t of the boys and he greeted them with a note
of worry in his voice. "Come on down to the sidewalk out of earshot of
these folks," he said in a low tone.

They followed him to a place where the crowd thinned out, then Rick
asked, "What's the matter, Cap'n? Anything important come up?"

"Important? I'll say it's important!" Cap'n Mike leaned forward. "Jim
Killian has disappeared!"

CHAPTER XII

The Missing Fisherman

Captain Jim Killian, the fisherman who had been closest to Brad Marbek
and Tom Tyler, and who might have been able to say finally whether
Rick's theory was true or not, was missing!

"Cap'n, are you sure?" Rick asked.

Cap'n Mike nodded soberly. "Sure as I can be. That's why I had to talk
to you boys."

"When did you discover he had disappeared?" Scotty queried. "You said
he had been visiting his mother."

"That's just it. Took me all this time to remember." Cap'n Mike shook
his white head. "Reckon I'm getting old. His mate said he'd gone to
visit his mother, so I thought no more about it. Until this morning.
Then I remembered. Jim Killian never knew his mother. He was brought
up by an uncle and aunt, both of them dead ten years now. Struck me
all of a sudden. It had sort of been nagging at the back of my head
that something was fishy about that mate's story anyway, so this
morning I went to his house and I collared him."

"Did you get anything out of him?" Rick asked eagerly.

"Not much. Jim Killian showed up at his trawler the morning after Tom
Tyler wrecked the _Sea Belle_. He just told the mate to shove off
without him, and said if anyone asked, he was visiting his mother, who
was sick. And I'm sure that's all the mate knows, except that he knew
Jim Killian didn't have a mother."

Rick pursed his lips thoughtfully. "He showed up himself? Then he must
have left of his own free will. At least he wasn't kidnapped. But why
would he run away?"

His eyes met Scotty's and he knew his pal was thinking the same thing.

"He was threatened," Scotty said.

"Looks like it. Suppose he had let a word drop that night about
something being a little off the beam about Smugglers' Light?" It
sounded reasonable to Rick. "The Kelsos would have paid him a visit
for sure."

Cap'n Mike wagged his head sadly. "I sure pinned a lot of hope on Jim
Killian. After you explained what might have happened to Tom, I was
sure Jim might have something real useful to add. But it looks mighty
bad now."

"Mighty