The inventor saw that an encounter with the whole crew would be a very serious matter.
He therefore started to run away, when they all came swarming over the ice after him.
With loud cries of hostility they started off in pursuit of Frank.
He glanced up and saw the ice ship launch itself into the air and come sailing toward him.
Vaneyke was in the turret, and it was he who shouted.
The professor darted the searchlight down into the eyes of the whalers, bringing them to a pause.
One end was tied to the rail, and the other was dangling down.
As the boat swept over him, Frank grasped the noose in the end of the line, and shouted cheerily:
To the astonishment of the pursuers Frank was whirled up into the air over their heads, and before they could recover from their surprise he was far beyond their reach.
As soon as he reached the deck he thanked his friends for their timely assistance and going into the turret with them he explained what Ben Bolt confessed to him.
“The case looks hopeless now,” said the professor.
“By searching, of course. You must remember that the Gulf Stream sweeps along this shore. It would carry the quarter boat along with it. We must follow its course.”
“Are yez shure ther captain didn’t lie?” asked Barney.
“I noticed that one of the quarter boats was missing. That fact seems to bear out what he asserted.”
“But mebbe the boy got asho’,” suggested Pomp.
“He might,” Frank admitted; “but if the boat was towing, she would not be apt to have oars in her by means of which Grey could row her.”
“Why don’t you think so?” asked the professor.
“Because,” replied Frank, significantly, “if it was to the financial interest of Ben Bolt to have the boat break loose he would have taken mighty great pains to see that no oars were in the boat.”
“Den yo’ fink de boat wuz bruk loose apuppose, honey?”
“Most decidedly I do. I can see the hand of Captain Ben Bolt in that rascally deed most plainly.”
They left the Red Eric out of sight astern in the gloom, and were soon flying over the sea close to the shore.
The rays of the searchlight were bent down.
Sweeping the coast and sea continually as the boat was lowered, there was not much chance of an object so large as a quarter boat being missed by its broad glare of light.