“I just believe,” Alex interposed, “that this boy Max could tell us something about those two boats if he wanted to.”
“I notice,” Case put in, “that he’s paying a good deal of attention to what is going on in the cabin just now. He may be all right, but he doesn’t look good to me.”
Clay beckoned to Jule, and the two boys entered the cabin together, closely followed by Captain Joe, who seemed determined to keep close watch on the strange visitor.
“How long ago did you leave St. Luce?” asked Clay of the boy.
“An hour ago,” was the answer. “I rowed up the river near the shore where the current is not so strong and then drifted down to the motor boat. I called out to you before I landed, but I guess you did not hear.”
Alex, standing at the boy’s back and looking over his head, wrinkled a freckled nose at Clay and said by his expression that he did not believe what the boy was saying.
“Did you see a light on the point below St. Luce not long ago?” continued Clay.
The boy shook his head.
“There are often lights there at night,” he said. “Wreckers and fishermen build them for signals. But I saw none there to-night.”
“What about the four-oared boat that left St. Luce not long ago?” Clay asked. “Do you know the men who were in it?”