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 ash.o.r.e, 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.

"I want my pay now!" they heard the boatman declare.

"And you won't get it until I'm ready to give it to you," retorted the mysterious man angrily. "Now you help me get this boat farther up on the sand."

"I won't do another thing! I'm done with you. Give me my money!"

"No!"

"Then take that!"

With a quick motion the boatman drew back his fist and sent it with all his force into the face of the mysterious man. The latter reeled under the blow, staggered for a second, and then toppled over backward on the sand, falling heavily.

"Try to cheat me, will you!" shouted the man. Then he caught sight of the boys. A change seemed to come over him. He shoved out the big rowboat, ran out after it, holding to the stern and then leaped in.

The next moment he was pulling away l.u.s.tily.

The mysterious man lay motionless on the sands.

"Now's our chance!" cried Frank. "That was a lucky quarrel for us. We can capture him. That boatman saved us a hard job. Come on, Andy!"

Together the brothers ran forward.

CHAPTER XXVI

THE PRISONER

"What had we better do to him?" asked Andy, as they neared the prostrate man.

"Tie him up so he can't get away again," replied Frank, as he glanced at the seaman who was rapidly rowing away. "If we keep him, now that we've got him, he may tell us what we want to know. And we've got the wreck of the motor boat, too. We sure ought to get at the bottom of this mystery now."

"Well, we deserve something after all we went through," remarked the younger lad, as he thought of the rising tide in the cave.

"That fellow is in a hurry all right," went on Frank, with a wave of his hand toward the sailor who was now some distance out. "I guess he hit him a pretty hard blow."

"Maybe he killed that man, and is afraid we'll arrest him," suggested Andy.

"Nonsense! I don't believe that man is dead."

They were close to him now and stopped to observe the quiet figure.

They hesitated for a moment, for, though they had made up their minds to make the man a prisoner, it was the first time they had done anything of the sort, and, naturally, they were a little timid.

Suddenly the figure on the sands stirred, and there came a murmur from the mysterious man.

"If we're going to do anything, we'd better get at it," suggested Andy.

"He'll come to his senses in a minute and we'll have our hands full.

He's a powerful fellow."

"That's so. I wonder where there's some rope?" asked Frank.

Andy motioned to the wreck of the motor boat, near which the man lay.

"There's plenty," he said. "They had a long rope to tow it with. I'll get some."

Holding the cord in readiness, the two brothers approached the man, one on either side.

"You take his feet, and I'll attend to his hands," whispered Frank.

"Have a slip-noose ready to put on, and pull it tight. Then take several turns and we'll truss him up."

They worked silently and rapidly. Andy slipped the coil of rope about the man's ankles, and pulled the noose taut. As he was doing this the man stirred and murmured:

"I'll get even with you for this, Hank Splane!"

"Quick! He'll come to in a minute!" whispered Andy.

"I've got him," answered Frank. As one of the man's arms was partly under him the lad had to pull it out before he could slip the noose around it. But he finally accomplished this, and, just as he had it tight, the fellow suddenly sat up.

"Here! What's this? Splane, are you crazy to tie me up this way? Let me go, I say, or I'll make you sorry for this. Let me go, I say!"

He was struggling violently, swaying to and fro as he sat on the sands.

Then his vision, which was probably obscured by the blow he had received, cleared, and he saw the two boys holding the ends of the ropes that bound him.

"Oh, it's you; is It?" he gasped, plainly astonished. "Didn't I tell you to stop following me? I won't have it! If you don't--" He stopped short. A look of wonder followed by one of alarm came over his face.

"The cave!" he exclaimed. "I left you in the cave. The tide was rising. You--you--"

"Yes, we escaped, but no thanks to you!" exclaimed Frank sternly. "You meant us to be drowned, but we found a way out, and now we have you just where we want you, you rascal! You'll tell us what we want to know, you'll clear up the mystery of Paul Gale, and you'll confess what you want of this motor boat now, I guess."

"Suppose I refuse?"

"Then we'll take you before the authorities.

"Ha! Ha! A likely story. Marooned on this lonely island you can't do much. You see I happen to know your boat is gone, and--"

"Gone, yes, because you took her," interrupted Andy.