This hurried arrangement was agreed upon, and Mont made for the lane that led to the farmer’s homestead.
Jack shipped the oars, and tired as he was, pulled manfully out into the stream. The other boat was no longer in view, but he had carefully noted the direction it had taken, and now headed exactly the same way.
He pulled for five minutes or more, and then looked ahead.
He was chagrined to find that the other craft was still out of sight.
Resuming his seat, he redoubled his efforts, sending the spray flying in all directions.
Presently the island loomed up before him, and straining his eyes, he sought for some signs of his sister and her abductor.
But though he looked in all directions, and even rowed a considerable distance up and down the irregular shore, not a thing was revealed.
"Well, I’m stumped!" was his rather slangy but forcible exclamation. "I’m positive they’re not far off, and how I can be slipped in this fashion gets me! Wonder if he has gone up to the cottage?"
Jack ran the boat up the beach and landed. It was now very dark, and he had no little difficulty in finding the right direction.
Finally he struck the path, and three minutes’ walk brought him to the clearing. A bright light was burning in the cottage living-room, and cautiously approaching one of the side windows, he peeped in.
At the table, his head nodding sleepily, sat Mosey, with a glass and bottle close at hand.
"He must be alone," thought the young machinist. "Wonder where Pooler is?"
In his disappointment, he was about to return to the shore, when the door leading to the garret stairway opened, and Corrigan appeared.
He did not utter a word, but closing the door behind him, he locked it carefully.
Jack was pleased to see him. He instantly surmised that Deb had been brought to the place, and was at the present instant probably locked up in the room above.
He was bound to rescue her at all hazards, and looked around for some available weapon with which to defend himself if the occasion required.
A small axe lay near the doorstep, and he picked it up. It was ah ugly looking thing, and he felt better when he had it where it could be brought into instant use. Both of the men were desperate characters--one of them had tried to take his life--and he was resolved to run no more risks.