"You can't mean it!" incredulously protested Frank.
"Well we just do mean it and I for one am awful glad!"
"So are all of us glad!" declared Tom. "I was worried for a while. It looked as if you were going to stay out, Jack!"
The boys were capering about in glee over Jack's recovery though his smile was still a trifle wan and drawn. Slowly, however, his strength returned. He accepted and drank with eagerness the cup of steaming coffee proffered by Arnold as a restorative.
"Thank you, Scout!" smiled Jack. You're a master hand at the cooking! What hit me? I felt quite a blow."
"You were shot," declared Harry. "The pirate schooner shot at us, you remember, and then they had to shoot you, but we can't find any hole where the bullet went in. You're only bruised."
"Ha!" exclaimed Jack. "I see it now! The bullet hit the automatic I had put in my breast pocket. I never carried it there before and don't know why I should have put it there this time."
"Well, it's a lucky thing you varied from your habit!"
"Let's see if the bullet is in the pocket yet," Harry said.
A search of the jacket revealed a hole, in the outer cloth where the bullet had entered. Inside the pocket were the automatic and several slivers of lead, fragments of the shattered missile.