Jed, at the right moment, made fast with the boat-hook, drawing the small craft in alongside. While he was doing so Joe suddenly cried:
“And say! Look there!”
Coming in on the start of the flood tide, floated a straw hat and a coat—beyond a doubt those lately worn by Francis Delavan.
“Now, what do you say to that?” gasped Eben Moddridge, turning deathly pale and looking as though he must sink to the deck.
A great fear was tugging at the heart of Captain Tom Halstead, though he managed to reply, calmly enough:
“I don’t know just what it means, Mr. Moddridge, but it’s surely the sign of mischief of some sort.”
CHAPTER VII
WORKING OUT THE PUZZLE
JED, amid all the excitement, deftly captured with the boat-hook the painter of the small boat, then towed that little craft astern, making it fast.