“I see the one at the main dock,” Bud said in a low voice. “Where’s the other?”
“At Gray’s dock,” Tom replied. “The point of land is hiding it now.”
“Where do you want to land?” the skipper asked.
“The main dock-dead ahead,” Tom replied. He decided that it would be the least suspicious place to come ashore.
The boat made a neat approach and touched without a tremor on the opposite side of the dock from the suspect seaplane.
“That was a fast run,” Tom said. “We’re here ahead of schedule. We sure appreciate your help.”
“We owe you two coats and two pairs of shoes,” Bud said. “We’ll send ‘em up by Christmas!”
The boys waved good-by to their rescuers, then started cautiously along the dock toward town. The place seemed to be deserted.
Suddenly they saw Asa Pike appear from a side street. He stumbled toward the boys.
“Something’s happened to him!” Bud cried.
CHAPTER 8
STOWAWAYS
AS THE BOYS raced up to Asa Pike, he limped toward a pile of lobster pots.
Motioning for silence, he beckoned them to follow him around the pile into a weather-beaten shed.
When they had crowded into the small shack, the old man related that Hein and Johnson had entered Gray’s house while he was trying to telephone Tom a second time.
“You see, they came in early, on account o’ the fog, I guess, an’ I wanted to warn ye,” Asa went on. “So I started to call ye. All of a sudden Hein comes an’
grabs the phone out o’ my hand.”
“Then what happened?” Bud asked.
“They locked me in the root cellar an’ went upstairs,” Asa continued. “I finally managed to break out through a weak board. The outside doors were locked, so I had to sneak in the house an’ jump out of a window. I near busted my leg.”