“And from the way you talk, Josh,” Jack went on, paying no attention to these side remarks on the part of his other chums, “I can give a guess that you must have made some little discovery on your own hook that has told you our two friends might be playing a little game of blindman’s buff with us right now. How is that, Josh?”
“Jack, you’re the greatest feller I ever struck, to get on to anything,” replied the long-legged one, admiringly.
“That isn’t answering my question,” the other continued.
“Then I’ll say, yes,” Josh went on.
“Tell us what it was you heard,” George asked, once more fairly boiling with a desire to know everything connected with the mysterious passengers of the little power boat that had acted so strangely on the trip down the east coast.
“Hold on a minute,” said Josh. “This bandage is slipping down, so I’ll have to get you to fix it for me, boys. Hope the hole’s leaked all it’s going to, because I can’t afford to lose as much fluid as some fellers, Nick for instance. There, that feels all right. Now, what was you saying to me? Oh! yes, about how I happened to get onto the fact that the two gentlemen that took me aboard their boat might be somethin’ else besides what they said. Was that it?”
“Just what it was!” George came back, knowing how Josh always liked to beat about the bush more or less before telling anything he knew.
“Well, here’s the way it stands, fellers,” went on Josh. “You see, after they carried me on board the boat, I laid there like a mummy in a trance. But by slow degrees I began to come back again. And all the while my eyes must have been shut, I could hear some mumbling voices, though for the life of me I couldn’t make out who it was talkin’.”
“Oh! hurry up, old ice-wagon; get a move on you, and tell us!” exclaimed George, almost biting his tongue with impatience.