Bob finished the story and then, after giving as good a description of the men as he was able, asked Jacques if he knew them.
The breed had said nothing while the boys had been talking and when Bob asked the question, he slowly shook his head.
“Me no know um,” he declared. “Them no belong round here or me know um.”
All three of the Sleepers were waiting on the wharf as they pulled in and the story had to be told again.
“This is getting serious and something ought to be done about it,” Mr. Sleeper declared as soon as they had finished.
“They won’t catch me napping again,” Jack assured him. “But just now I’m more concerned about some eats than anything else.”
“You poor boys,” Mrs. Sleeper broke in, “dinner will be ready in less than ten minutes. We told Jacques that we would have it ready by the time he got back, but you came a bit sooner than we expected. Go get washed up and I’ll help him get it on the table.”
“It strikes me that we’re making a grand foozle of this job,” Jack declared about an hour later as he threw himself on his bed.
Dinner was over and they had gone to their cabin for a much needed rest.
“I’ll make it unanimous,” Bob smiled as he too stretched out on his bed. “But what could we have done that we haven’t done?”