One had said, "Are you making believe to telegraph that way? Well, it's
good fun, anyway." Another asked if they had been reading dime novels.
The patronizing tone had rather nettled the boys.
"I'd like to have told that fellow that if we _had_ been reading dime
novels, we wouldn't have had time to learn the Morse code," said Roy.
_"The Motor Boat Heroes_!" mocked Tom.
"Yes, volume three thousand, and they haven't learned how to run a gas
engine yet! Get out your magnifying glass, Tom; what's that, a village,
up there?"
"A house."
"Some house, too," said Roy, looking at the diminutive structure near
the shore. "Put your hand down the chimney and open the front door,
hey?"
But as they ran in nearer the shore other houses showed themselves
around the edge of the hill and here, too, was a little wharf with
several people upon it and near it, on the shore, a surging crowd on the
edge of which stood several wagons.
"Guess they must be having a mass meeting about putting a new spring on
the post-office door," said Roy. "Somebody ought to lay a paperweight on
that village a windy day like this. It might blow away. Close your
throttle a little, Tom and put your timer back; we'll run in and see
what's up."
"You don't suppose all that fuss can have anything to do with Pee-wee,
do you?" Tom asked.
"No, it looks more as if a German submarine had landed there. There
wouldn't be so much of a rumpus if they'd got the kid."
But in another moment Roy's skeptical mood had changed as he saw a tall,
slender fellow in brown standing at the end of the wharf with arms
outspread.
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