ywhere now, and think he was the only one that stayed aboard."

"I hope you didn't drown the fellow, Jack," said Ned.

"Small danger of that," laughed the other; "where he fell the water was
only a few feet deep, even with a wave rolling in. He's ashore long
before now, and can report how we do things aboard the Old Reliable.
Anything else you want done, sir, while we've got our hands in?"

"Nothing but keep an eye out for any creeper along the sides. They may
think to try it over again," Ned told him.

"And next time perhaps we'll do something worse than tossing the fellow
overboard," Jack declared. "I half believe that scoundrel meant to do us
an ugly turn. Why, he had a wicked looking knife in his hand just when
we cornered him, and even raised it as if meaning to strike, when I
knocked it out of his grasp with the barrel of my gun, and then Jimmy
jumped on him like a monkey."

"A good job all around," was Ned's comment; "and it ought to show these
parties that we mean what we say. I'm only hoping they'll get sick of
the business and conclude to let us alone. That is all we ask of them,
to keep their hands off, and allow us to pull out."

"Small chance of that happening, I'm afraid," Jack went on to say. "If
we get away from here it'll be because we've gone and licked the lot
of them, as Jimmy was remarking, out of their boots. I say that, because
we know what it would mean to this fake concern to let the story of the
mine get to New York City."

After that for a while everything seemed very quiet. Watch as they might
they could see nothing of the enemy on the beach below. The waves crept
up higher, as the tide came in, and the sound of their curling over with
a long roll grew more and more boisterous; but ashore all seemed as
silent as death.

"You don't think then they've had enough of fight, and gone away, eh,
Ned?" was what Teddy asked, as he crept to where the patrol leader
stood, looking over the bulwarks, and keenly on the alert.

"Not a bit of it, Teddy," came the prompt reply. "You ought to know that
men like that give up only as the tiger does, grudgingly. They've felt
of our claws, and found that we can scratch; so next time they'll try
and work some other sort of game that may pay them better."

"I don't see how it can be done," urged Teddy. "If there were any trees
overhanging our fortress I might begin to think they'd climb up, and try
to drop in on us. And so far as we know they haven't got a