The words must have sounded suspicious to those for whom they were intended.
"How came you to be cast away?"
"I landed here awhile ago and when I warn't looking me owld boat slipped from me, bad cess to her!"
This was less satisfactory to the two men, who were probably robbing lobster pots. They talked together for a few minutes, though the anxious listener could not hear what they said.
"What boat was it?" asked the one who acted as spokesman.
"The Deerfut—a motor boat that b'longs to me friend Alvin Landon, whose dad owns half the city of New York. He'll give ye a million dollars fur taking care of Mike Murphy, which is mesilf."
This announcement had an altogether different effect from what the youth expected.
"If you're worth that much we'll let some one else earn the money. Good night!"
It was an act of wanton cruelty, but it is a fact none the less that the couple closed their ears to the appeal and rowed away in the darkness. When certain that they were deserting him Mike changed the tenor of his prayer and urged them to come back long enough to receive the chastisement he was aching to give them.
It was a bitter disappointment, but the lad felt he had more cause to be grateful to heaven that he had to repine.