whole yarn of their adventures to the listening Patrol.
A short time after they concluded--so long had it taken to relate
everything and answer all questions--the mournful call of "Taps"
sounded and it was time to turn in. Little Digby alone, who was to do
sentry service, remained on duty.

Merritt's dreams were a strange jumble. It seemed to him that he was
being towed to sea on the back of a huge shark, by a big liner with a
row of blazing portholes that winked at him like facetious eyes.
Suddenly, just as it seem he was about to slip off the marine monster's
slippery back, he thought he heard a loud cry of "Help, scouts!"

So vivid was the dream and so real the cry that he awoke trembling, and
listened intently while peering out through the tent flap.

There was no sound, however, but the ripple of the waves on the beach
and the "hoot hoot" of an owl somewhere back in the woods on the island.

"Funny," mused the boy, as he turned over and dozed off again, "that
certainly sounded loud enough to have been a real, sure enough call for
help."

CHAPTER XVIII

JOE DIGBY MISSING

"Merritt! Merritt, wake up!"

The boy sleepily opened his eyes and saw bending over him the pale
features of Rob, whose voice quivered with suppressed excitement as he
shook the other's shoulder.

"I didn't hear reveille blow yet. What's up? Have I overslept?"
murmured the young corporal.

"No, it's not six-thirty yet--barely after half past four, in fact.
But young Digby--he had the night watch, you know--and was to have been
relieved at three o'clock. Well, Ernest Thompson, his relief, roused
out at that hour, but not a trace of Digby was to be found!"

"What!" The sleepy boy was drowsy no longer. "Digby gone?"

"Hush! We don't know yet. Don't wake any of the others. Thompson and
I have skirmished around ever since it began to get light, and we have
not been able to find a trace of him."

Merritt was out of his cot while his leader was still speaking, and ten
minutes later, during which time the boys exchanged excited questions
and answers, he was in his uniform and outside the tent.

The sun was just poking his rim above the western horizon and the
chilly damp of early dawn lay over the island. The sea, as calm almost
as a lake, lay sullen and gray, scarcely heaving. Behind the sleeping
camp a few shreds of mist--the ghosts of the vapors of the night were
arising like smoke among the dim trees. At the further