"Those men have seized my friend, and now are coming after me. S O S, S
O—"
That was all—not another dot or dash. Desperately Max appealed for further details, but it was like calling for life in a cemetery. The ether was dead, so far as Friday Island was concerned.
CHAPTER XX
Four Prisoners
When the Catwhisker arrived at Friday Island again, the place appeared to be deserted.
The camp was as they had left it, except that the breakfast dishes were washed and put away. "Friday" had performed his duty, but both boys had disappeared, and there seemed to be only one explanation of their disappearance, namely, the premonition of danger at the hands of the four strange men that the Rockport amateur, Max, had received from the boys on the island. No damage had been done to the tent or any of the camp paraphernalia, even the radio outfit being exactly as it had been when they left it in charge of Hal and Bud a few hours previously.
"This is getting pretty serious," Mr. Perry said, after they had made an unsatisfactory review of the situation. "I confess I don't know what to make of it."
Cub felt an impulse to brand this new affair as the most puzzling mystery that had yet confronted them, but he checked the utterance wisely enough as entirely too facetious for the occasion.
"We've got to get the authorities busy on this case," Mr. Perry added after a few moments' hesitation. "We may be sure now that it's more than a hazing affair. There must be a retreat of some bad men around here somewhere."
"What authorities shall we ask to help us?" Cub inquired.