suffer, as the weather is warm, and there are natural shelters on Stone Island. Regretting the trouble we have caused you, at the same time assuring you that it was unintentional, we beg to remain unknown to you, except as
"Well, what do you think of that?" cried Beeby, when Dick had read the letter aloud.
"Talk about nerve!" exclaimed Paul.
"What'll you do?" asked Tim Muldoon.
"Do, why the best thing is to go to Stone Island," decided Dick, promptly. "This letter may be a fake, but it sounds genuine. Anyhow, it won't be much out of our way to call there; will it, Captain Barton?"
"No," announced the commander, after consulting his charts, and some memoranda given him by a Santiago pilot. "Stone Island is a small one, rather isolated, to be sure, and not near any others. It is about a hundred miles south of the Laberinto de doce Leguas group of keys, which are themselves only a few miles from Key Grande and Key Caballones, two rather large islands. I think we can pick up Stone Island, all right."
"Then we'll do it!" cried Dick. "This letter came in the nick of time. We'll rescue your son, Senor Alantrez, and do it as soon as steam can take us there. I hope we find him all right, though he may be a bit lonesome from his Robinson Crusoe existence."
"Oh, my poor boy! But he is brave! Once he
