"I shouldn't be surprised."

"Nor I, either," said Cub.

"Then they've put one over on us," was Bud's inference. "Are you
sorry we came?"

"I? No, sir!" Cub emphasized. "It's a dandy adventure, whatever the
result. I didn't swallow that Crusoe story whole at any time."

"Neither did I," said Hal.

"I thought there were some funny things about it," Bud announced
reflectively; "but I didn't know how to put them together or take
'em apart."

"That was my fix," said Cub; "and it's my fix yet."

"I guess we all agree that the whole affair is very strange," Hal
concluded. "We really don't believe we've been told the truth, and yet we
get in worse trouble when we try to make something else out of it."

"I wonder what your father thinks about it, Cub," said Bud.

"Oh, he accepts it at its face value for the sake of the adventure," the
tall youth replied. "But he's wise enough to know there may be a lot of
hocus-pocus in the business."

For nearly two hours the motor boat wound its way at a fairly good clip