With a suddenness that was surprising, considering that his feet were tied, the man managed to stand upright. Then, with a mighty effort, he tried to loosen the rope around his hands.
“When I get loose I’ll show you what it means to trifle with me!” he shouted. “You’ll be sorry you ever meddled in this matter! Wait until I get this rope off!”
He tried desperately to get it off his hands, and Andy saw the strands loosening.
“Quick, Frank!” cried the younger lad. “We’ve got to take some more turns on that! I’ll help! He can’t hurt us now!”
The two brothers fairly threw themselves on their prisoner and all three went down in a heap on the sands.
CHAPTER XXVII
SEARCHING THE WRECK
There was a hard struggle on the beach of lonely Cliff Island. And the boys did not have such an advantage as it would seem at first, even though the hands and feet of their mysterious prisoner were bound.
He was big and strong, and he had evidently been in tight places before, for he knew how to handle himself. Every time he got a chance, as he and his captors rolled together over the sands, he would strike out with his two hands at once. Several times he hit Frank or Andy glancing blows, and once he gave the elder lad such a box on the side of the head that the boy saw stars for a moment.
Again he hit Andy, and knocked him several feet distant so that at first Frank feared his brother had been hurt.
“I’m all right!” shouted the plucky Racer lad, as he jumped and came on to renew the struggle. “Hold his head down in the sand, Frank, and I’ll tie some more ropes around his feet!”