meet you," exclaimed Cub, seizing the Canadian youth by
the hand and forgetting, in his eagerness, the announcement from the
"radio compass detective" that he had "something important" to
communicate.

But the latter, although equally pleased to meet the young amateur from
the States, was on his guard against a delay of this sort and soon broke
through the effusion of cordiality with which Cub greeted him and
continued his communication thus:

"I was just telegraphing with one of the boys on the island, and he told
me to tell you to hurry back. There are four men on the island who
ordered them away and threatened to make trouble for them if they didn't
get away soon."

"What's that!" exclaimed Mr. Perry, seizing the youth by the arms. "You
say you got that kind of message from those boys?"

"Sure I did," the boy replied; "and they want you to hurry back."

"What kind of men are they--rough characters, bad men?"

"That's what I understood him to mean."

"Come on, Mr. Baker, Bob; we must hustle along. Thank you, my boy; you'll
hear from me again."

"I'll hurry back and tell the boys I found you and you're on your way,"
shouted Max as he ran down the street toward home.

Mr. Perry led the way toward the dock at a rapid pace. Presently they
found themselves in front of a hardware store, and the owner of the
Catwhisker stopped and said:

"I'm going in here a minute."

He entered, and Mr. Baker and Cub followed, wondering a little as to the
motive of the boy's father. But they were not long left in doubt.

"Have you any fire-arms on sale here?" Mr. Perry asked, addressing the
proprietor.

"Small or large?" the latter inquired.

"Small."

"Right this way."

He stepped behind a show case in which was a display of automatics and
revolvers. Mr. Perry selected one of the former and a box of cartridges
and took out his pocketbook to pay for them.

"I believe I'll take one, too," interposed Mr. Baker, also
producing a purse.

The storekeeper looked somewhat curiously at the two men.

"I'm supposed to exercise care and judgment in selling these weapons," he
remarked slowly.

"Of course, of course," returned Mr. Perry. "The situation is this: We
belong to a yacht on the river and have run up against some bad
characters. I am the owner of the yacht and have decided that we need
protection."

"Sure, sure, that's perfectly satisfactory," said the hardware man. "You
can buy out my whole arsenal on that explana