"Oh, we're not," said the tall man hastily.
"Here's my court-house badge," and he displayed it. "This has nothing to do with a lawsuit. We just want to find Tony. If that wasn't him on the island who scared the girls, who was it? Surely she can't object to telling; it can't hurt her. Who was it?"
Before Cora could answer there was a sound at the door of the hut and a voice exclaimed:
"It was my father!"
There stood Laurel, and the officers shifted their gaze from Cora to her. They started eagerly forward, hoping to get the information they sought from the new witness.
"Tell us about it," urged the short man.
"No, let me, Laurel dear," interrupted Cora. "I can explain, Jack, and have it all over with. Really it's very simple."
Then, without at all going into the details of the mystery of the hermit, which information Cora felt the detectives had no right to possess, she told how she and Laurel had been in the hut and how the unknown man who so frightened, them had turned out to be Laurel's father, and that even now he was under care because of the injury he received.
"And he lived on Fern Island all this while?" asked one of the officers. "Why did he do that?"
"For his health I guess," said Jack sharply. "That doesn't concern your case against Tony, or whatever his name was, and this Peters. You've found out that my sister doesn't know anything to help you in your hunt, and you might as well skip out. This is private ground, you know."