“Gee, fellows! they’ve robbed us!” groaned Randy. “They took everything we carried while we were asleep.”
“How could they do that without some of us waking up?” questioned Spouter. “We don’t all sleep like logs at once, do we?”
“I’ve got it!” exclaimed Jack. “Don’t you remember that funny smell we noticed when we first awoke? I’ll bet five dollars to a cent they drugged us!”
“That’s it!” broke in Ralph, eagerly. “Sure they did! That’s the smell of chloroform. I know, for we used it once when dad chloroformed our old sick cat.”
The others felt that their chum was right, and everybody boiled with indignation over this new indignity that had been heaped upon them.
“I wish I had a shotgun—I’d show them a thing or two!” cried Jack, his eyes blazing wrathfully. “Captain Gilsen and his gang are nothing but a bunch of pirates!”
“Maybe the captain didn’t do it. This may be the work of Ferguson or Letts, or some of the others,” remarked Spouter.
But the others could not agree with this. They were of the opinion that the theft had been committed by those in authority on board the craft. Nevertheless, they took it upon themselves to question several of the sailors who were just arising.
“I ain’t got any of your stuff, Buddy,” growled one of the men. “And don’t you say I have, either, or I’ll knock your block off,” and he glared wickedly at the boys.
“If you’ve been robbed, go to the cap’n with your yarn,” said another.