"Heerd 'em torkin' about it. Thet ole busybody, Miss Pepper, she war in
ther store wen I was gittin' somethin' fur mam, and she sed as how she'd
run this village if she war a man, an' the feller as set fire ter a
honest woman's pigpen 'd git his'n right peart. Like fun she wud,"
returned Jim, quickly.

"She's got her eye on you, Jim. She believes you led that gang. Going,
eh, good-bye."

CHAPTER XI

A GLORIOUS PROSPECT

Jim had heard enough. He was beginning to be a bit afraid lest this
sturdy new boy who had mastered him so easily in their late encounter,
take a notion to investigate his condition physically; and there were
several little punctures that just then Jim did not care to have seen.

Darry watched the bully saunter away, and it made him smile to see what
an effort the other kept up his careless demeanor, when every step must
have caused him more or less pain.

Perhaps Jim, in spite of his bombastic manner, might have received a
lesson, and would be a little more careful after this how he acted.

So he walked to the store, completed his purchases, and was waiting for
them to be tied up when who should enter but the young fellow he had
seen in the beautiful cedar motor-boat out on the bay.

He was dressed like a sportsman, and there was a frank, genial air about
him that quite attracted Darry.

Apparently he had dropped in to get his mail, for he walked over to the
little cubby hole where a clerk sat.

As his eyes in roving around chanced to fall on Darry, and the latter
saw him give a positive start, and he seemed to be staring at him as
though more than casually interested.

Then he spoke to the clerk, who looked out toward Darry and apparently
went on to explain that he was a stranger in the community, having been
on a brigantine recently wrecked on the deadly reefs off the shore.

The young man sauntered around until Darry left.

Just as our hero put the last of the small shanties that formed the
outskirts of Ashley behind him he caught the sound of hurrying steps.

Thinking of Jim and his ugly promise of future trouble he half turned,
but to his surprise and pleasure he saw that it was the owner of the
launch, and that apparently the youth was hurrying to overtake him.

What his curiosity was founded on Darry could not say; but presumed the
other had liked his looks and wanted to strike up an acquaintance.

It would not be the first time such a thing had happened to him.

"Go