Teddy, "and if we fill him up, he'll be all the more ready to
loosen up and tell us all he knows."

"I wish we had a Chinaman along," remarked Fred. "We'd get him to make
us a soup out of the shark's fins."

"We'll try it ourselves if we get hard up," laughed Ross, "but it seems
to me we've got our money's worth out of the shark already, without
taxing him any further."

They waded out to the boats and ransacked the lockers, returning loaded
with coffee and bacon and beans and eggs and jams, the sight of which
added a spur to their already lively appetites.

"That looks like Mark's boat out there now," observed Lester, as he
straightened up and surveyed the sea.

He pointed to a tiny catboat coming in at a spanking gait, and that
seemed to be headed directly for that part of the beach where the boys
stood.

"At the rate he's coming, he'll be here in fifteen minutes," Lester
announced a moment later.

"What's the matter with having supper all ready when the old man gets
in?" chuckled Fred. "It'll pay for using his tools, and it will give him
the surprise of his life."

"Good thing!" exclaimed Lester heartily. "The poor old chap doesn't get
many surprises--pleasant ones I mean--and it will warm his heart."

"To say nothing of his stomach," added the ever practical Bill.

The boys set to work with a zest, and five pairs of hands transformed
the interior of the little hut in a twinkling. Fred lighted a fire in
the rusty stove, Bill cut up some wood for fuel, Ross brought water for
the coffee from a neighboring spring, Teddy cleared the litter of odds
and ends off the rough pine table and set out the eatables, while Lester
fried the bacon, warmed the beans and made the coffee. Everything, even
down to salt and sugar, had come from their own stores, so that Mark's
meagre stock was not drawn upon for anything. A fluffy omelet finished
Lester's part of the work, and when Ross produced a big apple pie that
his landlady had given him to take along that morning, the boys stood
off and viewed their handiwork with pride.

"It makes one's mouth water," said Teddy, who claimed to be an expert
where food was concerned.

"I can't wait," declared Bill. "I wish Mark had wings."

"He doesn't need them," replied Lester, looking out of the door, "for
here he comes now."

The boys ran out to greet the returning master of the house, who had
rounded the point into the sheltered bay and was fast approaching the
beach. He had al