Wonder who's that man at the tiller?"

Down he sank again and waited.

Presently the motor-dory drew up alongside the strip of beach in
front of the bamboo hut and came to a standstill. The man in
oilskins called out:

"Hey! You-all in thar!"

Instantly one of the three rascals came forth from the hut.

"Hello, Durgan!" he called, not at all loudly, through his cupped
hands. "What's the news?"

"Beat it!" was Durgan's warning answer. "Thar's a campin' party on
th' island below here---I seen 'em 'bout ten minutes ago---old Cap'n
Lem Vinton, an Injun, an' four or five boys."

"Lem Vinton, eh? All right, Joe, we're going. Can you tow us
around Spider Key?"

"Nope. I'm goin' home now," Joe Durgan replied tersely, with the
abruptness of one who has done an irksome duty and would avoid further
responsibility for the present.

Suiting actions to words, he quickened his engine and made off toward
the Florida shore.

His boat had scarcely become a speck on the water, when Hugh began