"Nothing in there he could want," commented the former owner of
the craft.
"No," agreed Tom in a low voice. "I don't see what he wanted to
open the door for." But the time was to come, and not far off,
when Tom was to discover quite a mystery connected with the
forward compartment of his boat, and the solution of it was fated
to bring him into no little danger.
"It certainly is odd," went on Mr. Hastings when, after Tom had
secured the screw driver from his motor-cycle tool bag, he aided
the lad in removing the letters from the bow of the boat "Are you
sure you don't know the man?"
"No, I never saw him before. At first I thought his voice sounded
like one of the members of the Happy Harry gang, but when I looked
squarely at him I could not see a bit of resemblance. Besides,
that gang would not venture again into this neighborhood."
"No, I imagine not. Perhaps he was only a curious, meddlesome
person. I have frequently been bothered by such individuals.
They want to see all the working parts of an automobile or motor-
boat, and they don't care what damage they do by investigating."
Tom did not reply, but he was pretty certain that the man in
question had more of an object than mere curiosity in tampering
with the boat. However, he could discover no solution just then,
and he proceeded with the work of taking off the letters.
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