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The Adventure Club Afloat

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they hung there, breathing hard, and then Wink gasped: "We've got to get off, Perry! It's going the wrong way!" "If we do, we'll get killed," answered Perry. "Wait till it slows up." They waited, but it seemed that it never would slow up. It went faster and faster. It passed houses and stores and a church. It went like the wind. Ossie groaned as they left the village behind. "I can't stay on much longer, fellows!" he said hopelessly. "I'm clinging by my t-t-teeth!" "You've got to!" answered Perry above the noise of the exhaust. "You'll break something if you don't! Wait till it slows up!" _Toot! Toot! To-o-oot!_ said the horn. And then, so suddenly that Perry's head collided with something particularly hard, the brakes squeaked harshly, the car slewed into an avenue and the boys, making the most of the opportunity, fell off. Ossie rolled a full half-dozen yards before his progress was stayed by a tree, and Wink, or so Perry declared afterwards, described a beautiful and quite perfect circle. Bruised, breathless and dizzy, they got to their feet and staggered to the side of the road and subsided on the turf. After a long minute Ossie said feebly: "Where--do you--suppose--we are?" "About ten miles--in the country," answered Wink. There was silence then, silence long and profound. At last they climbed to their feet and, without speaking, walked off in the darkness in the direction from which they had come. Perhaps ten minutes later there came the first sound to break the silence. It was a choking sort of gurgle from Wink. "What's the matter with you?" inquired Perry listlessly. "I was just--just thinking," replied Wink. "It was so--so--" But words failed him and he began to laugh. After a dubious instant Perry chuckled, and then Ossie, and presently they were clinging to each other convulsively in the middle of the unknown road and sending shrieks of laughter up to the starlit sky. Over an hour later they reached the landing. Both tenders were gone. The _Follow Me_ was dark, but a faint light still burned aboard the _Adventurer_. Perry cupped his hands and sent a hail across the water. A sleepy response was followed by the sound of someone tumbling into the dingey and then by the measured creak of oars. Han was grumbling as he drew to the float. "A fine time to be coming back," he said. "Where the dickens did you fellows get to, anyway? We looked all around the shop for you. Did you get any grub?" "N-no," answered Perry, as he sank wearily into a seat. "We got tired of sticking around there and--and went for a ride." "A ride? Where to?" "Oh, just around a bit. Out in the country a ways. Was--was the grub any good?" "Was it!" Han grew quite animated. "It was the best ever! They had about a dozen kinds of salad, and cold meats all over the place, and sandwiches and cakes and ice-cream and ices and coffee and--" "Oh, shut up!" begged Ossie almost tearfully. "It was bully! Were you there when we chased the burglars?" "When you--what?" asked Wink. "Chased the burglars, I said. Mr. Drummer, or something--I never did get the name of the folks--found three of them trying to break into his safe, and they knocked him down and half-killed him, and the servants chased them, and then everyone took a hand! It was fine and exciting, I tell you! Had you gone off before that?" "Why--er--seems to me we did hear something," said Perry. "When--when was this?" "Oh, about a quarter to ten, I suppose. We were dancing--" "_You_ were dancing?" ejaculated Wink. "Sure! All of us danced. Didn't you?" "Who with, for the love of Mike?" "Oh, lots of girls. Mrs. Thingamabob happened to find Joe standing around and made him tell her his name, and then she took him off and introduced him to some girls, and then he introduced the rest of us. It was a peachy floor. Some of the girls were all right, too." "You seem to have got on fairly well," said Wink, "considering you weren't invited." "We were invited just as much as you were," responded Han indignantly. "Maybe, son, maybe," answered Wink, as he climbed aboard the darkened _Follow Me_, "but I'll bet they weren't half as sorry to see you go as they were to see us!" With which cryptic remark Wink stumbled into the cockpit and disappeared. CHAPTER XVIII THE SQUALL Although the Adventure Club remained in port for another day, neither Perry, Wink nor Ossie went ashore again, and all the efforts of the rest of the party failed to coax them off the boats. They were, they declared, fed up with Bar Harbor. And they hinted that so far as they were concerned the voyage might continue at any moment without protest. Han brought back a newspaper that afternoon containing a vivid and highly sensational account of the attempted robbery of the Alfred Henry Drummond "cottage." The three read it with much interest, and especially that portion of it which stated that "the local police force is investigating and has every expectation of making arrests within twenty-four hours, since it is not believed the burglars have succeeded in leaving the island and all avenues of escape are being closely guarded." It might have been observed by the others, but wasn't, that Perry and Ossie, on the _Adventurer_, and Wink, on the _Follow Me_, exhibited a strange fondness for the seclusion of the cabins from that time until the next day at eight, when the cruisers up-anchored and passed out of the harbour. And as the broad Atlantic rolled under the keels three hearty sighs emerged from as many throats. The two boats passed Petit Manan Island toward ten that forenoon, a tiny rocky islet holding aloft a tall shaft against the blue of the Summer sky. "A hundred and fourteen feet," said Joe informatively, "and the highest lighthouse on the coast except one." "Gee, think of living there in Winter!" said Perry awedly. "Guess Petit Manan isn't as bad as some of the islands along here, at that," said Joe. "Some of them are a lot further from the mainland. Remember Matinicus?" "Think of folks living on them," murmured Han. "They must be merry places in Winter with a blizzard blowing around! Lonely, wow!" "Remember the white yacht we passed the other day near Burnt Coal?" asked Phil, looking up from the book he was reading. "The _Sunbeam_ was the name of her. Well, a chap was telling me yesterday about her. It

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