“Lucky it wasn’t worse. My, I’m glad you boys heard me calling.”
“Pretty nice to have friends near at hand, isn’t it?” said Frank. “Now that you’re here, Hanleigh, I think you’d better tell us why you were snooping around the island in the first place.”
“I wasn’t coming to the island,” returned Hanleigh lamely.
“As if we’ll believe that!”
“Now, boys,” said Hanleigh placatingly, “let’s forget all our little differences and let bygones be bygones. You have saved my life and I’m very grateful to you. I didn’t mean you any harm.”
“Why were you coming here to-day?” insisted Frank.
“I’ll tell you. After what happened the other day, I worried a lot. I was afraid you lads might think I was up to something crooked, and I wanted to make things square with you. So I decided to come here and make friends with you. And then I was going to look for that pocketbook I lost.”
“Was that the only reason?”
“Absolutely the only reason.”
“What interests you here so much?” asked Joe.