“Maybe they did.”

“Who was with them?”

“You had better ask them.”

“Where are they?”

“That’s for you to find out.”

“See here, Slade, this is no way to talk,” went on Tom earnestly.  “If you know anything about Sid Merrick and his plans you had better tell us about them.  If you don’t I shall take it for granted that you are in league with that rascal and act accordingly.”

“Yes, and that may mean arrest for you,” added Sam.

Peter Slade was a coward at heart, and these suggestive words made him turn pale.

“I am not in league with them,” he cried hastily.  “I met them on the steamer by accident.  Tad told me he and his uncle were going to get the best of you, but how he didn’t say.”

“Who was with them, come, out with it.”

“A Spaniard named Doranez.”

“Doranez!” cried both the Rover boys and looked suggestively at each other.

“Yes, do you know him?”

“We know of him,” answered Tom slowly.  “Where did they go?”

“I don’t know exactly.”

“Don’t you know at all?”

“They were going to look for some tramp steamer that was to be here.  If they found her they were going to sail at once to some other island,” answered Peter Slade.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE NEW DECK HAND

Having said so much, Peter Slade seemed more inclined to talk, one reason being that he wanted to get at the bottom of the mystery which had brought Tad Sobber and his uncle to that part of the globe.  Tad had hinted of great wealth, and of getting the best of the Rovers and some other people, but had not gone into any details.

Peter said he had come to Nassau to join his mother, who was stopping there for her health.  His father was coming on later, and then the family was going across the ocean.

“I know there is something up between your crowd and the Merrick crowd,” said the youth.  “You are both after something, ain’t you?”

“Yes,” answered Tom.

“What?”

“I can’t tell you that, Slade.  It’s something quite valuable, though.”

“Well, I guess Sobber’s uncle will get ahead of you.”

“Perhaps so.  What is the name of the tramp steamer he is looking for?”

“The Josephine.”

“Was she to be here?”

“They hoped she would be.”

“Were they going to hire her?” asked Sam.

“I suppose so.”

“Then Merrick had money.”

“Yes, he had some, and that Spaniard had some, too.”

A little more conversation followed, and then the Rover boys asked Slade where he was going to stop, and said they might see him later.

“This is mighty interesting,” remarked Tom, as he and his brother hurried to their hotel.  “We must tell father of this without delay.”

But Mr. Rover could not be found until that evening, when the party came back from the visit to the flower gardens.  He listened with deep interest to what was said, and then went off on a hunt for Sid Merrick and the tramp steamer Josephine without delay.