“But they may not know the way in, and we are as badly off as before,” finished the doctor.  “I don’t see that we have advanced any, except, perhaps, to let people know where we are.”

“And you think there is little satisfaction in that?” with a grin.  “We might be worse off, however, so I guess we had better wait and trust to good luck.  Clever game, that of Jack’s, wasn’t it, stealing the fellow’s despatches?”

“Why, yes, clever in a way,” admitted the doctor, glaring at the captain through his big black-rimmed glasses, “but does it not savor somewhat of—­h’m—­of deception?  Pretending to be one person when he was another, and quite a different one, by the way?”

“But he did not pretend to be anybody.  He simply flashed a message, and if that fellow outside took him for another person it was not Mr. Sheldon’s fault.  All is fair in love and war, you know.”

“H’m! so I have heard, but as I have been in neither I cannot say whether it is so or not.  However, I am not accusing you, Sheldon, you understand?  I suppose, under the circumstances, that what you did was perfectly justifiable.  At any rate, we shall not have to wait for this person to come and take us out.  But where was the person to whom he was sending signals?  You did not see him, Captain?”

“No, indeed, and I wonder that my man on deck did not see them.  Asleep, I’ll warrant.  That means loss of shore liberty to him for some time.  The other fellow was not here, of course.  How could he get in?”

“I believe there is a way, sir,” spoke up Jack, “and that this place is used as a retreat for smugglers.  If not just here, then some part of the island.  How about the calf we saw?  I thought at the time that there were people here, but did not think of smugglers.”

“Why, I guess you’ve been reading about Captain Kidd and Blackbeard and those old pirates, and have got your head full of secret lairs and all that sort of stuff.”

“Oh, no,” smiled Jack in reply, “but evil men hide in woods and mountains and all sorts of odd places as much now as they did in the old days.  There is just as much of this in modern times as there was in the old, but it is accompanied with greater danger.”

“Yes, I reckon it is.  At any rate, I’d like to get hold of these rascals.  There’ll be a pretty big reward for them, I fancy.”

The boys left the cabin and during the afternoon Jack, Dick and young Smith set out for a stroll over the island, taking one of the paths already made, so as not to subject the younger boy to too much trouble.

“I hardly think these smugglers are on the island,” said Jack, as they walked on, “or, at least, I don’t think that they got in through the reefs.  They could have landed on the other side, although there are many difficulties connected with it, not to say dangers.  You remember the rocks, Dick?  And there is a good deal of surf there also.  One would need to be careful in making it.  A vessel could lie to, of course, while boats landed the men, and that has probably been done.”