"He might, but it would be a foolish thing to do," answered the captain. "We are at least ten miles from any island."
"He may have had a small boat," said Songbird.
"No, the small boats are all here. He is on this vessel, but where is the question."
To stimulate them in their search, the captain offered a reward of ten dollars to any one of his crew who should bring Wingate to light. But this brought no success, and for a very good reason as we shall learn later.
How much the drags had hampered the progress of the Rainbow there was no telling, but freed of them, the steam yacht made good time. All of the machinery was carefully inspected, including the propeller, to which some wire was found twisted. But this had thus far done no damage and was easily pulled out.
"He is certainly in league with Merrick and his crowd," said Anderson
Rover, "and that being so, we must be on constant guard against him."
The ladies and the girls were much alarmed to think that such a character as Wingate might be roaming around the vessel in secret, and at night they locked every stateroom door with care. The boys and Mr. Rover were also on the alert, and some of them slept with loaded pistols near at hand. Had Wingate shown himself unexpectedly he might have met with a warm reception.
"That feller's disappearance puts me in mind o' something that happened aboard the Nancy Belden, bound from the Congo to New York, jest eight years ago this summer," said Bahama Bill, who had searched as hard as anybody for the missing man. "We had on board a lot o' wild animals fer a circus man, an' amongst 'em, was an orang outang, big an' fierce, I can tell you. Well, this orang outang got out o' his cage one night, an' in the mornin' he couldn't be found. We hunted an' hunted, an' the next night nobody wanted to go to sleep fer fear he'd wake up dead. The cap'n had his family aboard and the wife she was 'most scart stiff an' wouldn't hardly leave her room."
"And did you find the orang outang?" asked Songbird, with interest.
"We did an' we didn't. The fifth night after he was missing we heard a fearful noise right in a cage wot had a lion in it. We run to the place with shootin' irons an' spears and capstan bars, thinkin' the lion was loose. When we got there we found the orang outang had twisted one o' the bars o' the cage loose an' got inside and disturbed Mr. Lion's best nap. Mr. Lion didn't like it, an' he gets up, and in about two minutes he makes mince meat o' the orang outang. When we got there all we see was bits o' skin, an' the feet an' head o' the orang outang, yes, sir. We was glad he was gone—especially the cap'n wife —but the circus men was mad to lose sech a valerable beast," concluded Bahama Bill.