“Come on, you miserable scoundrel,” cried the guide, shaking his huge fist at the astonished and thoroughly frightened robber. “I have been looking for you, and now that I have found you, I am going to take you back to Indian Lake with me.”
But Matt and his boys were not as anxious to go ashore now as they had been. Without saying a word in reply they bent to their paddles, and made all haste to get out of sight in the darkness.
“Now, Joe,” said Mr. Swan, who never got excited even under the most trying circumstances, “shove off and take after them. You can go faster than they can, so if you will get ahead of them and keep them from reaching the opposite shore, I will come up on this side, and we will have them between two fires.”
Joe and his companions were prompt to act upon this suggestion. He and Roy pushed the skiff into the water, and when she was fairly afloat Arthur sprang aboard with the jack-lamp in his hand. A moment later its strong light flashed out over the pond, telling the fleeing squatter in language as plain as words that the darkness could not conceal his movements.
“There they are, not more than forty yards,” said Arthur, who stood erect on the stern locker, steadying himself with the boathook. “Roy, let me have that oar, and you stand here with the lamp and open fire on them with your potatoes.”
“I can’t,” was the answer. “I took the potatoes ashore to-night and washed some for breakfast; and the bag is in camp at this moment.”
“Then we shall have to come to close quarters with them,” said Arthur, “for I have no idea that they will give up when they find themselves cut off from shore.”
“If we can only manage to detain them for two minutes, we shall have all the help we want,” Joe remarked. “Look behind you.”
Arthur glanced over his shoulder, and was surprised to see the guide in less than a stone’s throw of the skiff. How he had managed to put his canoe into the water and get her under way with so little loss of time, was a mystery.
“A fellow would have to look out for Mr. Swan in a hurry-skurry race, wouldn’t he?” said Arthur. “Just see how he makes that little craft of his get through the water! If you two don’t let out a section or so of your muscle, he will overtake the scow before we do.”