“W—was Clarence drowned?” Nick gasped, with awe-struck face; and quivering all over like a bowl full of jelly.
“Oh! no, neither of us went under,” replied Joe, promptly, to the great relief of all the boys. “But we came mighty near it, I tell you, fellers. I’m a duck in the water, you know, and I guess I helped Clarence get ashore. He said I did, anyway. And there we was, far away from everything, with not one bite to eat, or even a gun to defend ourselves against wild animals.”
“Wow! that was tough!” admitted Nick, sympathetically; as he remembered his own exploit when the Canada lynx invaded the camp, and how useful the shotgun proved on that occasion.
“But it wasn’t the worst, fellers! There’s more acomin’!” Joe went on, shaking his head solemnly.
“My gracious! did wild animals get poor old Clarence after all?” George asked.
“No,” Joe went on, with set teeth, “but a couple of men did that was as bad as any wild animals you ever heard tell of. They found us trying to make a fire to dry our wringing wet clothes; and they just treated us shameful. See this black eye I got just because I dared answer back. They kicked poor Clarence like he was a bag of oats.”
“Two men, you say?” Jack asked, frowning darkly. “What sort of men could they be to act like that toward a pair of shipwrecked boys?”
“They looked like lumber cruisers, or prospectors that never struck it rich,” Joe continued. “They had a grouch agin everybody. First thing they took what money we had, and Clarence’s fine watch that was water-soaked and wouldn’t run. Then they found out who we was by reading some letters he carried. I saw ’em talking it over; and then they tied us to a couple of trees.”
“Why, I never heard of such a wicked thing!” ejaculated the startled Nick; whose mouth kept wide open while he listened to this thrilling story of Joe’s.
“Do you think they meant to try and force blackmail?” asked the far-seeing George, whose father was a lawyer, it may be remembered.