"Quick, Beeby!" called Paul, "if you want a snapshot, now's your chance."
"Now he's in too much of a hurry," objected the cadet, as he snapped his camera at the fleeing lad. "Wonderful to relate, he's entirely too quick for me."
Senor Alantrez was reading his letter. As he finished it he uttered a cry, and extended the missive to Dick.
"It is news of my boy!" he exclaimed joyously. "The scoundrels have given him up. Oh, the saints be praised! Now, we can get him—if only he is unharmed. See—read, Senor Hamilton!"
The note was brief, and was written in English, which Senor Alantrez was familiar with. Dick perused it:
"Senor Alantrez," the letter began. "We regret having been the cause of annoying you, but it was not altogether our fault. We made a mistake. We did not mean to kidnap your son. We wish to restore him to you unharmed, but we do not care, for obvious reasons, to venture back to Santiago. Therefore, we have taken this plan: We will leave your son on a small island, called Stone Island, where you can call for him at your leisure. He will be provided with sufficient food and water to last two weeks, and, in addition, there is food to be had on the place. He will not suffer, as the weather is warm, and there are natural shelters on Stone Island. Regretting the trouble we have caused you, at the same time assuring you that it was unintentional, we beg to remain unknown to you, except as
"The Kidnappers."
"Well, what do you think of that?" cried Beeby, when Dick had read the letter aloud.
"Talk about nerve!" exclaimed Paul.
"What'll you do?" asked Tim Muldoon.
"Do, why the best thing is to go to Stone Island," decided Dick, promptly. "This letter may be a fake, but it sounds genuine. Anyhow, it won't be much out of our way to call there; will it, Captain Barton?"