“That’s queer,” reflected Eph. “It wouldn’t be like them to go sailing at
this time of the night, and without notifying me, either. But, then, I
didn’t see anything of ’em aboard that sloop, either.”

Eph was silent for a few moments, thinking. Then, suddenly, he leaped up
in the air, coming down flat-footed.

“Crackey!” ejaculated Eph Somers.

For a moment or two his face was a study in bewilderment.

“Mighty strange things have been happening all through this cruise,” Eph
muttered, half-aloud. “Especially happening to Jack! Now, the two of them
go aboard that sloop, and immediately after the boat puts out to sea in
the dead of night. What if Jack and Hal have been shanghaied on that
infernal sloop?”

Cold chills began to chase each other up and down the spine of Eph Somers.
He was not, ordinarily, an imaginative youth, but just now the gruesome
thought that had entered his mind persisted there.

He began to pace the platform deck in deep agitation.

“Anything wrong, sir?” questioned the marine sentry, halting and throwing
his rifle over to port arms.

“That’s just what I’d give a million dollars and ten cents to know!”
exploded Eph.

“Gunboat, ahoy!” he shouted, some twenty seconds later.