“I hope you won’t say yes to that, fellows. In the first place, it goes against my grain to be chased away by Clarence Macklin or anybody else, who has no right to order us around. And then again, there are some things I’d like to look into connected with this queer affair.”
When Jack talked like that he knew the others would fall in with his wishes; for they had long ago come to look upon him as a leader.
“Oh! we’ll stick it out if you say so, Jack,” declared George. “But you ought to tell us anything else you’ve got on your mind.”
“There was one thing that puzzled me,” Jack continued. “It happened while Josh was dozing, or else looking somewhere else, for he didn’t seem to notice it. And I didn’t say anything, because there was no use waking the rest of you up then.”
“But what was it, Jack?” questioned Kick.
“Why, we settled it in our minds that the old island was uninhabited, didn’t we boys?” asked the other.
“That’s so,” several hastened to declare.
“Well, about half an hour ago, as I chanced to turn my head and look that way, I caught sight of a dim light moving along near the ground. It would disappear, and then come in view again, all the while moving.”
“Now, I’ve seen just such a funny light, when a man with a lantern was walking through the woods,” burst out Herb.
“Just what I settled it in my mind that was,” chuckled Jack. “But it wasn’t so strange that some one should be ashore, and I didn’t let it bother me any. After what has happened, though, you can see it must have meant something.”