asked the boy, noting a troubled
inflection in the old man's voice.

"My boat's gone!" was the startling reply.

"Gone! Are you sure?"

"No doubt about it. I left her tied ter the L wharf when I come up
from the island, and now there ain't hide nor hair uv her there."

"I'll bet anything that that fellow Curtiss is at the bottom of all
this," cried Rob. "I remember now I heard some time ago that he was
thick with that Hank Handcraft."

"I don't know what ter do about it at this time uv ther night," went on
the distressed captain, "an' I can't go round waking folks up ter get
another boat."

"Of course not," agreed Rob. "There's only one thing for you to do,
captain, and that is to put up here to-night, and in the morning we'll
see what we can do."

"That's mighty fair, square, and above board uv yer, lad," said the
captain gratefully. "Punk me anywhere. I'm an old sailor, and can
aways find the softest plank in the deck."

"You won't have to do that," said Rob, who had slipped downstairs by
this time and opened the door; "we've got a spare room you can bunk in
to-night. I'll explain it all to father in the morning. Perhaps he can
help us out."

"Gee whiz! almost twelve o'clock," exclaimed Hiram Nelson, looking up
at the clock from the dining-room table in Paul Perkins' house. The
chamber was strewn with text books on model aeroplane construction and
littered with figures and plans of the boys' own devising. "How time
flies when you're on a subject that interests you."

"Yes, it's a good thing it's vacation time," agreed Paul. "We wouldn't
be in much shape to work at our books to-morrow, eh?"

"I should say not!" rejoined Hiram with conviction. "Well, so long,
Paul. I guess we've got it all figured out now, and all that is left
to do is to go ahead."

"That's the idea," responded Paul. "We'll get the prize for the glory
of the Eagle Patrol, or--or--"

"Bust!" Hiram finished for him.

Hiram's way home lay past the bank, and as he walked down the moonlit
street he thought for a minute that he perceived a light in the windows
of the armory.

Almost as he fancied he glimpsed it, however, it vanished, and the lad
was convinced that he must have been mistaken, or else seen a
reflection of the moonlight on the windows.

"Queer, though," he mused. "I could almost have sworn it was a light."

Another curious thing presently attracted his attention. As he neared
the bank a dark figure seemed