“Yes, and they’re putting up the same lantern on a rock pile,” remarked Joe. Both lads recognized the apparatus they had seen before. The men were busily engaged in setting it in place, evidently working fast to make up for lost time.
“It’s the same gang,” observed Blake; “and they must know of some vessel that is to pass here soon, or they wouldn’t be in such a hurry. Probably they count on the steersman mistaking this light for the one at Rockypoint, and standing in close here. Up at Rockypoint there is deep water close in shore, but it shoals very fast both ways, up or down the beach. So if a vessel saw a false light, and stood close in to get her bearings, she’d be on the rocks in no time.”
“That’s right,” agreed Joe. “She’d be wrecked and these fellows would get what they could out of her, caring nothing for the lives lost. Blake, we’ve got to stop ’em!”
“We sure have.”
“Not only to clear my father, but to save others,” went on Joe. “What’s best to be done?”
“Well, we can’t capture ’em by ourselves; that’s sure,” went on Blake, each lad speaking in a cautious whisper. “The best thing for us to do is to go back, I think, and tell Tom Cardiff. He’ll know what to do.”
“Maybe one of us had better stay here to keep watch. They may skip out.”
“No danger. They don’t know that we have followed ’em, or that we are here.”
“Then we’ll go back together.”
“Sure, and give the alarm. Then to make the capture, if we can.”