his habitation the smugglers now led their young
captive, having first removed the gag from his mouth.

"Now you can shout an' yell all you've a mind to," said Branks, his
black eyes twinkling with grim mirth. "Raise the roof, if you want;
there won't be anybody for miles around to hear you."

Hugh made no reply, though his quick temper was at the boiling point.
He did not believe a word of the taunt; indeed, on the way over
from the island, listening to the men's talk, he had formed the
opinion that they were trying to "bluff" him, trying to impress
him with the idea that he was helpless and far away from his friends.

The chief thing which puzzled him was:

Why had not the _Arrow_ given chase to the canoe if his friends had
caught sight of it, as they must have done? It seemed very unlikely
that no one of his party had seen the canoe stealing out across the
water. Hugh did not know that Vinton, as soon as the canoe had been
sighted, had given orders to go aboard the sloop at once, and that the
_Arrow_ had promptly gone in pursuit, but such was the case. Only, by
some accident, the sloop had struck shoal water and was now stuck fast
on a sandbar, waiting for the tide to lift her afloat.

Meanwhile, approaching the hut, Branks strode forward, paused, and
gave a weird, low whistle. He was answered by a similar one, and then
the cabin door was opened by a man dressed in a brown flannel
hunting-shirt, corduroy trousers, and hip boots rolled down to the
knees. He stood shading his eyes with both hands, as if blinded by
the sunlight on emerging from the windowless cabin.

"That you, Harry?" he inquired.

"No, it's me---Branks," replied the other man. "Confound your
eyesight, Joe! can't you tell an honest poor cuss from a crook?"

He laughed at this merry sally, and Joe Durgan responded with a snort.

"Who you-all got thar?" was his next question, as the others came
up. "A kid, eh? What you-all doin' with _him_?" He blinked at Hugh,
much as a sleepy owl blinks at a hunter who has discovered its nest.
Then a thought crossed his mind: "O-ho! you're one o' the crowd
campin' o'er yonder!"

"Right you are, Mr. Durgan!" declared Hugh with calm politeness. "But
why I've been captured and brought here, I don't quite see. I wasn't
doing any harm that I know of just prowling around the islands for
the fun of it,---nothing more."

"Whar your frien's?"

"Don't know, I'm sure. They'll be over here looking for