"Oh, no," smiled Jack in reply, "but evil men hide in woods and mountains and all sorts of odd places as much now as they did in the old days. There is just as much of this in modern times as there was in the old, but it is accompanied with greater danger."
"Yes, I reckon it is. At any rate, I'd like to get hold of these rascals. There'll be a pretty big reward for them, I fancy."
The boys left the cabin and during the afternoon Jack, Dick and young Smith set out for a stroll over the island, taking one of the paths already made, so as not to subject the younger boy to too much trouble.
"I hardly think these smugglers are on the island," said Jack, as they walked on, "or, at least, I don't think that they got in through the reefs. They could have landed on the other side, although there are many difficulties connected with it, not to say dangers. You remember the rocks, Dick? And there is a good deal of surf there also. One would need to be careful in making it. A vessel could lie to, of course, while boats landed the men, and that has probably been done."
"Yes, I suppose so," said Percival carelessly, thinking of other things at the moment, and not paying much attention.
The boys walked on without paying much attention to where they were going, young Smith being greatly pleased at being with the older boys, but at length Jack stopped, looked around him, and said with the least bit of alarm in his tone:
"H'm! I believe we are where Billy was treed by the calf the other day or pretty near it, at any rate. We thought there might be people in the neighborhood, but we did not see them."
"I suppose it might be as well to go back," said Percival. "It would not be pleasant to run across a lot of half-civilized natives to say nothing of smugglers."
"No, it would not," and at that instant there was a rustling in the bushes not far away, and two men stepped out, the singular appearance of one of them causing Jack to turn suddenly pale.
This man was of good height and build and evidently quite strong, and was, besides, a person of superior intellect if not of the best tendencies, as his face indicated, but what attracted most attention was the fact that while his mustache was snowy white his hair and eyebrows were quite dark, this making him noticeable in a moment.