The other boys echoed the sentiment, but when they opened the cabin door, a moment later, and looked in, there sat King, busy with the cold pancakes Don had cooked just before he left the boat to assist in the rescue of Clay and Tom. He smiled as the boys entered.
“Well, of all the iron nerve—”
Alex could not finish the sentence. There were no words which could do justice to the occasion, he thought.
“Help yourself!” Clay said. “If you’ll wait a little while we’ll give you hot coffee. We’re going to make some for ourselves!”
Tom’s greeting was not so cordial.
“If this was my boat,” he said, “I’d break you in two with my foot. You came near drowning us. Do you know that?”
“The people on shore told me!” smiled King. “They came near stringing me up by the neck for what I did.”
“You deserved it!” grumbled Don. “Indeed you did.”
“Now, see here, boys,” King went on, “I had my duty as an officer to do. If you had been relieved of fifty thousand dollars and valuable papers, you would expect the law to get them for you, wouldn’t you?”
No one replied, and the officer went on, calmly eating cold cakes as he did so—eating and tossing a piece to Teddy now and then.