“Well, who’s going to the shore?” asked the leader, giving an order for the rowboat to be brought from the other motor boat.
The boys did not hear the reply, for at that minute there came the sound of footsteps on the country road. In another second the lieutenant made his appearance, closely followed by a dozen men.
The lieutenant spoke softly from the heavy shade of the trees which crowded hard upon the highway at that point.
“Stay where you are,” he said. “I have plenty of men, and will capture the whole kaboodle. We have been watching you for a long time. Are you all right?”
“All except Jule,” was the grave reply. “The outlaws threw him out of the boat, and he’s drowned!”
“Keep still, now, here they come!”
There were four men in the rowboat, and they came on at good speed, the leader standing up in the boat in order to get a better view. He stepped to the shore and stood talking with his men a moment.
“How do I know the boys are unarmed?” he said, evidently in reply to a question. “Why, I saw two automatics lying on the prow of the Rambler! Just as if the kids had intended taking them with them, and then forgotten them!”
Then his eye caught a movement in the shadow, and the next moment he was looking down the barrel of a loaded musket.
“Keep still!” a voice said. “Lay your weapons on the ground. Not there. Here!”