“Submerged poppycock!” said Dan. “I’ll tell you what really happened.”
“Of course you will,” said Tom. “You know all about it, du-du-du-don’t you?”
“A boat of some kind came along and Spencer saw a chance of getting away in it, maybe to New York. Probably he offered to work his passage and they took him aboard. And somehow the tender got a hole stove in her.”
“How?” demanded Tom.
“Oh, I don’t know; there’s plenty of ways. Maybe Spencer thought if he sank the boat and disappeared altogether Captain Chowder would stop hunting him.”
“The first part of your yarn is all right, Dan,” said Bob, “but the last part is mighty weak. But whatever happened there’s no use in our spending the day out here. The question now is: What’s to be done next? If Spencer’s drowned we can’t do any good here. If he’s run away on another boat, why, we might as well attend to our own affairs. What about it?”
“Best thing to do,” said Nelson, “is to tow the tender back to the wharf and get the water out of it. Then we can see what’s happened to it. Anyhow, it will probably have to be repaired and that means staying here until to-morrow. Pull her in, Dan, and I’ll get hold of the painter.”
“All right,” answered Dan, who was holding the tender with the boat hook. “But won’t she go under completely and sink if we try to tow her?”
“I don’t think so. How about it, Bob?”
“Not in this sea, if we go slow,” answered Bob.