Rick thought quickly. He jerked his thumb at Carrots. "You can blame him. First he dumped half a ton of menhaden on us and then he took a shot at me while I was climbing the old tower."
"Why were you climbin' the tower?" Marbek demanded quickly.
Rick shrugged, nonchalantly, he hoped. "Why does anyone climb a tower? Just for the fun of it."
Carrots snorted. "Nuts! Then why didn't you go all the way to the top?"
Red Kelso's eyes swiveled from his son to the boys. "Let's cut the comedy," he snapped. "Jimmy had nothin' to do with your comin' here. Now give us a straight story or you'll suffer for it!"
Rick's mind was working at top speed. He couldn't tell them everything, but he might be able to stall.
"You warned us," he said. "Twice. Anyway, we thought it was you, then your son just admitted it." He grinned at Kelso. "We had to find out why you were warning us, didn't we?"
Red looked at Carrots and then at Brad. "I told you it was a mistake to try to warn 'em off," he grated. "All right. Did you find out why we warned you?"
"We didn't have time," Scotty pointed out. "We had just arrived when we got caught."
Brad Marbek's high voice was cold. "Do you think my coming here is funny?"