“Because he knows something about the smugglers, and they are afraid to allow him his liberty.”
“Humph!” exclaimed Mr. Bell.
“Every word of that is false,” cried the master of the Stella, who seemed to be almost beside himself with fury. “It is a villainous attempt to injure me and my vessel.”
“Keep your temper, captain,” said the commander of the cutter. “I want to see if this young man knows what he is talking about. Where are those two smugglers who brought that boy over here in a canoe?”
“I don’t know, sir. We have searched the island and can find no trace of them.”
“That is a pretty good sign that they are not here. Where is the boat they came in?”
“I don’t know that either. It is also missing.”
“Where is the boy they brought with them?”
“When the Banner rounded the point he was standing in the mouth of that cave,” replied Walter, pointing to the Kitchen, “and shouted to us to get away from here while we could—that this schooner is a smuggler and that Fred Craven is a prisoner on board of her.”