discretion, and Blake knew that he would be allowed to reveal what had
been said if he felt that it was best to do so. The time now seemed to
have come to do this. He took a sudden resolve.

"All right, Joe," he said, "I'll tell you. There is a secret about your
father. I suppose you know what sort of men those were that we just got
away from?" and he nodded in the direction of the hill down which they
had raced.

"I've been puzzling my head about them, Blake," came the answer, "and
all I can say is that they must be either men who are experimenting with
a new kind of light, or else they are--wreckers!"

"That's it, Joe. They are wreckers, and they're plotting to lure some
vessel on the rocks by means of false lights."

"The scoundrels!" burst out Joe. "We've got to spoil their wicked
game."

"That's what we have. We'll tell the police, or some one in authority."

"But before we do," broke in Joe, "tell me about my father, though I
begin to suspect now," and there was a look of sadness on his face.

"I presume you pretty well know what is coming," said Blake, slowly,
"now you have heard what those men said. The whole amount of it is, Joe,
that your father is suspected of having been in league with those
wreckers--that he helped to lure vessels on these same rocks."

"My father a wrecker!" cried Joe. "It can't be--I won't believe it!"

"I didn't want to either, when I heard it," said Blake, "and maybe, now
that I've told you, we can work together and find some way of proving
him innocent."

"That's it!" cried the son. "Oh, if he were only here to help us! I
wonder why he went away?"

"The lighthouse keeper said," began Blake, "that your father left
because he feared to be arrested. And the day after he went away an
officer did come for him," and he proceeded to relate what Mr. Stanton
had said.

"I don't believe it!" cried Joe, when the account was finished. "Of
course, I don't remember my father, and, naturally, I don't know what
sort of a man he was, but I don't believe he was a wrecker!"

"And I don't either!" added Blake. "Here's my hand on it, Joe, and we'll
do our best to find out the truth of this thing," and the two chums
clasped hands warmly.

"But it's mighty strange what those men said about him," went on Joe.
"To think that we would stumble on the wreckers right at work. We can
lead the police to the very place where they have set up their false
light."

"Maybe we can do better than that, J