“You’ve found something, I know, Hal,” Bud declared.  “You came running through the bushes as if you were chased by a catamount or else you had something on your mind that threatened to burst your cranium.”

“I didn’t meet a catamount,” replied the boy to whom these remarks were addressed; “but I did find something that excited me very much.  I’ve learned two important things.”

“What are they?” Cub demanded.

“I’ve learned the name of this island and made sure of the name of the person we came here to find.”

“You don’t say!” Cub exclaimed.  “I don’t see how the name of this island can mean anything to us, but we should be very glad to know who the fellow is that we came here to find.”

“Well, the name of this island is important, or at least interesting,” Hal returned; “and I am going to give you that first.  It is Friday Island and was given that name by the Robinson Crusoe who was marooned here because he landed here last Friday.  Now, I’ll tell you the other important item.  The fellow who was marooned with a wireless outfit was no other person than my cousin as I suspected.  And I have learned why he was marooned here.”

“Why?” demanded Hal’s three companions in chorus.

“Because he was a college freshman and some of the upper classmen had it in for him and they simply strong-armed him, captured him, and brought him here to haze him.”

Every one of Hal’s three companions gasped with astonishment.  The possibilities of such an explanation of this strange “radio-island affair” had never occurred to one of them.

CHAPTER XIII

“Robinson Crusoe’s” Diary

“How in the world did you find that out?”

“Who told you all o’ that?”

“Where is your cousin now?”

These questions and others of like character were fired at Hal in rapid succession, indicating the eagerness of all the members of his audience for more light on the subject.  As for Hal, he was moved by conflicting emotions, which puzzled his friends considerably at first.  He did not burst forth with a storm of replies, a thing that he might well have done consistently with boy nature.  He seemed to be meditating how to begin, as if there was so much on his mind he did not know what to say first.

In reality, although this confusion of ideas probably had something to do with his momentary silence following the storm of questions rained at him, Hal was much elated with the good fortune that had thrown some remarkable information into his possession; still, he was deeply concerned over the possible fate of his cousin.  It was the latter concern, no doubt, that tempered and held in check his jubilation over his discovery.

“I think, Mr. Perry, you will admit now that there is such a thing as a mystery,” he said.

“Why?” inquired the individual at whom this remark was directed.