with rifles if they were underwater. I was
sure you had sense enough to stay down. So I left the barn and went to
the house."

"You actually went in?" Rick asked, his eyes wide.

"Sure. It was safe enough. The gang was sleeping upstairs and the two
guards were interested in you and Orvil. No papers were left where I
could get them. There's a built-in safe, but I'm no Jimmy Valentine who
sandpapers his fingers and opens boxes by touch. I couldn't do anything
with it. Finally, I figured all had been seen that could be seen, and
left the house. I could hear a motor racing, and I recognized the
runabout, so I knew you were still alive. I retired to the woods behind
the barn and headed for the riverbank. I saw Scotty hurl his homemade
bomb."

Scotty shook his head. "I didn't see you."

"You weren't supposed to. I decided Scotty must be creating a diversion,
and that meant you, Rick, were still diving in the cove. I took off for
the cove, keeping a weather eye out for the guards. There was plenty of
cover along the bank, so it wasn't hard. I got a good view of the
festivities. After the fire was stamped out, the two guards walked up to
the bank of the cove and waited until Orvil got close, then they pointed
their rifles at him and invited him to come closer still. He didn't have
much choice."

Rick thought that was an understatement.

"They questioned him for a while. Who were the divers and what were they
after? Orvil played dumb. He said he knew nothing about divers and of
course he had seen bubbles. He always saw bubbles. Marsh gas was rising
all the time. He couldn't understand what all the shooting was about."

"Good for Orvil," Scotty muttered.

"He put on a pretty good act, saying he didn't know what they were
shooting at, but the guards weren't having any. They finally made him
pull up his lines, throw his bait overboard, and get everything
shipshape. Then one of the guards invited him to step ashore. Orvil
balked and took a swing at the nearest one and got a rifle across the
head. He dropped to the deck. That must be how the stain got there. They
slapped him back into consciousness and made him get out. One guard held
a rifle on him while the other put his weapon down and got in the boat.
He took the boat out into the middle of the cove, aimed it toward the
river, and put it in gear, then dove over the side and swam ashore. The
boat headed out and the guards walked Orvil back."

"So he's alive," Rick said