a-purpose."

"We did not!" and Dotty, her temper now aroused, stamped her foot at
him. "We told the man it was a doll, but if he couldn't hear us, we
couldn't help that."

"Now, now, little lady, ye know better." The big brawny fisherman came
nearer to Dotty and scowled at her. "I seen you jumping around there and
play-actin' like you was wild with grief! Don't deny it, now! Ye know
well enough I say true!"

He glowered at Dotty, and as he came nearer to her his big fierce eyes
frightened her and she quickly stepped behind Tod.

"Don't you speak to the lady like that!" the boy cried. "If you've
anything to say, say it to me. I called to the man for help to get that
doll out of the water. It belongs to a little friend of ours and we want
to take it to her."

"Well, ye'll never take it!" and the fierce-eyed man picked up the wet
and dripping doll, and with a mighty sweep of his long arm, he flung it
far out to sea. The deed was merely an impulse of his angry wrath at
having been fooled by the children, and he faced them with a defiant
air.

"You had no right to do that!" cried Tod; "go right out in your boat and
get it."

"Ha! ha!" laughed the man with a loud, boisterous chuckle. "Go out and
get it, is it? Not much I'll not go out and get it! And, what's more,
I'll report you two to the life-saving station people, and I'll have you
arrested for false pretences."

Tod was pretty sure that this was all a bluff, but the other men
gathered about and promised the same thing. So threatening were they,
that Dotty was thoroughly scared, and Tod, though not really afraid of
arrest, began to think that these men could make things very unpleasant
for them. He knew by hearsay of the rough manners and ugly tempers of
this particular lot of fishermen. He had heard stories of their dislike
for the summer guests, who sometimes visited them out of curiosity and
looked upon them patronisingly.

Tod realised that nothing incensed their rough natures like being made
the subject of a practical joke and this, though unpremeditatedly, he
and Dotty had done. He thought best to drop his indignant air and try to
propitiate them.

"Oh, come now," he said; "honest Injun, as man to man, I didn't mean to
fool you. We dropped the doll in the water and I yelled for help. Now,
I'll own up that when you fellows seemed to think it was a live baby, we
did kind of help along a little but we didn't mean any harm. S'pose I
give you a dollar to fo