"How much you got?" he questioned.
Jack displayed a roll of bills of comfortable proportions, for, as we know, the rascals on the tug had not thought it worth while to search their young prisoners.
The man's eyes dwelt on the money as if in speculation. He remained silent for a few seconds. Then he spoke in his gruff way.
"Come with me," he said, rising to his feet.
"Do you think he is all right?" whispered Sandy, as they prepared to follow.
"Frankly, I don't. But we must trust to luck. We've got to get something to eat, and I imagine he is some sort of a woodsman. He may have a good heart, even if his manners are gruff."
"A-weel," sighed Sandy, "I don't trust him a bit more than you do. But we maun find some place to rest, I'm thinking."
So they plunged into the woods after the man, who was looking back at them interrogatively. He strode along at some distance ahead. Ever and anon he would glance back to see if they were following. But he didn't speak.
They must have progressed thus for half an hour or more, when they suddenly emerged upon the shore from the trail they had hitherto been following. Before them spread the waters of the lake in all their vast solitude. Behind them lay the forest, and to their right towered a great mass of rocks and craggy cliffs, that were wild and primeval looking. But it was none of these things that transfixed the gaze of the two lads, and, tired as they were, filled their eyes with eager interest.
What captured their attention, to the exclusion of every other feature of the landscape, was a tower of rough outline, about forty feet or more in height, which stood directly in front of them on a little rocky promontory.