"I wasn't sneaking around at all," replied Johnny, impatiently. "I was going about my business openly and above board, and I didn't care who saw me. I was looking for the men who stole Mr. Henry's money."
"Now, that's a funny story, aint it? A boy like you wouldn't be in any hurry to put himself in the way of two robbers, armed with revolvers. We are going back to the cove, and we shall take you with us. The men folks are all out looking for Jed, and we are too sharp to leave you long in the house with nobody but women to watch you."
"Wouldn't it be a good plan to obtain a little more assistance?" asked Johnny. "If you will collect half a dozen men, you can capture every one of those fellows if they come back."
"That's just what we intend to do," replied Josh, "but I think we three can manage them, and watch you besides."
"But you forget the robbers."
Josh smiled and shrugged his shoulders, intimating very plainly that he was not yet prepared to believe that the robbers existed, only in Johnny's imagination. "If you will agree not to make any fuss we won't gag you," said he.
That was something gained, and Johnny readily gave the required promise. Although his hands were still bound behind his back, his captors seemed to be very much afraid of him, and during the walk to the cove they kept a firm hold of his arms, and looked about them suspiciously, as if they every instant expected to be called upon to resist an attempt on the part of the Crusoe men to rescue their prisoner.
But Johnny was released; not by the governor and his band, however, but by the crew of the Storm King, and Josh and Bill never once thought of offering any resistance to them.
It did not take Harry Green long to come to some conclusion respecting the mysterious disappearance of the pirate vessel, and, after his conversation with the boatswain's mate, he astonished his second lieutenant with an order to call away a company of small-armed men. While the jolly-boat was being lowered, the plucky midshipman Richardson, who commanded the company, reported for orders, and was instructed to go ashore and explore every nook and corner of the bluffs on that side of the island. He left the vessel as fully determined to effect the capture of Tom Newcombe as he had been before, and, when the party from the farm-house came up, he had stopped with his company on the cliffs above the cove to reconnoiter. When he heard them approaching, he ordered his men to conceal themselves. Of course he was not sure that they were the ones he had been sent out to capture, but he argued, as did Josh and Bill in regard to Johnny, that if they were honest people they would not be roaming about the island at that time of night.
"Halt!" shouted Richardson, when the farmers, with their prisoner, had advanced fairly within his ambush. "Close up around them, men, and punch the first one that tries to escape."