"Oh! And you," said the man sarcastically, turning to Jerry. "I suppose you came to look for a lock of hair from your drowned friend's head?"
The man's tone was so unfeeling that Jerry simply gasped, but Phil boiled over at once.
"I'll have you know that that boy was my cousin. We have good reason for believing that he's on this island and we're going to search it!"
"Oh, indeed!" and Jerry could have sworn that there was a twinkle in the man's eye for all there was no mistaking the threat in his voice. "Well, I can promise you a full-sized spanking unless you make yourselves scarce in just about one half minute. This makes the third time I've had to chase you off—and third time's the charm, you know."
"But why don't you want us to look for our friend? Surely you've got nothing against him—or us."
"Not a thing. Not a thing, sonny. Only I live on this place, and I can't have a troop of youngsters tracking mud in at my front door. That friend of yours couldn't very well be on my island without my knowing it, could he?"
"But you've never said out and out that he wasn't on the island," asserted Jerry boldly. "And you've acted so suspicious that—that we wouldn't believe you now if you did say it."
The man laughed at that, for Jerry had started out by trying to be diplomatic, but his feelings got the better of him before the end.
"I'll be careful not to say it then. As for the tackle box—here it is." Jerry opened his eyes wide; he had thought the box a pure invention on the part of Phil. "Now back water and keep backing."
"You think you've got us beat," shouted Jerry at his retreating back. "Never you worry—I've told Mr. Fulton, and he and Mr. Aikens will be coming down here with a posse. They won't be asking your permission if they can investigate an island that doesn't belong to you any more than it does to me."