at on the "Playground Peninsula" of
eastern United States an unsurveyed primeval wilderness of perhaps three
thousand square miles had remained absolutely detached from inquisitive
civilization, I was soon to learn that Gates had not in any way
exaggerated. It was there; it is there today in the same unbroken
solitude, for any to see who will.

"Why didn't she duck in there and hide last night?" I asked, coming out
of the charmed spell his description had cast over me.

"She daren't, sir. Nothing but a dinghy, or the like of that, has ever
gone in very far. Leastwise, I don't think so. The islands are just a
lot of oyster-shell bars covered with sand and overgrown with red
mangrove trees. I've been told the channel between 'em sometimes isn't
more'n a foot deep; but in other places there may be good water. What I
mean to say is that they're not charted, and I doubt if any man living
could find his way through 'em the same way twice. They lay in a bunch
stretching about forty miles north and south, and maybe fifteen or
twenty through. Some are good sized--we'll say a mile long--but others
run down to the size of the _Whim_. Oh, he wouldn't dare to run in
there, sir! Now we might try to tease him close to 'em and crowd him
some way, as the professor says--or let him do the other thing!"

"That sounds like some plan," Tommy sprang to his feet. "We'll tease
him, all right, if we shoot fast enough!"

"But they must be let to begin that shooting first," Monsieur insisted.

"I'd like to know why?" Tommy turned to him.

"Why? What right have we to come and start such a business?"

"What right have we to crowd her out of the ocean?" Tommy answered with
another question. "What right have they to blow us up?--or steal a
girl?--or counterfeit our money?--or darn near shoot my finger off and
then laugh at me? To hell with rights! We've got more than that
scoundrel has, if we haven't any!"

Gates got up with an oath.

"Yes," he said, "and shoot out my searchlight! No, Professor, I'd say
the shooting's already begun. But they won't stand for too much fooling,
not if I know anything!"

"Oh, well," Monsieur sighed, "give me the gun."

"Give him Miss Nancy," Tommy laughed. "Now, fellows, suppose a couple of
us entrench on top of the cabin, to get the advantage of altitude--the
superiority of position, as it were--and command their decks!"

"You'll need a fair protection, sir, as they'll be shooting from the
portholes," Gate