"Where's
Berwick? Give him a hail, will you?"

At this instant Berwick came up the ladder from the engine room,
excitedly swinging an iron bar.

"Hallo," called Tom. "What have you got there?"

"What do you think of that!" demanded Berwick as he came toward the
others.

"What is it?" asked the professor.

"It is an iron bar that I found wedged in the engine," replied Berwick.
"I thought I would take a look over the engine before I went ashore and
I found this."

"What was it doing there?" asked the professor.

"Well, it wasn't doing anything," replied Berwick, grimly, "but if the
engine had been started with that thing in it, it would have made a junk
heap of the whole thing in about ten seconds."

"How did it get there?" asked Tom.

Berwick shrugged his shoulders.

"You know as much about it as I do. Whoever put it there meant mischief.
If that infernal little hunchback isn't around--"

"His first cousin is," supplemented Tom, "but he has gone ashore now and
I don't believe he will be back."

"Who are you talking about?" demanded Berwick.

"The steward."

"I am not quite ready to concede that," said the professor, "but I think
there is a traitor aboard somewhere, and there is mischief brewing. It
seems to me that the best thing to do is to get Jim and Juarez on board
again until we can clear this thing up. Get over, boys, into the boat.
I am going with you."

Tom ran down the ladder into the boat, followed by the professor, and in
a moment the boat was speeding for the shore as fast as Tom and Jo could
pull it.

"Where are your guns?" asked the professor, when they landed.

"We left them with Jim," replied Jo. "He was to bring them ashore and
clean them up."

"Jim and Juarez were to be somewhere abouts but I don't see either of
them," put in Tom.

"They certainly are not here now," exclaimed the professor, anxiously.

"They can't be far away," said Tom. "Wait until I give them a call.
Ohe-ee! Jim! Juarez! Oho-e-e!" he shouted.

There was no response, however, to their repeated calls.

"It's strange," said the professor. "Look around and see if you can find
their trails."

"Here's the guns," cried Jo, a moment later, "hid away in these bushes."

"That's queer," commented the professor, "they must have gone off
somewhere, but why?"

"Here's Juarez's trail," announced Tom. "I can see, too, that he went
off first and that Jim went afterward."

"Better take your guns along, boys," advise