Again the sentence was lost. Hugh frowned impatiently. However,
as they went on talking he heard some more of their designs---in
particular, the fact that the dynamite was to be used for blowing
up a railroad bridge.

Thinking that he had heard enough by this time and knowing that if
they discovered him he would be captured as a spy, Hugh began to
wonder how and when he should leave his hiding place and crawl back
to camp with the least risk of being observed. At any moment the
men might emerge from the hut or others of their gang might join
them. Yet he did so want to learn where they had come from, and
whether their vessel was lying at anchor somewhere among these
many islands! So he lay there, flat on the sand, scarcely daring
to breathe lest he should be heard, heartily wishing the men would
give some more definite hint of their purposes, and devoutly hoping
that none of his friends, missing him from camp, would come in
search of him with shouts and calls!

"That would be fierce!" he whispered inaudibly. "That would give
me away and scare off these jail birds mighty quick!"

Suddenly the distant tchug-tchug of a gasoline motor boat came to
his ears. Raising himself on his elbows, he peered over the stump,
out across the glittering blue water, and saw a good-sized dory,
manned by a solitary individual who wore light oilskins, coming
swiftly toward the hut on the beach.

"That must be the motor boat that passed our camp last night,"
thought Hugh. "I feel sure now, surer than ever, that I heard it go
by in the darkness. But it's coming over from the mainland now.