ut he must be on the island," Bud reasoned. "And he must have a
wireless set, or he couldn't have sent the messages we got. That much
is certain."

"Not all of it," Hal objected.

"Why?" Bud demanded.

"Maybe he isn't on an island."

"You mean, maybe the whole thing's a fake--eh?"

"Maybe."

"If the whole thing's a fake, then that other fellow who tried to head us
off must 'ave been a party to the game," Cub interposed.

"There wouldn't be much sense in that," said Bud.

"I agree with you," Cub continued. "The scrap between those two hams was
genuine enough."

"But they were holding something back from us," Hal declared.

"Both of them?" asked Bud.

"I shouldn't be surprised."

"Nor I, either," said Cub.

"Then they've put one over on us," was Bud's inference. "Are you
sorry we came?"

"I? No, sir!" Cub emphasized. "It's a dandy adventure, whatever the
result. I didn't swallow that Crusoe story whole at any time."

"Neither did I," said Hal.

"I thought there were some funny things about it," Bud announced
reflectively; "but I didn't know how to put them together or take
'em apart."

"That was my fix," said Cub; "and it's my fix yet."

"I guess we all agree that the whole affair is very strange," Hal
concluded. "We really don't believe we've been told the truth, and yet we
get in worse trouble when we try to make something else out of it."

"I wonder what your father thinks about it, Cub," said Bud.

"Oh, he accepts it at its face value for the sake of the adventure," the
tall youth replied. "But he's wise enough to know there may be a lot of
hocus-pocus in the business."

For nearly two hours the motor boat wound its way at a fairly good clip
among the picturesque islands of the upper St. Lawrence, the radio
compass fixing the course as certainly as the hunter's pursuit is
directed by the nose of his hound. They had no way of telling, at any
time, how far ahead was the object of their search, but they had the
satisfaction of knowing that they were constantly approaching it. At last
an unexpected climax threw their hitherto clear prospect into confusion.
This climax grew out of a series of confounding messages from the "lost
islander".

"I see you coming," was the first of these messages.

"Where is he?" asked Cub and Bud in chorus. Hal was at the table and the
other two boys were listening-in.

"I don't know," replied the operator. "One of you boys go on deck and see
what you can see."