“All right!” Jule said. “When you get her fixed up all right we’ll take her off your hands.”
“Oh, you will, will you?” laughed Gid. “If you don’t watch out, son, you’ll be wanting some one to take you off our hands.”
The two men now moved up to the prow of the boat and whispered together for a long time. They paid no attention to signals and calls from the Hawk, and so a small boat was soon making its way toward the Rambler. Jule saw the two men handling their guns nervously as the boat supposed to contain members of their own party approached.
The boy watched the situation anxiously. It seemed to him that the two men who had boarded the Rambler were not at all pleased at the approach of the rowboat. It appeared, too, that those on board the Hawk were watching Gid and Mike suspiciously.
When the boat drew near, the man who had been called Mike leaned over the gunwale with a revolver in each hand.
“Keep away, boys!” he said. “We don’t want you on board!”
“What does this mean?” demanded the mate of the Hawk, who was one of the men in the small boat.
“Never mind what it means,” Mike called out.
“Keep away from the boat if you don’t want to be shot!”
While Mike was holding the mate off with his revolvers, Gid stood by the boy also with revolvers in sight. The mate of the Hawk threw his hand back as if to produce a weapon and Mike passed a bullet so close to the side of his head that it scorched his scalp.