ey be?"

They raised their voices in a shout, but no answering sound came back.

Several times they repeated the call, but all to no purpose.

"Strange," muttered the captain uneasily. "It isn't like Ruth to go
off to any distance without telling me about it beforehand."

"Nor Allen neither," put in Tyke loyally.

"You might almost think the earth had swallowed them up," pursued the
captain, little thinking how near he was to guessing the truth.

"Well, the only thing to do is to keep looking for 'em until we find
'em," said Tyke. "You take that side of the hill, Rufe, and I'll take
the other. We'll come across them probably before we meet up with each
other."

The two men separated on their quest, calling out at frequent
intervals. It did not take them long to skirt the base of the whale's
hump, but when at last they met each saw only disappointment and a
growing alarm in the eyes of the other.

"We'll have to try it again and make a wider circle," exclaimed
Hamilton desperately. "We've simply got to come across them somewhere
around here."

"Of course we shall," said Tyke heartily, though the crease in his
forehead belied the confidence of his words.

Once more they made the round of the hump, this time ranging out much
further from the base. Still their efforts were fruitless, and when
they met once more, neither tried to disguise from the other the
growing panic in his heart.

"Ruth, Ruth!" groaned the captain.

"Come now, Rufe, brace up," comforted Tyke. "While there's life
there's hope."

"That's just it," replied the captain. "But how do we know there is
life? Something serious must have happened to them, or they'd never
stay away like this. They'd know we'd be worried about them after that
shock came and they couldn't have come back to us quick enough, if
they'd been able to come."

Tyke could not deny the force of this.

"Well now, Rufe, let's get down to the bottom of this," he said. "I'm
afraid just as you be that they're in trouble of some kind. Now what
could make trouble for them on this island? There ain't any wild
beasts of any account here, do you think?"

"Not that I ever heard of," replied the captain. "We're too far south
for mountain lions and too far north for jaguars. There may be an
occasional wildcat, but it wouldn't be likely to attack a single person
let alone two together. There may be snakes here though for all I
know."

"Nothing doing there," said Tyke