may be here still, plotting with
the natives, for all I know."

"You are mistaken there. Whether voluntarily or not, his party left the
island last night, with the men who came here in the canoe."

"If he left the island, why didn't he go in the launch he came in? That
would have been the most comfortable mode of leaving the place."

"Because, as has been said, the man who was sent to seize the motor boat
could not make it move."

"How do you know that?"

"The fellow burned matches like those used In the hut as already stated,
and threw the sticks about. He left the electric apparatus out of order,
and that is why it would not run this morning when the Major wanted to
use it."

"Originally that might have been the reason," laughed the Captain, "but
I have an idea that the boys--"

"Never mind that!" Ned said. "We are not supposed to know anything about
it. For if the Lieutenant had been a willing member of the party,
wouldn't he have taken charge of the motor boat and got the party away
in it?"

"Oh, all right! Have your own way about it!" smiled the Captain. "Let us
suppose, solely for the sake of argument, that the Lieutenant was taken
prisoner and went away against his will. Does that prove that he was
taken from the island?"

"I was coming to that point," Ned replied.

He then called the attention of the Captain to the food tins which lay
scattered about.

"These tins," he said, "have been opened within a few hours, which shows
that the intruders rested and waited here and ate their suppers, perhaps
their early breakfasts also. There were several of them, as you will see
by the number of tins opened. The party embarked here. You can see where
the nose of the canoe struck the mud."

"I reckon, as I remarked before," the Captain said, "that you don't need
any instructions as to the use of your eyes! And the gray matter back of
them seems to know what to do with the material unloaded on it! What
next?"

"About the Lieutenant going away voluntarily," Ned went on. "Now step
down here to the river bank. You notice the footprints in the mud, close
to the water's edge?"

"Yes; they are plain enough."

"And some are heavy and some are light. See that? Some are faint
impressions in the mushy soil, while some sink in a couple of inches.
Some of the deep ones are clean cut, while others show that the foot
wobbled in the track."

"There must have been a fat man who was unsteady on his feet," observed
the C