Going to the door of the little cottage, Blake called to his chum.
"What is it?" asked Joe, eagerly. "Was there some mistake? Is my father somewhere around here, after all?"
"Well, we hope to find him," said Blake, with an assurance he did not feel. "Look here, Joe, your father went away rather suddenly, it seems, but you mustn't think anything about that. He's been traveling all over, you know, looking for you and your sister"
"Sister?" cried Joe.
"Yes, you had a sister, though I can't get much information about her. Neither could your uncle tell you, as you remember."
"That's right. Oh, if I could only find dad and her!" and Joe sighed. "But maybe she isn't alive."
"It's this way," went on Blake, and he told as much of the lighthouse keeper's story as was wise, keeping from Joe all information about the wreckers. "Now, your father may have heard of some new clue about you," continued Joe's chum, "and he may have gone to hunt that up," which was true enough, for with the warning that he was likely to be arrested as a criminal, there may have come to Mr. Duncan some information about his missing children.
