“Don’t be too sure,” Tom advised them. “He may be playing a trick on us. Creeping up on us without making much noise.”
“Or taking a short cut, as Skeel and those two fellows did that day,” added Bert.
“Come on!” urged Jack. “We don’t want to be caught napping. Hurry, fellows!”
“Oh, I think we can afford to take it a bit easy,” said Tom, who felt sorry for his roommate. There was a look of pain on Jack’s face, and it was evident that the strain was telling on him. Still he was game.
“Do you think it’s safe?” asked Bert.
“We’ll take a chance,” decided Tom. “We’re off his property now, and he can’t touch us. We can defy him, and all he can do is to call names. They won’t hurt us.”
“He can shoot!” exclaimed Dick, remembering the gun.
“I don’t believe he’d dare,” was Tom’s opinion. “Anyhow, our boat’s just around that bend, and we can soon reach it. Slow up, fellows,” he added.
They did, when it was evident, from careful listening, that the hermit had either given up the pursuit, or was coming on so slowly that they could easily distance him by a spurt. And, as Tom had said, they had left their boat around the next bend of the river bank.
“Whew!” exclaimed Bert, wiping his face with his handkerchief, “that was warm work while it lasted.”