"We wouldn't lift a finger if she was sinking with all three of you on board!" Joe shouted, unable to remain silent any longer. "There's been a schooner up here from Nassau since that trick, as you call it, was played on us, and if her crew ever get hold of your crowd it won't make any difference whether the Bonita goes to pieces or floats!"
For an instant the two men sat motionless and silent, staring at the engineer as if stupefied by the information; and then the one with the red nose cried hoarsely, as he shook his fist in impotent rage:
"We was willin' to give you a fair show, an' do our share toward repairin' the steamer; but if that can't be done, look out for squalls. We'll pull the brig off the shoals; and, what's more, it will be done with that steamer!"
"Come an' take her!" Bob cried derisively. "You've got to get rid of us first, then repair the machinery, an' afterwards learn to run it. By that time I reckon there'll be more gray hairs in your heads than there are now!"
The angry man looked at the old sailor an instant as if about to make another threat, and then, evidently changing his mind, he spoke a few words to his companion, after which the two began to row leisurely toward the shore.
The crew of the Sea Bird watched them in silence until the boat's bow grated on the sand, and as the men left her to go into the woods, Joe said:
"If we worked lively it might be possible to tow that yawl out here before they knew what was being done. Then those two would be harmless, an' the one they've left on the brig wouldn't be able to do much mischief alone."
"It could be done, I s'pose," Bob replied, thoughtfully; "but I'd rather let 'em go away than stay so near."
"But we shall have to be on guard all the time, for no one knows when they'll make an attempt to steal this steamer."
"I can't see that we should be as well off to coop 'em up on the island. We've got to take in a supply of water from there before it'll be safe to leave the harbor, an' they'd interfere with sich a job mightily."