"Well, there's one thing sure, Denny hasn't been attacked as yet,"

whispered Bess. "And the boys haven't been here to warn him, or he'd show some signs of it."

"I think you're right," agreed Cora. "What had we better do? Tell him ourselves?"

"That's what I say--let's warn him," suggested Belle.

The girls started for the cabin door, but paused midway as they heard the approach of a motor boat near the fisherman's little dock.

"Wait," suggested Cora. "That may be the boys now."

CHAPTER XXV

THE PLOTTERS ARRIVE

"What's the trouble?" asked one of the four men in the boat that had come to the rescue of Jack and his chums. "Engine broken, or are you out of gasoline?"

"We've got gas, but there may be water in it," replied Dray. "I watched the fellow when he filled the tank, though, and he used the chamois all right."

"You can't always go by that," said another of the accommodating strangers. "There's an awful sight of poor gasoline being palmed off nowadays. Have you got a long rope?"

"We sure have," answered Jack. "It's mighty good of you to stop and give us a tow."

"That's all right," laughed one of the men. "We never can tell when we might want a helping hand ourselves. Pa.s.s us the rope."

It was flung over. The two boats were now bobbing side by side, for they were well out in the bay, and the sea was quite choppy. The tide was running out, and help had come to the boys not any too soon.

The rope, pa.s.sing from the bow of the _Dixie_, where it was made fast to a ring bolt in the deck, was caught on to a cleat in the stern of the other boat.

"You'll look after the steering; will you?" asked one of the men.

"Surely," answered Dray.

"Because there's nothing harder than towing a boat that yaws from side to side," the man went on.

"We'll keep a straight course," declared the owner of the speedy boat that had proved such a disappointment of late. "We know something about gasoline craft."

"Glad to hear it," remarked one of the occupants of the rescuing boat, in a grumbling sort of voice. "There's so many launched on the bay now, with a lot of chaps running them who don't know any more than to turn on the gasoline and switch on the spark."

"And girls, too," added another of the men. "Though I must say there are some girls here who----"

"Easy there!" called one of the rescuers sharply.

He might have been speaking to his companion, who was attending to the fastening of the towing rope, but to Jack it seemed as though there was an injunction to be careful of what was said.

Somehow or other, though why he could not tell, Jack's suspicions were aroused. He tried to get a good look at the faces of the men, but the moon was hidden behind some clouds just then, and it was out of the question. The light was too baffling.

"Well, I guess we're ready," announced the man who was making fast the towing rope. "Now where do you fellows want to go? We can't promise to take you home, as we have some business of our own to attend to."

Jack always said, afterward, that nothing could have been more providential than the way the moon shone out brightly just as he was about to reply.

He had it on the tip of his tongue to ask that, if possible, they be landed near Denny's cabin, when a ray of moonlight glinted on the name of the rescuing boat, painted on her stern. There Jack read the word:

_Pickerel._

"Great Scott!" he almost e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed aloud. "The boat that raced with Cora! The same men who are after old Denny!"

Jack made up his mind in a flash. It would never do for the men to know that he and his friends were on their way to save Denny from the very fate the men had in store for him.

"Oh, if you can land us anywhere near Buler's Pavilion, it will answer," said Jack, naming a place not far from the entrance to the bay, and not far from where they were at that moment.

"Buler's Pavilion!" cried Ed. "Why that's----"

"It's probably closed, by this time, I know that!" answered Jack, quickly, giving Ed a sly kick. "But we can get somebody up, I guess."

Then, in a tense whisper he hissed into Ed's ear:

"These are the men after Denny. I know them by their boat. Don't let on who we are. We're going to Buler's."

"Sure, we can rouse somebody up if they are closed," answered Ed, quickly falling in with Jack's scheme. "That will do us, all right,"

he added to the men. "That is, if it won't be too much out of your way."

"Not at all," said one. "We'll be glad to leave you there. Maybe you can find somebody to fix your boat. All ready?"

"Let her go," said Jack. He wanted the _Pickerel_ to get far enough ahead so that he could talk to his chums without the danger of being overheard.

The engine of the rescuing boat was set going more rapidly, and the clutch was thrown in. The craft forged ahead, and soon the _Dixie_ was under way again. She was being brought back from the sea which had so nearly claimed her, and in a strange manner.

"Why did you want to say we'd like to be landed at Buler's?" asked Dray of Jack.

"Because I want to fool these fellows," and Jack quickly told how he had seen the name of the boat that had raced with his sister's. "If we do land there," he went on, "they won't know who we are. We can tell them to cut us off before we get to the dock, in case the place should happen to be open and lighted up. Then they can't see us."

"Good idea," said Dray. "You're a wise boy, Jack."

"I just saw that name in time," went on Cora's brother. "Otherwise it would have been all up with us."

"But what about Denny?" asked Ed. "How are we going to save him if we land at Buler's, and let these fellows go on?"

"I've thought of that," answered Jack. "We'll have to get another boat, if we can, and go to Denny's cabin in her. The _Dixie_ is no good. Oh, excuse me!" he said quickly to Dray. "I didn't mean that--exactly."

"It's all right, old man, the _Dixie_ is certainly no good to-night.

Say all you please about her, you can't hurt my feelings."

"If only the _Reliance_ is at Buler's we can get her and go to the cabin flying," went on Jack. "If not, we'll do the best we can. Maybe Denny can stand them off until we arrive."