"I don't have to. This boat's me own, an' I kin have anyone I like on board. You clear out of this."
"Don't get insolent, you young cuss. Keep a civil tongue in your mouth or it won't be well for you. I want to know if you have a young woman on board?"
Eben did some quick, hard thinking just then. A spirit of natural shrewdness came to his assistance, and a sudden idea flashed into his mind. He could not fight these men single-handed, and win. He must get them at a special disadvantage, and there was only one way in which this could, be accomplished. He thought of the cabin.
"S'pose I have a woman on board, what of it?" he asked.
"We want her; that's all."
"Well, then, ye'll have to find her yerselves. Don't frighten her," and he motioned aft.
"What! In the cabin?" Donaster was much excited now.
Eben merely nodded, and stepped back.
"Come on, Bill," Donaster ordered. "I suspected she was here."
So intent were the two men upon their search that they paid no more heed to Eben, but hurried at once toward the cabin. Had they been the least suspicious and glanced back, they might have been more cautious. They would have seen the young man they despised as of no account following, his face clouded with anger, and bearing in his hands a stout stick he had picked up from the deck. But sure of themselves, the visitors reached the cabin and descended. No sooner had their heads disappeared below the hatchway than Eben leaped forward, and stood menacingly on guard above. In his hands he clutched the stick and waited. He heard the men groping around below.