"The ship is gone!"
"The Stormy Petrel has sailed away and left us!"
The boys and the old sailor turned to Captain Marshall, whose face had turned white. Now it grew dark and stern.
"How could they get out of the harbor?" questioned Dave.
"Shepley must have found a passageway," answered the captain.
"But where has the ship gone to?" queried Phil. "I can't see her anywhere."
Instead of replying, the captain of the Stormy Petrel clenched his hands and compressed his lips. He was doing some deep thinking.
"I must say, this looks to me as if somebody had run off with the ship!" declared the senator's son.
"And that is just what they have done!" cried the captain. "Oh, the rascals! the scoundrels! If I ever catch them——" He could not finish, so great was his rage.
"Run off with the ship!" burst out Dave. "How could they do that? Do you think there was a regular mutiny?"