On reaching the edge of the cane they looked down the stream and saw the brothers twenty rods away in their boat, Bert tugging at the oars as if his life depended on his exertions.

The danger of discovery was over for the present, but how were Dan and his father to leave the island now without swimming?
Don had taken his canoe away with him.
"If I could have my way with them two fellers they'd never trouble nobody else," exclaimed Godfrey, shaking his fist at the departing boat.

"Whar be I goin' to hide now, I'd like to know ?" "Stay here," replied Dan, "an' if they come back to pester you, growl 'em off 'n the island like you done this time." "An' git a bullet into me fur my pains ?" returned his father.

"No, sar.

Don'll be up here agin in the mornin', sartin, an' he'll have his rifle with him, too; but I won't be here to stand afore it, kase I've seed him shoot too ofter.