“You chaps are nervous as kittens,” he was saying, “who on earth would come to this island? We are as private here as if we were in the South Seas. Now go ahead, Morgan, with what you were saying.”
“Well, what h’I says is this,” spoke up the English butler, “a fair diwision and no favoritism. You say you want a third? You ain’t h’entitled to h’it. H’it was h’only by h’accident that you found h’out h’our secret h’and h’I thinks you ought to be content with what you can get.”
“Very well,” was the rejoinder, “but as you fellows know, I’ve got you in my power. You daren’t make a move without consulting me. If you try any monkey tricks I’ll crush you so quick you won’t know what struck you. The police are still carrying on their investigation, and––”
But here the voices sank so low that the eager young listeners could hear no more. But their eyes shone as they exchanged glances. Somehow both Peggy and Roy felt that the conversation had related to the mysterious vanishing of the jewels. This at least appeared clear from Fanning Harding’s reference to the police.
“We’d better get back to the other side of the island before they come out and see us,” counseled Peggy. “If they were to find out we had been spying on them they might get frightened and spirit the jewels away from wherever they have them concealed, for I’m just as sure now that they are all three mixed up in it as I am that—that––”
“We have no gasolene,” put in Roy.
“But you have no proof and nothing to go upon,” objected Jeff Stokes who was, like most folks around Sandy Bay, familiar with the details of the strange occurrence.
“That’s just the trouble,” said Peggy, “and it is just as impossible to go ahead in the case as it is for us to fly without fuel.”
“Peg!” cried Roy, suddenly, “look at that!”
“That” was a ten gallon can of gasolene standing on the beach by the side of the motor boat. Evidently, to drag her bow up on the beach, they had lightened the craft so as to make the task easier, for several ropes, water jars and other bits of marine tackle lay about.