Whoever the man was who had sought shelter behind the railing, he was game. He never moved, only the watchers could see the gleaming barrel of an automatic.
“Now if Tommy would only lip in,” Clay suggested, “we would have quite a menagerie. I wonder if that fellow we see is the only man aboard the Rambler?”
There was a fringe of bushes along the shore, and, clearly outlined against the light of the prow lamp, a figure could now be seen making his way through the shrubbery in the direction of the boat.
The watchers being in the shadows were not visible from the position occupied by the prowler.
“He’ll be aboard the boat in a minute if something ain’t done to stop him,” remarked Rube, “and then there’ll be a mix-up that will be worth the price of admission.”
The two men had evidently been completely deceived by the talk put up by Jule. They really believed that another claimant for the Rambler had put in his appearance.
“That talk you heard was made by Jule,” explained Case. “He thinks nothing of being two or three people at a time!”
“Not that talk in which the intruder was ordered off the boat, under penalty of having his block knocked off?” Buck answered.
Jule laughed softly.
“That’s the size of it,” he explained. “Made the fellow get a move on, eh?” he added.