“Won’t they be surprised when they find the boat missing from Hull Island!” came from The Imp. “They’ll think she drifted away or was stolen!”
“If they go out they may get wet,” said Jack. “It certainly looks like rain.”
The chums joined the other cadets, and pretended to pay no further attention to the Ritter faction. But on the sly Dale watched them and after taps saw Ritter, Coulter, Paxton and Sabine steal away in the direction of the lake. They took one of the rowboats with two pairs of oars and rowed away in the darkness.
“There is a wild goose chase for you!” cried Jack, and he and his chums laughed heartily over the matter. The young major was right—it was indeed a wild goose chase. The row to Hull Island was a hard one, and when the spot was reached the search for the launch in the darkness was difficult. To add to the discomfort of the crowd it commenced to rain, and as they had no covering each of the cadets got wet to the skin. They all spent over an hour looking for the Emma, but all in vain.
“She must have drifted away, or else she was stolen!” groaned Billy Sabine. “Oh, if we don’t find her, will they really lock us up?”
“She couldn’t drift away, for she was tied up,” said Ritter. “I tied her myself, and I did it good, too.”
“Nobody was around here when we brought the launch in,” came from Paxton. “I looked around good. And I don’t know how any thieves could locate her.”
“Do you know what I am beginning to think?” cried Ritter. “I think they played a trick on us.”
“How?”
“They got the boat back, but made up a plot to get us out on the hunt.”