"Well, we've got to get him to a doctor, that's all," declared Frank decisively.
He got to his feet, exhausted though he was.
"Do you mean that we'll carry him back to the road?" asked Joe.
"We'll take him right back to Bayport. That's where the nearest hospital is that we know anything about." Frank looked down at the unconscious man. "He's in bad shape. If he were just stunned, he'd be awake by now. Chances are, his skull is fractured. That's a bad cut."
The boys looked down at the unconscious Captain Royal, sprawled limply on the sand.
"It's a long haul," demurred Biff.
"We can't leave him here. We can't do anything for him ourselves, you know that."
"You're right." Biff bent over and grasped the unconscious man's feet. "Give me a hand with him, some one."
Chet and Joe helped him. They raised Captain Royal from the ground and began carrying him up the beach. Frank went on ahead, still weak from the effects of his grueling ordeal in rescuing the eccentric old man from the sea.
Captain Royal showed no signs of returning consciousness. He was a dead weight as the boys carried him on past his own cave, past the place where Carl Schaum had been hiding, past the boys' cave. There the lads rested, before undertaking the hard climb up the path to the top of the cliff.