Produced by Jim Ludwig
by Scout Master Robert Shaler
CHAPTERS
I. The Mysterious Steamer
II. A Contraband Cargo
III. On a Lone Scout
IV. The Hut on the Beach
V. Kidnapped by Smugglers
VI. The Flight of the "Arrow"
VII. A Gathering of the Clan
VIII. The Blazing Beacon
IX. Deeds in the Darkness
X. The End of the Raid
XI. Aboard the "Arrow"
XII. A Surprising Adventure
In the wake of an easterly squall the sloop Arrow, Lemuel Vintonmaster and owner, was making her way along the low coast, southward,from Snipe Point, one of the islands in Florida Bay about twelvemiles northeast of Key West.
With every sail closehauled and drawing until the bolt ropes creakedunder the strain, the Arrow laid a fairly straight course towardKey West. She bore a startling message, the nature of which hercaptain had considered of sufficient importance for him to prolonga cruise he had undertaken and to hasten back to the port whencehe had sailed, twenty-four hours previously, to inform the authorities.
The sloop had not sped far from the Point, and the receding shoreline had scarcely grown dimly blue on the horizon under a peculiaryellow-gray sunrise, when Captain Vinton's crew began to maketheir appearance on deck. The crew consisted of five Boy Scouts,an older companion who was in charge of them, and a Seminole Indianguide, called Dave, who had been hired to conduct the boys ona brief exploration of the Everglades. Four of the boys belongedto a troop of scouts who had their summer headquarters at PioneerCamp, far away among the New England hills. They had, however,formed a resolution to spend the present summer not at PioneerCamp, where most of their younger comrades would be, but in seeingsome new sections of their native land. To this end, three ofthem—-Hugh Hardin, his chum Billy Worth, and Chester Brownell—-hadgladly accepted an invitation from the fourth, Alec Sands, tospend a month at Palmdune, the Florida residence of Alec's father,who had sent them on this cruise. With them Mr. Sands had senthis secretary, a young man named Roy Norton, who had left themtemporarily at Key West while he attended to business in Havana.When he had returned from Havana, he had found a new member ofthe party—-Mark Anderson, the son of the captain of Red KeyLife-Saving Station.
The Arrow had been anchored off Snipe Point during the previousnight, where Captain Vinton had gained the information which madehim decide to return to Key West. This knowledge, which he hadalready imparted to the boys, was to the effect that throughoutthe night before, while he and Dave alternately watched, he hadseen a gray steamer or perhaps a gunboat cruising among the islandsoff the Point, occasionally coming close enough to the beach tobe made out distinctly, but showing no lights and making no signals.
Immediately his suspicions had been aroused by this mysteriousaction. His impression was that the vessel belonged to a countrywhich was then hostile to the United States. In that case shewas either grappling for the cable between Key West and the mainlandterminus at Punta Rossa, which lay close inshore at Snipe Point,or was trying to make connection with some other vessel carryingsupplies or ammunition from some West Indian port, perhaps intendingto run the blockade.
Why she should attempt to tampe