloat. Shallock made another attempt to find it, and succeeded. Then he decided to tow it to Cliff Island so he might have plenty of time to search it.
The arrival of the boys spoiled his plans, and once more he fled, after imprisoning them in the cave.
He next hired a boatman to put him on the island with the wreck of the boat, but there was the quarrel which the boys witnessed, and once more the scoundrel’s plans failed. The rest is known to my readers. Shallock confessed to setting fire to the sailboat of the Racer boys, and after a trial he was sent to jail for a long term.
Mr. Racer explained to the boys how he and Mr. Lacey had set out in search for them, and how they had run down the rowboat. Then sure, after a fruitless search in the storm, that his sons were drowned, the silk merchant was distracted. He was more so when the Gull was found adrift a little later, having dragged her anchor in the gale.
After that Mr. Racer, in the motor boat of Mr. Lacey, made a search up and down the coast for his sons’ bodies. Paul Bartlett, who was much improved, went with them, and it was Paul who suggested the possibility of the boys still being on the island. Accordingly another trip was made there, with what result we have seen.