"What's going on over there?" asked Jack, looking up from the engine which he was slowing down.
"Something must have happened," answered Cora. "Hark! There's a lot of excited talk."
Across the water floated the murmur of voices, some of them raised high in discussion.
"What's going on?" called Jack to a man who slipped past the side of the Petrel in a rowboat.
"Fight!" was the quick answer. "Jim Peters and a fellow they call Tony. They had a quarrel about some papers and a girl, and I don't know what not."
"A girl?" gasped Cora, wondering if she could be involved in the unpleasantness.
"Well, that's what some say. I don't rightly know. Guess it didn't amount to much. Anyhow they've got Peters over there in his boat. They're bringing him to a doctor. It seems Tony whacked him with a boat hook, and then, thinking he'd done serious damage, he leaped overboard and swam for it. They can't find him."
"And I don't believe they ever will," put in another voice, and as a second boat came up Cora recognized old Ben. "Ah, it's Miss Kimball and her friends," he added as he saw Cora and those in the Petrel. "Now here's a chance for you to use your brains, Miss Cora. Can't you find Tony for us?"
"No, why should I," she answered somewhat coolly.
She did not quite like this familiarity.