The hour passed and all the efforts of the searching boys were unrewarded. Not a trace of their missing friends had they discovered. “It’s plain enough they aren’t here,” said George dejectedly.
“That’s right,” answered Grant, “we’ve called and shouted and whistled and looked and walked and waited, but we haven’t anything for all our pains. I’m beginning to believe the boys aren’t here.”
“I agree with you as far as this spot is concerned,” said George, “but we ought to go on farther down the island before we go back to Mackinac.”
“That’s right,” agreed Grant. “Let’s go back to the motor-boat now.”
Quickly the two boys started to return to the place where the captain was awaiting their coming. They had gone but a short distance, however, before at George’s suggestion they turned to their left and moved toward a sandy stretch of shore which they saw in the distance. “Maybe we’ll find a footprint the same as Robinson Crusoe found on his island,” suggested George striving to speak lightly.
The suggestion was followed and great was the surprise of both boys when they drew near the winding sandy shore of a large cove to see swiftly approaching from the south a motor-boat in the distance.
“Look yonder!” said Grant excitedly seizing his friend by his shoulder as he spoke, and pointing in the direction in which he had discovered the approaching boat. “That isn’t our boat, is it?”
“No,” answered George positively after a brief silence. “Our boat is up the shore farther.”
“Maybe Fred and John are on board.”
“That’s something nobody knows. We’ll soon find out.”