Together they started off. They planned to keep up the search all day, taking their lunch with them, and camping out at night, as they had done before.
"But first we'll hoist a distress signal, in case dad comes for us, and we'll leave a note saying where we have gone and that we'll come back," suggested Frank.
This was done. They tied one of their coats to a tall tree well up on the cliff, where it could be seen by a boat coming from the direction of Harbor View. Then, leaving a note, written on a piece of paper from a cracker box, they set out.
Up to noon they had found nothing, but an hour later Andy, who was in the lead, suddenly uttered a cry as he turned a little promontory and started down a level stretch of beach.
"There's our man!" he cried. "He's just come ashore, and the wrecked motor boat is there too! It must have drifted away and he went after it. He has a man with him!"
Frank saw what his brother indicated. Disembarking from a large rowboat were two men—one the mysterious stranger who had imprisoned them in the cave. The other seemed to be a boatman, or fisherman. The two were pulling up on the beach the battered hull of the wrecked motor boat, now more dilapidated than ever.
"What shall we do?" asked Andy.
"Let's go right up to him," proposed Frank.
"He ought to be afraid of us now, and he may play right into our hands."
They started forward, but, were suddenly stopped by loud voices between the two men, neither of whom had yet noticed the approach of our heroes.