Meanwhile there was more or less excitement around that spot.
Jenks came wading ashore again, and holding his left arm in a way that would indicate that he had received some sort of a wound at the time the desperate thief fired at him.
The younger stranger was dancing around in a furious fashion, and acting so like a simpleton in his anger that Jack felt ashamed to remember that he had once suspected him of being the slick thief whom the paper called Slim Jim. Why, this chap was an innocent of the innocents, just the kind of boy his appearance had stamped him—some rich man’s petted darling, allowed to have a fine boat for a play toy, with a steady man to run it for him, whom he could boss around.
All this Jack realized in the brief space of time that he stood there, surveying the scene, and hearing the popping of the motor boat’s exhaust sounding less and less noisy, as the stolen craft went further and further away from the island.
And about that time the distracted owner of the boat seemed to realize that he and Jenks were not alone. He stared at Jack and his companions as though unable to understand how they came there, or if they were really flesh and blood.
“They said that this miserable island was haunted,” he exclaimed, “and I’m beginning to believe it’s so. Who are you, fellows, and where did you spring from?”
Jack was for taking the bull by the horns. He had seen all his suspicions concerning these two swept aside, so that they were no longer objects of concern in his eyes.
“It’s too long a story to tell just now,” he remarked as he approached the other. “We belong in a town above here, and are having a little outing on board our three motor boats, which are tied up not far away. When you landed we wondered who you were, because there has been a robbery committed in Lawrence up the river, and the two yeggs who broke into the bank were said to have escaped in a white motor boat with a red band around the gunnel.”
“What’s that?” gasped the other, as though staggered by such astonishing information, “took us for burglars, did you? I like that, now. Why, my name’s Algernon Lorrimer, and my father’s one of the richest men in Minneapolis. Get that?”