“And maybe that poor boy is there yet!” exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey.
“That’s what my cousin is afraid of,” her husband said. "And that is why he sent for me, his nearest relative. He knew I would believe him, and not imagine he was dreaming. So he wants me to hire for him, as he is rich, a motor boat and go to this island to rescue the boy if he is still there. Cousin Jasper thinks he is. He thinks the boy must have wandered away and so was not in sight when the rescue ship came, or perhaps he was asleep or ill further from the shore.
“At any rate that’s Cousin Jasper’s strange story. And now he wants us to help him see if it’s true—see if the boy is still on the island waiting to be rescued.”
“How can you find the island?” asked Nan.
“Cousin Jasper says he will go with us and show us the way. The sea captain who called me up just now from down in the office of the hotel is a man who hires out motor boats. Cousin Jasper knows him, and sent him to see me, as I am to have charge of everything, Mr. Dent not yet being strong enough to do so.”
“And are you going to do it?” asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
“Oh, yes,” her husband said. “I came here to help Cousin Jasper, and if he wants me to set off on a sea voyage to rescue a poor lonely boy from an island, why I’ll have to do it.”
“May we go?” eagerly asked Bert.
“Yes, I think so. Cousin Jasper says he wants me to get for him a big motor boat—one large enough for all of us. We will have quite a long trip on the deep, blue sea, and if we find that the boy has been taken off the island by some other ship, then we can have a good time sailing about. But first we must go to the rescue.”
“It’s just like a story in a book!” cried Nan, clapping her hands.