He stood there puzzled exceedingly by what he had seen, for he was almost certain that his eyes had played him no tricks. Yet if he had really seen a third man on the River Swallow, how had he come there? No boat had come into the dock that afternoon, and there was no other way of landing on the island except at a point which was commanded by the house. It was another mystery to be added to the strange events that appeared to be piling up around the boys in baffling confusion.
“Shall I tell the others about it and risk getting the life joshed out of me?” thought Harry to himself, as his comrades’ steps drew nearer.
After a minute’s cogitation, he decided to remain silent about what he had seen—for that it was no optical delusion he was certain.
“But I couldn’t convince them of that,” he mused. “They’d say I had been seeing spooks again, and Persimmons would kid the life out of me. No, I guess I’ll keep my mouth shut and do some detective work on my own account.”
With this resolution in his mind, he joined his chums, and, arm in arm, the three strolled down to the River Swallow.
“All ready, sir,” declared Malvin, “but you’re a little bit ahead of the time you said, sir. I wasn’t expecting you.”
Harry looked sharply at the man.
“No, I’ll bet you weren’t expecting us,” he thought.
“All right,” responded Ralph to Malvin. “Percy, get below and tune the engines up. It is almost dusk. I would like to get under way before dark.”
Persimmons dived below, donned his engineer’s overalls and began to test up his engines for the night run. To his surprise, they responded sluggishly to his efforts to get them in working order.