“The case looks hopeless now,” said the professor.
“I don’t agree with you,” said Frank.
“How can you expect to find the boy?”
“By searching, of course. You must remember that the Gulf Stream sweeps along this shore. It would carry the quarter boat along with it. We must follow its course.”
“Are yez shure ther captain didn’t lie?” asked Barney.
“I noticed that one of the quarter boats was missing. That fact seems to bear out what he asserted.”
“But mebbe the boy got asho’,” suggested Pomp.
“He might,” Frank admitted; “but if the boat was towing, she would not be apt to have oars in her by means of which Grey could row her.”
“Why don’t you think so?” asked the professor.
“Because,” replied Frank, significantly, “if it was to the financial interest of Ben Bolt to have the boat break loose he would have taken mighty great pains to see that no oars were in the boat.”