this sally, in spite of the seriousness of the
situation.

"By the way, I wonder if we haven't got this youngster's father a
prisoner on the Catwhisker," Mr. Perry continued. Then he turned toward
the youth on the cot and inquired:

"Is your father a tall, angular fellow with a smart, flip way of talking,
and do his friends call him captain?"

The catapult victim did not answer, but the expression on his face was
all the evidence that was needed to indicate what an honest reply would
have been.

"I thought so," said Mr. Perry. "Now, would you like to make a trip down
to the landing and occupy a stateroom in the Catwhisker with your father?
The Catwhisker, by the way, is a yacht in which we made a trip from
Oswego, New York, to rescue a boy marooned by some young scamps on this
island. After he was marooned, your father and his friends kidnapped him
and took him away. Now, what we want to know is, where is he?"

Still the wounded prisoner made no reply.

"There's going to be some awful serious trouble for your outfit if that
boy isn't returned," Mr. Perry went on, waxing fiercer and more fierce in
his manner as he purposely worked up a towering rage for the sake of its
effect on the boy on the cot. "Would you like me to turn you over to the
father of the boy whom your scoundrel gang kidnapped? What do you think
would happen to you if he got hold of you? Well, he's on the boat down at
the landing, and your father is there too, under lock and key. And before
long we're going to have the whole gang of you under lock and key. Now,
don't you think it is best for you to give up your secret and tell where
that boy is?"

The prisoner was now thoroughly frightened. He shrunk away from the
glowering owner of the Catwhisker as if he feared the man's clenched
fists were about to rain blows on his wounded body. At last he gasped in
trembling tones:

"I don't know, I don't know."

"Don't know what?" thundered Mr. Perry.

"I don't know--I don't know--where he is," stuttered the terrified boy.

"And I don't believe you, young sir. Do you understand me? You're not
telling the truth. Come on, boys, we'll turn him over to the father of
the boy they kidnapped."

"Oh, no, no; don't, please don't, mister," pleaded the scared youngster.
"I don't know where that boy is; please sir, I don't. But I'll ask my
father to tell if you'll take me to him."

"There, I thought we'd get something out of you," said Mr. Perry in tone
of sat