Chapter XXIV: The Night Alarm

Wyn Mallory had "another mind," as the saying is, before the Go-Aheads left the island and paddled swiftly for their own camp.

She determined not to say anything to her girl friends of the club about the sunken object she had hit under the water. Perhaps it was nothing of any consequence; then they would laugh at her. If it _was_ the lost motor boat, to tell the girls might spread the story farther than it ought to be spread at once.

The Go-Aheads and the Busters were rivals. Mr. Lavine had promised the prize to whichever club found the sunken boat and the box of silver images that Dr. Shelton had accused John Jarley of stealing.

"And it may not be anything, after all," thought Wyn. "It may be a false alarm. Then the _boys_ would have the laugh on us."

To make sure of what she had hit when she dived seemed to Wyn to be the principal thing. And how could she make sure of this without going down specially to examine the mystery?

"How under the sun am I going to do that without the boys seeing me?" she mused. "And if I take the girls into my confidence they will all want to be there, too--and then sure enough the Busters will catch us at it. Dear me! I don't know what to do--really."

She had half a mind to take Frank into her confidence; but, then, Frank was such a joker. The girls and boys had often talked about hunting for the missing motor boat; but since Mr. Lavine had gone back to Denton, after the regatta, neither club had seriously attempted a search for the _Bright Eyes_.

Polly had told Wyn how men from Meade's Forge had searched for the boat when she was first lost; and some of the bateau men had kept up the search for a long time. Had the motor boat and the silver images been found, Dr. Shelton might have been obliged to pay a large reward to obtain them, for not all of the bateau men of the lake were honest.

"Some of them bothered father a good deal while he was first laid up from his accident, coming by night and trying to get him to give them details which he hadn't given to the other searchers. They thought he must know just where the _Bright Eyes_ was sunk," Polly had told the captain of the Go-Ahead Club. "But they got tired of that after a while. They saw he really did not know what had become of the boat."

Polly! She was the one to confide in, Wyn decided. And the captain of the Go-Ahead Club did not decide upon this until after the other girls in the big tent, and Mrs. Havel, were all asleep. Wyn had been awake an hour wondering what she would better do.

Now, convinced that the boatman's daughter would be a wiser as well as safer confidante at this stage than Frank or the others, Wyn wriggled out of her blanket and seized her bathing suit. It was a beautiful warm night. She was no more afraid of the woods and lake at this hour than she was by daylight.

So she slipped into the suit, got out of the tent without rousing any of the others, selected her own paddle from the heap by the fireplace, and ran barefooted down to the shore. It took but a minute to push her canoe into the water.

She paddled away around the rushes at the end of the strip of sand below the knoll, driving the canoe toward the Jarley Landing. Out of the rushes came a sudden splashing, and some water-fowl, disturbed by her passing, spattered deeper into hiding.

Wyn only laughed. The warm, misty night wrapped her around like a cloak; yet there was sufficient light on the surface of the lake for her to see her course a few yards ahead.

_This_ was a real adventure--out in her canoe alone in the dark. And how fast she made the light craft travel through the still water!

She reached the landing in a very short time. Hopping out, she hauled up the canoe. Was that the water splashing--or was there a sound behind her on the float? Was it a footstep--somebody hastening away?

Now, for the first time, Wyn felt a little tremor. But she was naturally too brave to be particularly disturbed by such a fancy. Who would be lurking about the Jarleys' place at this hour?

So, after a moment, she shook off her doubt, and ran lightly up the float and along the path to the little cottage. She knew Polly's window well enough, and dark as it was, she soon found the spot.

It was shuttered, and the shutter was bolted on the inside; but Wyn scratched upon the blind and after doing so a second time she heard a movement within.

"Polly!" she breathed.

She did not want to awaken Mr. Jarley. She just felt that she could not explain to _him_. Of course, what she had hit under the water might have nothing to do with the sunken boat, and Wyn shrank from disturbing the boatman himself about it.

"Polly!" she exclaimed, again in a whisper, "it's I--Wyn--Wyn Mallory."

At once she heard her friend's voice in return. The shutter opened. Polly blinked at Wyn through the darkness.

"My _dear_! What do you want? What has happened?" asked the girl of the woods.

"Come on out--do, Polly. I've got something to tell you. Just put on your bathing suit," Wyn whispered.

"For pity's sake! What is it?"

"Don't awaken your father. Come."

"Just a minute," whispered the sleepy Polly, and in not much longer than the time stated she crept through the window.

"I'd wake father if I went out by the door," she said. "Now come down to the landing. What are you doing 'way over here at this time o' night?"

"I have the most surprising thing to tell you."

"What about?"

"I wish you'd go over to Gannet Island with me and see if I'm right. The moon will be up bye and bye; won't it?"

"Yes. But what do you mean? What is the mystery?" inquired Polly. Then she seized Wyn's arm and demanded that she "Hush!" although Wyn's lips were not open at the moment.

"I declare I thought I heard something just then," whispered Polly.

"You're bound to hear things in the dark," returned Wyn, cheerfully.

"But it was somebody coughing."

"A bird?" ventured Wyn. "I heard one splashing in the sedges as I came along in the canoe."

"A bird clearing its throat?" laughed Polly. "Not likely!"

She did not bother about it again, but squeezed Wyn's arm. "Tell me what the matter is. It must be something very important to bring you 'way over here alone at night."

"That's right. It is," replied Wyn, and she related to Polly the thing that was troubling her.

"And, oh, Polly! if that thing I hit under the water should be that boat----"

"Oh, Wyn! What would father say?"

"He'd be delighted. So would we all. And we must find out for sure."

"I'll tell him in the morning. We'll go there and see----"

But Wyn stopped her. She showed her how necessary it was for the matter to be looked into secretly. Mr. Lavine had promised to give a motor boat to whichever club found the sunken _Bright Eyes_ and the silver images. And the Busters must not know a thing about it until they were sure----

"Then Mr. Lavine believes father's story about the boat?" burst in Polly.

"I believe he does, Polly, dear. I think, Polly, that he would be very, very glad to have Mr. Jarley cleared of all suspicion. He is sorry for your father's trouble. I think his attitude, toward your father has changed from what it must have been at one time."

"It ought to be!" exclaimed Polly.

"Of course. But we none of us always do all we ought to do," observed Wyn mildly.

"If we are going to try and find that place where you dived to-day, Wyn, we'd better be about it," Polly urged.

"You'll go now?" cried Wyn.

"Of course I will. The boys will be asleep up in their camp. We will take the _Coquette_. There is a breeze."

"Let's tow my canoe behind, then," said Wyn, eagerly. "Come on! I'm just crazy to dive for the thing again. If it _is_ the _Bright Eyes_----"

Polly insisted upon hunting out a couple of old blankets to wrap about them if the wind should turn chill.

"And after you have been overboard you'll want something to protect you from the night air," she said.

"Oh, Polly! do you suppose I can find the place again?" cried Wyn, infinitely more eager than the boatman's daughter.

"You say it's right off the boys' float? Well! we can look, I guess."

"Feel, you mean," laughed Wyn. "For _I_ couldn't see anything down there even by daylight--it was so deep."

"All right. We'll look with our hands. I shall know if it's a boat, Wyn, once I reach it."

"And I hope it _is_" gasped Wyn. "Not alone for _your_ sake, Polly. Why, if it is the _Bright Eyes_, the Go-Aheads will own a motor boat their very own selves. Won't that be fine?"

But Polly was too busy getting the catboat ready to answer. The _Coquette_ was moored just a little way off the landing, and the two girls went out to her in Wyn's canoe.

There was a lantern in her cuddy and Polly lit it. Then they slipped the buoyed moorings and spread a little canvas. There was quite a breeze, and it was fair for their course to Gannet Island. Soon the catboat was laying over a bit, and the foam was streaking away behind them in a broad wake.

"What a lovely night!" sighed Wyn. "And it will be the very gladdest night I ever saw if that thing I hit proves to be the _Bright Eyes_."

Polly had glanced behind them frequently. "Don't you hear anything?" she asked finally.

"Hear what?"

"Hush! that's somebody getting up a sail. Can't you hear it?"

Wyn listened, and then murmured: "Your ears must be sharper than mine, Polly. I hear nothing but the slap of the water."

"No. There is another sailboat under weigh. Where can it be from?"

"You don't suppose your father was aroused, and is coming after us?" asked Wyn.

"Of course not. Beside, the _Coquette_ is the only sailing boat--except a canoe--that we have at present. The other cat is loaned for a week. And I heard the hoops creaking on the mast as a heavy sail went up."

"Some crowd of fishermen?" suggested Wyn.

"But where's their light?"

Wyn stared all around. "You're right," she gasped. "There isn't a single twinkling lantern--except ashore."

Polly, sitting in the stern seat, reached for their own lantern and smothered its rays. "We won't show a gleam, either," she muttered.

"Why! who could it possibly be?" cried Wyn. "Do you think somebody may be following us?"

"I don't know," returned Polly, grimly. "But I thought I heard something back there at our house. We were talking loud. If those silver images were worth all Dr. Shelton says they were, there are more than us girls who would like to find them."

"My goodness me! I didn't think of _that_," observed Wyn Mallory, with a little shiver. "Do you suppose we really are being followed?"