"No send for sheriff! No start engine!"
Jim straightened up and the startled boys glanced at one another. The demonstration of hostility had come like a bolt from a clear sky. Things looked ugly. Again the younger man spoke.
"S'pose you go for sheriff. We stay! Cut buoy! Sink boat! Burn cabin! Then go before you get back! How you like that, eh?"
For once Jim was at a loss. What answer could be made to such an argument? The other noted his hesitation, and smiled triumphantly.
"You let us alone, we let you alone! You trouble us, we trouble you. Now you go!"
It was half a permission, half a command, backed by the leveled guns. Jim was on the point of starting the engine when Filippo interrupted him.
"Misser Jim, let me talk to 'em," he begged in a low tone.
Spurling glanced at him in surprise.
"What for, Filippo? Are they countrymen of yours?"
"Don't know! I see!"