“Well, how be I goin’ to put ’em in your canoe while you keep it twenty feet from shore?” demanded Matt. “You come up closter.”
“You go and get the guns. It will be time enough for me to get in closer when I see that you have got them.”
“An’ it will be time enough for me to get the guns when I see that you have brung the money with you,” retorted Matt, who was getting so angry that he could with difficulty control himself.
Tom laid his paddle across his knee and took a purse from his pocket, all the while keeping a sharp watch upon Matt Coyle, who had moved down the beach, inch by inch, until he was now standing in the edge of the water. Taking from the purse a small roll of bills, Tom held it up before his right eye and winked at the squatter with the other.
“There’s money; now where are the guns?” said he. “I thought you were in a great hurry to have the business settled.”
“I don’t believe there’s any fifty dollars in that there little wad of greenbacks,” replied Matt. “Lemme see you count ’em out on your knee.”
Instead of complying with this request, Tom shut up the purse and put it into his pocket. When Matt saw that, he could no longer restrain himself. With a sound that was more like a roar than a shout, he jumped into the water, his arms extended and his fingers spread out like the claws of some wild beast, and made a long plunge in the hope of seizing upon the gunwale of Tom’s canoe. But the boy was on the alert. With one stroke of the paddle he sent the canoe far out of reach, and in a second more Matt was floundering in water that was over his head. Knowing that he could not overtake Tom by swimming, he gave vent to his fury in a volley of oaths, and went back to the beach; whereupon Tom also returned, and took up his old position.
“It seems that you are the one that is up to tricks,” said he, smiling in spite of himself at the ludicrous figure Matt Coyle presented in his dripping garments. “Now, when you get ready, I should like to have you tell me what you meant by trying to get hold of my canoe?”
“Why didn’t you count out the money on your knee, like I told you, so’t I could be sure you had brung the fifty dollars?” roared Matt, shaking both his clenched hands at Tom.
“Didn’t I take your word for it when you told me that you had the guns? Very well; you will have to take mine when I say that I am ready to carry out my part of the agreement when you carry out yours. Show me the guns; that’s all I ask of you. Look here; do you know where those guns are at this moment?”