Page:Dave Porter on Cave Island.djvu/299

Rh way, so it made a fairly comfortable stateroom, although rather hot.

"Well, I suppose I've got to take my medicine, when we get back," grumbled Link Merwell, when given his quarters.

"What else could you expect?" returned Dave. "If this was my affair alone. Link, I might let you go, now you have given up the jewels. But what is to be done is for Mr. Wadsworth and the authorities to say."

Merwell had confessed that he and Jasniff had taken the skates and other things at Squirrel Island, and told where they had been left, in a barn along the river, and how they might be recovered. He had also admitted impersonating Dave on several occasions and ordering goods in our hero's name, and doing other mean things of which he had been suspected, and said he was heartily sorry for his actions.

Soon the Golden Eagle was ready for the departure from Cave Island. As the sails were hoisted the boys gathered on deck to take a last look at the remarkable spot.

"It is really and truly Cave Island," declared Dave. "I don't believe any other place in the world is so full of caves and holes!"

"I am glad the volcanoes didn't get busy while we were there," remarked the shipowner's son.

"So am I," added Roger. "The caves and