exclaimed the assistant keeper. "They've made tracks away from here, but they've gone to some other place to set up their light, and try the same thing they were going to try here. It's our duty to keep after 'em, and break up the gang!"
"That's right!" cried Mr. Wilton. "There's no telling what damage they might do, if left alone. Why, they might even get to some place where large passenger steamers pass, and wreck one of them, though mostly they aim to pick out a spot where small cargo boats would be lured on the rocks. We've got to keep after 'em!"
"Then come on!" cried Joe. He was fired with enthusiasm, not only to capture the wreckers for the purpose of protecting human life and property, but he was also eager to have the scoundrels safe in confinement so that he might question them, and learn the source of the suspicion against his father.
"On the trail!" cried Blake. "Maybe we can easily find the wreckers."
"No, not to-night," advised Mr. Boundley. "It wouldn't be practical, in the first place; and if it was, it wouldn't be safe. We don't know this locality very well. There may be hidden dangers and pitfalls that would injure some of us. Then, too, we don't want to stumble on a nest of
