d we ought to get some sign
of her whereabouts by keeping a sharp enough watch," Tom advised his
comrades. "They can't sail or handle the boat without the occasional
use of a light in the motor room. The gleam of a lantern across the
water may be enough to give us an idea where she is."

Peering off into the blackness of the night, this seemed like rather a
forlorn hope.

"If whoever has stolen the boat intends to land later to-night,"
hinted Joe, "it's much more likely that the thieves are, at this
moment, a good, biggish distance away, so as not to give us any clew
to their intentions."

In the course of twenty minutes the Motor Boat Club boys had made
their way around to the southern end of the island.

Somewhat more than a mile to the southward lay a small, unnamed
island. It was uninhabited, and too sandy to be of value to planters.
Yet it had one good cove of rather deep water.

Tom halted, staring long and hard in the direction where he knew this
little spot on the ocean to stand. It was too black a night for any
glimpse of the island to be had against the sky.

"That would be a good enough place for our pirates to have taken the
'Restless,'" he muttered, to his comrades.

"If we only had a boat, we could know, bye-and-bye," muttered Hank,
discontentedly.

"We have been known to swim further than that," said Joe, quietly.

"But never in such a sea as is running to-night," sighed Tom Halstead.
"Even as the water is, I'd like to chance it, but I'm afraid it would
be useless. And it would leave Mr. Seaton and the doctor alone against
any surprise."

"I'd swim that far, or drown, even in this sea," muttered Dawson,
vengefully, "if I had any idea that our boat lay over that way."

For two or three minutes the boys stood there, talking. Not once did
Tom Halstead turn his eyes away from the direction of the island to
the southward.

"Look there!" the young skipper finally uttered, clutching at Joe's
elbow. "Did you see that?"

"Yes," voiced Joe, in instant excitement.

"That" was a tiny glow of light, made small by the distance.

"It's a lantern, being carried by someone," continued Captain Tom,
after a breathless pause. "There--it vanishes! Oh, I say--gracious!"

Joe, too, gave a gasp.

As for Hank Butts, that youth commenced to breathe so hard that there
was almost a rattle to his respiration.

Immediately following the disappearance of the distant light, four
smaller, dimmer lights appeared, i