“Too bad!” sighed Tom. “But it makes it more certain than ever now, doesn’t it, Joe, that some real disaster has happened to young Ted Dunstan? It’s past the lad’s dinner time now. No healthy boy goes without either luncheon or dinner, unless there’s a big reason for it.”
“Unless Ted has merely gone to some friend’s home and has forgotten to notify his parents,” suggested Dawson.
“But Ted doesn’t strike me as the boy who’s likely to do that. He’s a fine little fellow, and I don’t believe he’d be guilty of being so inconsiderate as to leave home for hours without telling some one.”
They had the “Meteor” under full headway now. Tom, with one hand on the wheel, kept a keen lookout. They had run along some miles when Halstead gave a sudden gasp, made a dive for the rack beside the wheel that held the binoculars and called sharply:
With that Tom Halstead bounded down into the engine room. Over at one of the open portholes he raised the marine glasses to his eyes.
“What’s the matter?” called down Joe, filled with the liveliest curiosity.
“Matter enough!” came his chum’s excited rejoinder. “Don’t look when I tell you. Keep your eyes on your course ahead. But you saw that little pier over at port?”
“When I first saw him,” Tom went on, showing his animated face at the hatchway, “I didn’t think much about him. But the second time I looked I thought I saw something that brought back recollections. That was why I came down here for a near-sighted peep through the glasses. The fellow couldn’t see me down here and so ought not to suspect that we have noticed him particularly.”
“Oh, he’s the right man, all right,” Tom retorted perhaps vaguely. “He’s got on either the same pair or another pair just like ’em.”
“Trousers, of course, you dull old simpleton!” whipped out Halstead. “Joe, it’s the same old pattern of brown, striped——”
“The pirate, I call him,” growled Halstead, stepping up on deck and replacing the binoculars in their rack without another look ashore. They were rapidly leaving astern the solitary one seated against the pier rail.
“Do you think——” began Joe, but Tom gave him no chance to finish.
“I don’t think anything,” broke in Halstead, alive with energy. “I am going to know—that’s what.”