“Are you going to keep the boat?” asked Jule.
“Of course, we’re going to keep it!” Mike declared.
“You bet we are!” Gid put in. “No man we ever played with ever gave us any Christmas presents after he’d cleaned us out.”
“Well,” Jule announced, “I’ll set up a yell the first boat comes near us and your hoodoo lottery tickets will probably land you in jail.”
“We don’t want to be rough with you, kid,” Mike went on, “but when you see a boat coming if you don’t hustle into the cabin and go to bed and cover up your head and ears, we’ll take the hide off your back in long, wide strips.”
“I don’t believe it!” Jule answered with a faint smile.
“That’s all right,” Mike answered, “we’re pretty good fellows, but we’re just plumb disgusted with everything in the world. Now, really,” he went on, “this boat belongs to that pirate gang over there, and we stole it from them. We didn’t steal it from you. We’re innocent bystanders, as it were.”
“Why doesn’t the Hawk come over here and get you?” asked Jule.
“I don’t know exactly,” replied Mike, “but it is my idea that there is a police boat somewhere in sight. We can’t see around the bend, and so wouldn’t know if one was coming, but the Hawk, lying nearer to the other shore, would know it right quick.”
“I hope there is a police boat coming!” Jule said.