“I don’t know what to say,” interrupted Jack, “it looks odd, that’s all.”
“But what object could he have had in taking it?” asked Tom.
“Better ask Ned that,” was the response. “He told Ned he’d get even with him some time for giving him a lesson on the porch of the Hinkley House.”
“Well, suspicions won’t find that lever,” said Ned. “Suppose we look for it. Let’s start a hunt.”
“Not much use,” declared Joyce. “Whoever took that lever has hidden it where we can’t find it.”
“I guess that’s so,” admitted Jack ruefully. “I don’t want to accuse any one till we know, but it looks as if——”
A shout from beside the ship interrupted him. It was Jupe. He was pointing down the hill.
“Gollyumption!” shouted the old negro, who had been an interested though inactive onlooker. “Hyar comes dat crazy Dutch kid!”
Sure enough, up the hill was coming, as fast as his pudgy legs would carry him, the rotund form of the doughty inventor of the convertible sausage machine.
“Bother him. We don’t want that pest around now. Hullo! what’s the matter with him?”