as you doubtless know, only a couple of hours' run
from here, and if you want to take passage with me I shall be most
delighted to have you do so, especially as my young friend here tells me
you are all good sailors. That will enable me to leave my crew behind,
to begin clearing a place for the foundation of my cottage."

"But," said Will Rogers, doubtfully, "we are expecting some one--"

"Oh!" interrupted the glib stranger, "I forgot to say that I met your
friend, Captain Crotty, who was forced to take his sloop, the
_Millgirl_, to Newport for docking, and as he cannot be ready for sea
under several days, he begged me to bring you back with me, always
supposing that you were ready to leave the island. Now as I am in a
great hurry to be off, for I hope to go to Newport and return to this
place again before night, I must ask you to gather up your traps as
quickly as possible, while I return to the beach and have a boat got
ready to take us to the yacht, where you will find breakfast waiting,
and, of course, plenty of fresh water. You need not bother to bring
anything except your personal belongings, as I shall make Captain Crotty
a handsome offer for the Camp as it stands, to be used by my workmen. In
five minutes I shall be ready."

Thus saying, Mr. Bangwell took his departure, waving his hand pleasantly
to the boys as he went.

"Isn't this the biggest kind of luck?" cried Mif Bowers. "I tell you
what, Will, you are altogether too suspicious. Now, I didn't think those
chaps were pirates or anything of the kind from the very first."

"Well," replied the Ranger Captain, "it may be all right; but I'm not
wholly satisfied yet, and I don't know as we ought--"

"Oh, yes, we ought, fast enough," interrupted Mif Bowers. "We'd be great
fools if we didn't take this chance, when Captain Crotty has sent for us
too. Anyhow, I for one am not going to stay here any longer to die of
thirst, let alone hunger."

"Nor I," and "Me, too," shouted others.

So Will yielded to the voice of the majority, and busied himself with
rolling up his blankets. If he had not been so very thirsty he might
still have argued the question, but no argument could prevail against a
vision of the yacht's water-tanks. And, after all, Mr. Bangwell's story
was very plausible. If at that moment he could have been present at an
interview on the beach between the stranger who had just left them and
several tough-looking men who had suspended their work to ga