"And why not?" asked Tommy is surprise.
"Because this is piracy, all right!" exclaimed the boy. "Old Jamison was right, and he'll have all the officers along the coast after us as soon as he gets to land. We're in bad with the cops now."
"But Jamison won't be able to get to land tonight!" suggested Sam.
"Indeed he won't!" agreed Frank. "He'll have to pull in toward the island and lie there on his oars until daylight."
"Can't he land?" asked Tommy.
"I don't think he can land in the dark!" was the reply.
"Why can't we get to Cordova and get back here with the surgeon before he can communicate with the officers?" asked Tommy. "We can't afford to go into hiding just now. We've got to get the doctor up to the cabin, and we've got to find out what that code message contained."
"How far is it from here to Cordova?" asked Frank.
"It must be about thirty-five or forty miles," replied Sam. "If the waves wouldn't keep us traveling up and down all the time, we ought to make it in about three hours."
"Jamison was trying to make us believe he was doing a fine thing if he took us to Cordova and back in ten or twelve hours!" said Tommy.