“No, I didn’t!”
“Yes, you did. What right had you to try to run away with our baskets of things?”
“I—er—I wasn’t going to run off with ’em. I was just fooling.”
“I don’t believe you,” broke in Pepper.
Several surrounded the bully, so that he might not run away, and the rowboat with Paxton and Mumps was turned back to the point from where it had started.
“Let us make them prisoners,” suggested Andy. “They ought to be taught a lesson.”
“That’s the talk!” came the cry.
“I—I won’t stand it,” faltered Paxton.
“Then sit on it!” cried Pepper, and tripped the fellow up. While he and Stuffer made Paxton a prisoner, the others attended to Dan Baxter and Mumps. The prisoners had their hands tied behind them, and each had a foot tied to the root of a big tree, the boys using sections of boat rope for that purpose.
“Now let us finish our swim,” said Jack, and drew his crowd to one side.