King arose and, after expressing thanks for the boys' hospitality, passed over the sandy island and the tapering spit, and was soon lost to view in the foothills. Alex watched him with a smile on his shrewd face.
“There’s something about this case I haven’t got hold of yet,” he mused. “There was something in the handbag besides money. Anyway, the Trumbull person wants it, and Don hasn’t got it. Now, I wonder if the papers I saw Don have were in the handbag, and whether they are not the property the man who engaged King is so anxious to get?”
The boys were all tired, and it was finally agreed that they should run up the river a few miles, “just to get out of the bullet zone,” as Clay expressed it, and take an afternoon, siesta in the cabin, leaving Captain Joe and Teddy on guard. Alex was glad of this arrangement, as he was anxious to get a look at the belt, in order to see if the papers he had seen Don have were still there.
The motor boat was speeded for an hour or more, and then Case and Clay sought their bunks in the cabin. The little room was insufferably hot, but it was, at that, a slight improvement on the deck outside, so the lads made the best of it. Alex did not permit himself to sleep with the others, but lay awake, listening, with his eyes closed, until the regular breathing of his chums told him that they had passed into the land of dreams. The boy was miserably tired and sleepy, for the day had been a trying one, but he forced himself out of his bunk, and over the cabin roof to the aft deck.
Captain Joe was sound asleep on the prow, but Teddy crawled over the cabin with him and cuddled down by his side. Once out of sight of the others, Alex removed the belt and proceeded to empty the sand out of it. He remembered that Don had placed the papers he had been so careful of in the belt, and felt for them. They were packed into a close wad in one end of the opening, and he took them out.
They were covered with letters and figures which at first had no meaning to the boy. One held the letter “X” in the center, the same being surrounded by letters, standing singly and not in groups like words.
The other carried a sunburst in the center and was surrounded by figures, each standing alone, as was the case with the letters. For a time there seemed to the boy to be no connection whatever between the two papers, but finally he saw that one referred to location and one to time. The figures represented hour and minutes and the letters the points of the compass. Alex could make nothing more of them.
The papers must be important, for they had been as jealously guarded as the money itself. Alex thought that in time he might be able to read their message, so he made exact copies of them for daily use and put the originals back in the belt.
Then he unwrapped the money, saw that it was all there, and again placed it in the oiled silk. It was his idea to hide the money in one place and the belt in another. He tried to think of a safe place for each, but he was very tired and sleepy. That had been such a long swim! At last he rolled the notes up tight in the silk and placed the package in a pocket, resolved to hide it in the cabin when the boys awoke and left the way clear. Then he closed his eyes, “just for a minute,” he needed rest so much!
The motor boat drew sturdily at its cable. Captain Joe arose from the prow and cocked his ears at a mysterious sound. Teddy cuddled closer to the sleeping boy. The sun moved slowly to the west and the heat of the day in a measure departed.