"I'll go forward a few steps to meet them," said Mr. Baker, in a low voice to Cub. "You stay back here and be careful with your gun. Don't use it unless you see me use mine; then keep your head. I think we'll be able to handle this situation without any violence."
He advanced half a dozen paces, then stopped and addressed the unwelcome visitors, who were now distant from him only about fifteen feet.
"Halt where you are, gentlemen," he said. "We are armed, and any further advance on your part will be met with the use of our weapons."
The "gentlemen" stopped with due consideration for the warning, but with scowls that indicated the poor grace of their obedience. A description of them would mark them as the ones who are heretofore recorded as having made an unfriendly call on Hal and Bud at the island camp earlier in the day. The tall, angular man again was spokesman for them.
"What're you fellers doin' on our island?" he demanded, with a deepening of his scowl.
"I didn't know the island belonged to you," Mr. Baker returned quietly.
"You don't happen to carry a deed to it in your pocket, do you?"
"No, but it's ours, or it belongs to one of us," the angry spokesman replied. "And we don't intend to allow any trespassing."
"We have no desire to do any trespassing," was the response to this veiled threat. "But I want to answer you with a clear statement of our position. We are here with a purpose and we don't intend to be turned aside from that purpose. To get down to brass tacks, three boys, one of them my son, have disappeared under remarkable circumstances from this island, and the indications point directly toward you men as responsible for their disappearance. What your motive is I have no idea, but you may be sure that it will be fathomed, and now that we have you in our power, we don't intend to let you get away from us. We are armed with automatic pistols that shoot like machine guns and one move either toward or from us, contrary to order, will start them barking. Now, my instruction to you is that you drop those clubs and come forward, one at a time, and allow my companion to search you for weapons."
As he spoke, Mr. Baker drew his pistol from one of his trouser pockets, and Cub did likewise. Instantly the scowls disappeared from the faces of the four men and were succeeded by looks suggestive of panic.
"There's no need of any such action by you," said the leader of the invaders with plaintive whine. "We ain't done nothin' out o' the way. We did drive those kids off o' the island, but we didn't hurt 'em. They're all right, and we c'n take you to 'em any time you want to go."