she must have been
smashed up in going through that lock. What do you make of that?"

Pete looked frightened as he realized what it might mean.

"I know one thing we ought to do," he said. "That is let Tom Binns get
hold of Dick Crawford right away and tell him about this. There's
something mighty funny doing, and I don't think we can get at the
bottom of it by ourselves."

"That's a good idea, Pete! Tom's the fastest runner. You get him off
by himself and tell him to get Dick Crawford. They'll have to stay
around here until their clothes dry off, anyhow, so I guess we can
manage to hold them here until he comes back."

Tom had already put on his clothes, and he was able to slip off
quietly, so as not to arouse the suspicions of the shivering castaways,
who, muffled in blankets that were kept by the Boy Scouts in the hut
near the beach, were waiting while their clothes dried out.

When he had gone off Jack and Pete busied themselves with making a
fire. It was still raining, but not very hard, but if the clothes of
those from the burned boat were to be dried that night a fire was
necessary. And, as they worked, Jack got a chance to examine the party
more closely.

The men didn't please him very much as he looked them over. They
looked like cheap, flashy fellows, who might be fond of drinking and
smoking because they thought it made them look like men. Indeed, one
of them, as soon as the fire was made, and he had seated himself as
close to it as possible, asked Jack if he had a cigarette or the
makings of one, and seemed scornful when Jack told him that he never
smoked.

The woman who had given Jack so much trouble, too, was hard of face and
unpleasant in her speech. She scowled at Jack as if she resented the
rough way he had handled her, and seemed entirely forgetful now of the
fact that he had had to treat her in just that way to save his life--to
say nothing of her own. But the younger girl, whose hair had been on
fire when she jumped, was sweet of face, and had been trying to show
how grateful she was ever since she had been brought ashore. She
looked sadly out of place when compared to her companions, and Jack
wondered mightily how she came to be with them. He couldn't say
anything about it, however, and he and Pete busied themselves with
trying to make those they had rescued comfortable. After all, Jack
thought, these people had been in the gravest sort of peril, and it
made no difference whe