“Where’s Drake?” was the general demand.
“He must be dreaming yet,” laughed Bert. “He sure has met with failure.”
“No,” Axtell, who shared Drake’s stateroom, assured them. “He has been up this long while. He had left his berth this morning before I awoke.”
They waited a while and then, as he did not come, Axtell went to find him. In a short time he returned with the startling news that Drake did not appear to be anywhere on the ship.
“He’s putting up a joke on us,” said Tom with a half-hearted attempt at a grin.
Everyone hoped that this might be true, but it did not prevent a thorough search of the ship, it is needless to say, without result. Great was the consternation on board.
“What under the sun could have happened to him,” Dick wondered.
“No one knows,” Axtell answered anxiously. “Come on, fellows, let’s have one more look. He must be hiding somewhere.”
“But where, where,” Tom cried, at his wit’s end. “How could he have disappeared so completely?”