“For being so officious as to summon any help. But I admit that I didn’t quite know you boys. I think I do, now.”
“However it was done, it was splendid!” cried Ida Silsbee, eagerly, presenting her small, gloved hand to the young captain.
“Splendid? I never heard of anything like it!” uttered Dixon, as he, too, pressed forward, holding out his hand.
Both his speech and his act were for Ida’s benefit. Oliver Dixon had the good sense to know that any slight offered the motor boat youth, at this time, would redound against his own chances as suitor with Miss Silsbee.
Tom took the Dixon hand limply, looking straight into the young man’s eyes so searchingly that even the brazen Oliver had difficulty in maintaining anything like composure.
“I’ll keep up the pretense with him,” thought Halstead, “until I’m ready to unmask him.”
“Captain Tom,” exclaimed Oliver Dixon, eagerly, “you’re a wonder—a twentieth century knight!”
Sim, at this moment, was being hauled out of the boat by three of the Florida men present. Sim’s sullen, baleful eyes sought Dixon’s, causing that young man to quail, though just at that instant none of the Tremaine party noted the episode.
“Say, I reckon we know all these fellows,” announced one of the local officers. “Sim and Jig are two of the worst men that ever got into the Everglades. We know enough, too, about Jabe and Kink to keep ’em busy fo’ a long time explaining their records.”