ed, pointing to them.

"Well, what about it?" asked Andy calmly. "You and I made them."

"It rained since we were here night before last," said Frank in a low
voice, as if afraid someone would hear him. "Our footprints would have
been washed away. Someone has been here since--a man----"

He paused and looked down the beach. An indefinable something had
attracted his attention. The next moment he grasped Andy by the arm.

"There he is!" he exclaimed.

And there, about a quarter of a mile away was a man, standing beside a
big wrecked motor boat that was drawn up on the beach. It was the
mysterious personage for whom the Racer boys were searching.

CHAPTER XIX

IN THE CAVE

For a moment Frank and Andy were so surprised that neither one of them
could think of anything to say. It seemed almost impossible that their
search should be rewarded just at the time when they had given it up.
Yet there was no mistake. There was the man they wanted. At least
they assumed so, for they could not make out his features at that
distance. At any rate, there was the wrecked motor boat, and the tall
man was critically inspecting it.

"Look! Look!" was all Andy could whisper.

"Yes," assented Frank. "Now if he'll only let us get within talking
distance, and not run as he always does, we may learn something. I
wish we could steal up on him quietly."

"No chance of that, I'm afraid. He knows we're here. It was he who
was walking around our boat."

"Sure; and he knows it's the one from the _Gull_. Well, the only thing
to do is to go right up to him. I wonder what he wants with that boat,
anyhow? See, he's poking into it as if there were gold or diamonds
concealed in it."

"Perhaps there are. Maybe that's the mystery," said the younger Racer
lad eagerly.

"Oh, you got that out of some of the books you read. But I can't
understand how we could have missed him."

Andy did not answer. Instead he grabbed his brother and pulled him
down on the sand behind the boat. It was only just in time, for the
man had turned and was gazing back toward the overturned craft.

"I hope he didn't see us," whispered Andy.

"We must lay low until we think of some plan. Maybe he'll get down
inside the motor boat and then we can get up to him before he knows it.
But I tell you what I think, Frank," he went on, "either that man was
hiding in some cave farther back than we looked, or he has just
arrived."

"The motor boat