Page:The Missing Chums.djvu/69

Rh missin' from hereabouts, so mebby it's them young fellers."

The two motorboats thereupon started for Ragged Reef. The lads were downhearted. They had little hope that they would ever find their two companions alive. The words of the old fisherman struck terror into their hearts.

When they rounded the point they saw the black and ominous line of Ragged Reef before them. A jagged and irregular series of rocks jutting above the surface of the water in the form of a huge semicircle—this was the reef on which the Envoy might have come to grief.

Fortunately, the day was calm so that the searchers were able to venture more closely to the reef than they might have otherwise dared. Frank edged the Sleuth in toward the rocks as closely as possible. Suddenly he gave an exclamation:

"The fisherman was right! There is wreckage there!"

He pointed to a few broken fragments of wood that could be discerned against the rocks. Joe picked up the marine glasses and peered at the fragments for some time.

"It's wreckage of a boat of some kind," he declared gravely, lowering the glasses at last. "But whether it's from the Envoy or not, I couldn't say."

Slim also looked through the glasses. He