"Oh, I didn't know," laughed Ben genially. "I just thought you always like to be doing things."
"Not that kind," put in Jack.
"Is Peters much hurt?" asked Ed.
"It's hard to say," answered Ben. "He's pretty tough and I guess it's hard to do him much damage. I'm going over to see about it."
He rowed over toward where the other boats were congregated and the Petrel with the slow progress of which he had been keeping pace, swung on to the dock. Cora and the others could see the return of the little flotilla about the boat in which was Jim Peters.
CHAPTER XIX
IN BRIGHTER MOOD
It takes but a small happening to furnish excitement for a small place, and the fact that Jim and Tony had quarreled, and that near the landing, created quite a buzz. Of course, much disliked as Jim was, he was one of the regular fishermen, while Tony was a comparative stranger. This caused the latter to disappear when he saw that he had knocked Jim down and had perhaps seriously injured him.
The landing of Cora and the meeting with her friends was almost unnoticed. It was the fight, and the possible hope of more of it, that occupied the morbid crowd.
"Cora! Cora!" the girls were exclaiming, each evidently trying to be the most exclamatory.