ungry and thirsty! Come right aboard and we'll
see what we can do for you."

Gladly the boys cut the lashings that bound them to the bails. The
whistle gave a screech of farewell as they tumbled stiffly into the
boat. The solid deck of the _Gracie_ felt good beneath their feet.

"You can have all the water you want, boys; but you'd better go light on
food at first," cautioned the captain.

It seemed to Percy as if he could never get enough to drink. Gradually,
however, his thirst was quenched. He began to realize that he had not
slept for two days and a half.

"I'd like to carry you right back to the island," said Captain Greenlaw,
"for your friends must be worrying. But there are lots of herring here,
and I've got to get a load first. That may take two or three days. I'll
land you at Tarpaulin on my way home. Better turn in and sleep."

The boys were shortly wrapped in a heavy, dreamless slumber. It seemed
to them as if they had just closed their eyes when they were shaken
awake again.

"Here's the cutter!" exclaimed the captain. "They got a wireless to hunt
you up. Going to run in to Rockland, and can land you at Tarpaulin this
evening. What do you say?"

Tired though they were, Jim and Percy were only too glad of a chance to
get home speedily. So they were transferred to the _Pollux_, and their
leaking dory hoisted aboard. Swung in hammocks in the seamen's quarters,
they were soon slumbering dreamlessly again.

At eight that night the _Pollux_ stopped off the island. The dory, made
sound and tight by the ship's carpenter, was dropped overboard, and the
boys rowed into Sprowl's Cove.

Their appearance transformed the gloom that overhung Camp Spurling into
the wildest joy. Budge, Throppy, and Filippo burst out of the cabin and
raced headlong down the beach, waking the echoes with their shouts of
welcome. Even before the dory grounded they tumbled aboard and flung
their arms about the castaways. No brothers, reunited after deadly
peril, could have given one another a warmer greeting.

Jim freed his hands at last, stooped, and picked up a package which he
tossed out on the gravel. There was a suspicious moisture in his eyes.

"There's the piston-rod!" said he in a rather choky voice. "I guess
we'll get our set all right day after to-morrow."

XX

SQUARING AN ACCOUNT

It was almost noon the next day before Jim and Percy rolled out of their
bunks in Camp Spurling. One of Filippo's best dinners sati