moke telegraph message. "It was what the
books call an inspiration, I guess. There were plenty of loose
boards--fragments of old packing cases lying about, and luckily they
had not taken my matches. I built a blaze and then, while it was still
smoldering, I covered it with an old strip of sacking that I wetted
with some water out of the bottle they left me."

"It made about as good a signal, as one could want," responded Rob
warmly, "but now tell us about your capture, Joe, how did it happen?"

"Why, you see," exclaimed the lad, his voice growing stronger as he
proceeded, "I was just thinking it was about time to wake my relief
when I heard a rustling noise in the bushes back of the camp. I walked
up there to investigate, for I thought it might be some animals--maybe
the captain's pigs."

"Keel haul them lubberly swine," from the captain.

"But, as you shall hear, I was mistaken. Hardly had I reached the edge
of the dark shadows than I was seized and a hand put over my mouth. I
had only time to let out one yell for help."

"The one that woke me," put in Merritt, in parenthesis.

"That was it; I guess," went on the small lad, "well, I was picked up
and carried some little distance to where they had a boat, and thrown
into it. Then the three men who were in the boat rowed to an island
with a tent on it and there two of them got out. The other, a fellow
with a big beard and very dirty, then rowed over to this place with me
and, after putting some bread and a bottle of water inside the door,
closed and locked it.

"I carried on like a baby, I guess. I cried for a long time and
shouted, but no one came. Then I grew quieter and tried to find some
way of escape but the shutters were all fastened and the door was too
strong for me. I tried to clamber up the chimney once but I had to
give it up. Then suddenly the thought of making a smoke came to me and
then I improved on that idea and used the Morse code that Rob has been
drumming into me. I never thought that I might be able to use it to
save my life maybe--or at least a lot of hunger and misery."

"Could you recognize the men who took you if you saw them again?" asked
Rob earnestly.

"I'm not sure," responded the small lad, "one of them I would know--the
one with the beard. The other two wore masks. But I think their
voices sounded like Bill's and Jack's. I'm sure of the man with the
beard though."

"Hank Handcraft," exclaimed Merritt.

"Oh, that