"
Roy laid down his "flopper" and examined the board carefully, the
excited Pee-wee joining him. It was evidently the upper strip of the
side planking from a rowboat and at one end, under the diluted paint
which they had here used, could be dimly traced the former name of the
launch.
"What-do-you-know-about-that?" ejaculated Roy.
"It's a regular mystery," said Pee-wee; "that's one thing I like, a
mystery."
"If that's a part of this boat's skiff," said Tom, "then it proves two
things. It proves that the boat was damaged--no fellow could pull a
plank from it like that; and it proves that that fellow came back to the
launch. It proves that he was injured, too. That man said he could swim.
Then why should he bring this board back with him unless it was to help
him keep afloat?"
"He wouldn't need to drag it aboard," said Roy.
"Now you spoil it all," put in Pee-wee.
"I don't know anything about that," said Tom, "but that board didn't
drift back and climb in by itself. It must have been here all the time.
I suppose the other fellow--the one they found drowned--_might_ have got
it here, some way," he added.
"Not likely," said Roy. "If he'd managed to get back to the launch with
the board, he wouldn't have jumped overboard again just to get drowned.
He'd have managed to stay aboard."
There was silence for a few minutes while Roy drummed on the plank with
his fingers and Pee-wee could hardly repress his excitement at the
thought that they were on the track of a real adventure.
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