t of how deep Gus had been shoved into that sandbank.
And there was a new and more powerful motor aboard the thing now. Five
thousand dollars ain't much good to a telescoped corpse. He fetched a
long breath.

"'Well, now, Mr. Dixland,' he says, 'I'd like to, fust rate, but you see
I don't know nothin' about mechanics.'

"'Professor--' begins Augustus. 'Twas the final straw. Old Whiskers
jumped out of the chair, lameness and all.

"'Out of this house, you ingrate!' he bellers. 'Out this instant! I
discharge you. Go! go!'

"He was actually frothin' at the mouth. I cal'late Olivia thought he was
goin' to die, for she run to him.

"'You'd better go, I think,' says she to her shakin' beau. 'Go, dear,
now. I must stay with him for the present, but we will see each other
soon. Go now, and trust me.'

"'I disown you, you ungrateful girl,' foams her uncle. 'Scudder, I order
you to put that--that creature off this island.'

"'Yes, sir,' says Nate, polite; 'in about two shakes of a heifer's
tail.'

"He started for Augustus, and Gus started for the door. I guess Olivia
might have interfered, but just then the professor keels over in a kind
of faint and she had to tend to him. Gus darts out of the door with Nate
after him. Scudder reached the beach just as his nephew was shovin' off
in the boat, bound for the mainland.

"'Consarn your empty head!' Nate yelled after him. 'See what you get by
not mindin' me, don't you? I'm runnin' things on this island after this.
I'm boss here; understand? When you're ready to sign a paper deedin'
over ha'f that money your wife's goin' to get to me and Huldy Ann, maybe
I'll let you come back. And perhaps then I'll square things for you with
Dixland. But if you dare to set foot on these premises until then I'll
murder you; I'll drown you; I'll cut you up for bait; I'll feed you to
the dog.'

"He sculled off, his oars rattlin' 'Hark from the tomb' in the rowlocks.
He b'lieved Nate meant it all. Oh, Scudder had HIM trained all right."

CHAPTER VII

CAPTAIN SOL DECIDES TO MOVE

"Trust Nate for that," interrupted Wingate. "He's just as much a born
bully as he is a cheat and a skinflint."

"Yup," went on Captain Sol. "Well, when Nate got back to the house the
professor was alone in the chair, lookin' sick and weak. Olivia was up
in her room havin' a cryin' fit. Nate got the old man to bed, made him
some clam soup and hot tea, and fetched and carried for him like he was
a baby. Th