“I’d like to see him do it,” said Tom, savagely. “Once more, and for the last time, Sandy Todd, I tell you that if you don’t take your hands off my boat, I’ll—”
He did not finish the sentence. While he was speaking, he raised his paddle to strike Sandy, and our fellow, acting upon Herbert’s suggestion, placed his hands upon the side of the canoe, and overturned it in an instant, emptying Tom and the turkeys into the cold waters of the bayou.
“Boo-hoo!” sputtered the robber, as he arose to the surface, his face blue with the cold, and his teeth chattering. “I’ll—fix—you for that—Sandy Todd!”
“We are not done with you yet,” exclaimed Mark. “You shan’t touch dry land again until you tell us what you have done with our boat.”
These words seemed to bring Tom to his senses again. He struck out manfully—I never saw a boy who could swim like that Tom Mason—and in spite of all Duke’s efforts to cut him off, he reached the island, and scrambling up the bank, disappeared in the bushes.
Then we were sure that he was caught. He could not escape to the mainland without swimming the bayou, and we did not think he would be likely to attempt that after the experience he had already had with cold water.
Sandy crawled out upon the raft as we moved past him, and the instant our clumsy vessel touched the shore, we all jumped off and dashed through the bushes in hot pursuit of the robber; but we did not come within sight of him until we reached the foot of the island, and then, to our surprise, we discovered him in a canoe and about half-way across the bayou. He was paddling for dear life; but when he saw us standing on the bank, he stopped to say a parting word to us.
“You said that you are not done with me, didn’t you?” he asked. “You will find, before the winter is over, that I am not done with you. I have a plan in my head that will astonish you when you find out what it is. Keep your eyes open, and good-by till I see you again.”
“Say, Tom,” I shouted, “you told us this morning that you didn’t know any thing about our boat. You are in it now.”
“I know it,” he replied, coolly. “She was hidden in the bushes not ten feet from where you are now standing.”