"Wal, if anybody sees ye and tells me abeout it, course I gotter take notice then. Guess I'll go," finished Enos, evidently much disturbed in spirit. Descending the steep shore to his launch, he got under way this time without accident, and the motorboat chugged away.
"I'll be hanged," muttered Red, "if I'm not rather sorry for the old lad, after all."
"Rex! You've got to send to the lumber company and get a copy of that permit," Midkiff declared with vigor. "Show those fellows up——"
"And get them put off the island?" drawled Kingdon.
"Why not?" Cloudman asked.
"Oh—well—I've another use for that bunch," said Rex. "Why use the rough stuff when guile and strategy—to say nothing of intrigue—are on tap?"
"Aw, drop that, Rex!" begged Midkiff.
"Why so, Grouch? That Horrors chap has got the laugh on us. He got it without honor, to be sure; but he didn't use a blackjack or brass knuckles. Shall we have it said of us that a crowd like that worked something fancy on us, and we had to volley with a knock-down-and-drag-out argument? Say not so! We got away with their canoes, they filched our permit. Tit for tat. Should we cry baby? Where's your sporting instincts?"
"Sporting instincts!" repeated Midkiff with disgust.
"Great snakes alive!" grumbled Red. "Listen to him rave."