The Missing Chums

I

The Three Strangers

“You certainly ought to have a dandy trip.”

“I’ll say we will, Frank! We sure wish you could come along.”

Frank Hardy grinned ruefully and shook his head.

“I’m afraid we’re out of luck. Joe and I may take a little trip later on, but we can’t make it this time.”

“Just think of it!” said Chet Morton, the other speaker. “A whole week motorboating along the coast! We’re the lucky boys, eh, Biff?”

Biff Hooper, at the wheel of his father’s new motorboat, nodded emphatically.

“You bet we’re lucky. I’m glad dad got this boat in time for the summer holidays. I’ve been dreaming of a trip like that for years.”

“It won’t be the same without the Hardy Boys,” returned Chet. “I had it all planned out that Frank and Joe would be coming along with us in their own boat and we’d make a real party of it.”

“Can’t be done,” observed Joe Hardy, settling himself more comfortably in the back of the boat. “There’s nothing Frank and I would like better—but duty calls!” he exclaimed dramatically, slapping himself on the chest.

“Duty, my neck!” grunted Frank. “We just have to stay at home while dad is in Chicago, that’s all. It’ll be pretty dull without Chet and Biff around to help us kill time.”

“You can put in the hours thinking of Biff and me,” consoled Chet. “At night you can just picture us sitting around our campfire away up the coast, and in the daytime you can imagine us speeding away out over the bounding main.” He postured with one foot on the gunwale. “A sailor’s life for me, my hearties! Yo, ho, and a bottle of ink!”

The boat gave a sudden lurch at that moment, for Biff Hooper had not yet mastered the art of navigation and Chet wavered precariously for a few seconds, finally losing his balance and sitting down heavily in a smear of grease at the bottom of the craft.

“Yo ho, and a bottle of ink
And he nearly fell into the drink,”

chanted Frank Hardy, as the boys roared with laughter at their chum’s discomfiture.

“Poet!” sniffed Chet, as he got up. Then, as he gingerly felt the seat of his trousers: “Another pair of pants ready for the cleaners. I ought to wear overalls when I go boating.” He grinned as he said it, for Chet Morton was the soul of good nature and it took a great deal more than a smear of grease to erase his ready smile.

The four boys, Frank and Joe Hardy, Chet Morton and Biff Hooper, all chums in the same set at the Bayport high school, were out on Barmet Bay in the Envoy, the Hooper motorboat, helping Biff learn to run the craft. Their assistance consisted chiefly of mocking criticisms of the luckless Biff’s posture at the helm and sundry false alarms to the effect that the boat was springing a leak or that the engine was about to blow up. Each announcement had the effect of precipitating the steersman into a panic of apprehension and sending his tormentors into convulsions of laughter.

Biff had made good progress, however, as he had been with the Hardy boys on previous occasions in their own motorboat, the Sleuth, and he had picked up the rudiments of handling the craft. He was anxious to be a first-rate pilot before starting up the coast on his projected trip with Chet Morton the following week. He had an aptitude for mechanics and he was satisfied that he would have a thorough understanding of his boat by the time they were ready to start.

“If the coast guards find two little boys like you roaming around in a great big motorboat they’re likely to give you a spanking and send you back home,” laughed Frank. “I’ll bet you’ll be back in Bayport inside of two days.”

“Rats!” replied Chet, inelegantly, if forcefully. “If our grub holds out we’ll be away more than the week.”

“There’s no danger of that. Not with you along,” Joe remarked, and deftly dodged a wad of waste that Chet flung at him. Chet Morton’s enormous appetite was proverbial among the chums.

“Just sore because you can’t come along with us,” Chet scoffed. “You know mighty well that the two of you would give your eyeteeth to be on this trip. Oh, well, we’ll tell you all about it when we get back.”

“A lot of comfort that will be!”

“A leak!” roared Chet suddenly, pounding Biff on the back. “The boat has sprung a leak. Get a pail!”

“What!” shouted Biff, in alarm, starting up from the wheel. Then, for the fifth time that afternoon, he realized that he had been fooled and he sank back with a look of disgust on his face.

“Some time that boat will spring a leak and I won’t believe you,” he warned, settling down to his steering again.

“I’ll be good,” promised Chet, sitting down and looking out over the bay. “Say, there’s a big brute of a motorboat coming along behind us, isn’t it?”

“I’ll say she’s big,” Frank agreed, looking back. “I don’t remember ever having seen that boat around here before.”

“Me neither,” declared Joe. “I wonder where it came from.”

The strange craft was painted a dingy gray. It was large and unwieldy and did not ride easily in the water. Although that boat was some distance in the wake of their own craft the boys could distinguish the figures of three men, all seated well up toward the front. Biff glanced back.

“It’s a new one on me,” he said. “I’ve never seen it before.”

“Sure has lots of power, anyway,” Chet commented. The roar of the engine could be plainly heard across the water. In spite of its clumsy appearance, the big boat ploughed ahead at good speed, and, as Biff had the Envoy, his craft, throttled down, the second boat was slowly overtaking them.

“Let’s wait till they get abreast of us and give them a race,” Chet suggested.

“Not on your life,” objected Biff. “I’m only learning to run this tub and I’m not in the racing class yet. Besides, there are too many other boats out in the bay this afternoon. I’d be sure to run into one of them.”

The boys watched as the other craft overtook them. The big motorboat ploughed noisily ahead, keeping directly in their wake.

“I wonder if the man at the helm is asleep,” said Frank. “He doesn’t seem to be making any attempt to pull over.”

“He’s awake, all right,” declared Chet. “I can see him talking to the man beside him. He won’t run us down. Don’t worry—not with Captain Hooper at the helm, my hearties!”

The roaring of the pursuing craft suddenly took on a new note and the big boat seemed to leap out of the water as it increased its speed and bore rapidly down on the Envoy. Spray flew about the heads of the helmsman and his two passengers and a high crest of foam rose from either side of the bow. Biff Hooper shifted the wheel slightly and the Envoy veered in toward the shore. To the surprise of the boys, the other boat also changed its course and continued directly in their wake.

“The idiots!” exclaimed Biff.

“I don’t get the idea of this at all,” muttered Frank Hardy to his brother. “What are they following us so closely for?”

Joe shrugged. “Probably just trying to give us a scare.”

The other boat was now almost upon their craft. It nosed out to the right and drew alongside, coming dangerously close. The boys could see the three men clearly and they noticed that all three scrutinized them, seeming to pay particular attention to Chet and Biff.

The men were unsavory looking fellows, unshaven, surly of expression. The man at the helm was sharp-featured and keen-eyed, while the other two were of heavier build. One of the pair wore a cap, while the other man was bareheaded, revealing a scant thatch of carroty hair so close-cropped that it seemed to stick out at all angles to his cranium. This man, the boys saw, nudged his companion and pointed to Biff, who was too busy at the helm of his own craft to notice.

“Not so close!” yelled Chet, seeing that the other boat was running broadside in dangerous proximity to the Envoy.

In reply, the man at the helm of the other craft merely sneered and brought his boat in until the two speeding launches were almost touching sides.

“What’s the idea?” Joe shouted. “Trying to run us down?”

Biff Hooper shifted the wheel so that the Envoy would edge away from the other boat, and in this effort he was successful, for a gap of water was soon apparent between the speeding craft. But in escaping one danger he had risked another.

Two sailboats that had been flitting about Barmet Bay that afternoon were racing with the wind, and they now came threshing along with billowing canvas, immediately into the course of the motorboat. Biff had seen the sailboats previously and had judged his own course accordingly, but in his efforts to get away from the mysterious launch he had unwittingly maneuvered the Envoy into such a position that a collision now seemed inevitable.

The sailboats seemed to loom right up before him, not more than a hundred yards away. They were racing close together, one boat but a nose in the lead. They were scudding along with the wind at high speed and the motorboat roared down upon them.

Biff Hooper bent desperately over the helm. He was so close that no matter which way he turned it seemed impossible that he could miss one or the other of the sailboats. If he turned to the right he would crash into them head-on; if he turned to the left he would run before them and a general smash-up might be the result.

The men in the sailboats were also aware of their danger.

The boys had a glimpse of one man waving his arms. One of the boats veered out abruptly and the yardarm swung around. The sailboat was lying directly in the path of the Envoy.

The roaring of the engine, the threshing of the sails, the warning shouts of the boys, all created a confusion of sound. The white sails seemed to loom high above the speeding boat. A hideous collision appeared to be inevitable.