"Well, we're here and we're ready," I said, and the words were scarcely out of my mouth before Grey came over from the southern beach, groping his way blindly in the thicker darkness of the palm shadows.
"Van Dyck—Preble!" he called cautiously, and then he stumbled fairly into our arms. "Something doing," he told us hurriedly. "One of the boats—the smaller one—is adrift and moving down this way. It doesn't seem to have anybody in it."
"But I thought you said a few minutes ago that there were two men guarding the boats," I struck in.
"There were, but they've gone somewhere. Jerry and I supposed they were sitting down in the tree shadows where we couldn't see them, but I guess they must have gone up into the woods with the others. If they were still on the beach they wouldn't let that launch drift away without trying to catch it."
"That drifting boat is probably our cue," said Bonteck, instantly alert. Then to me: "Hurry over to the other shore and get Sanford and Billy, Dick—quick! Strike straight across the island with them, and work your way along the south beach until you find us!"
I established contact with the professor and Billy without any difficulty and transmitted Van Dyck's order. Billy wanted to know what good the disabled electric launch would do us, even if it should drift ashore at some point where we could capture it, but I couldn't tell him that.
"That's a future," I said. "Our job just now is to obey orders. Come on."
Together the three of us plunged into the wood on a direct line across the island, and in a very few minutes we found Van Dyck, Grey and Jerry Dupuyster crouching in the shadows of the tree fringe on the south shore. Far up the white line of the beach we could see the dark bulk of the long-boat at rest, and in the nearer distance was the electric launch, still drifting down the lagoon toward us.
"What's your guess, Dick?" said Van Dyck, as we came up. "There isn't a particle of current in that lagoon—you know there isn't."
There wasn't, as we had proved many times, and yet the drifting boat was moving steadily in our direction. It was Billy Grisdale's eyes—the youngest pair of the half-dozen—that solved the mystery.