"Hush! 'Taint no use to fight with Jim. He'd get the best of you sure, and besides, then he would be your enemy. Just make a joke of it, and I'll tell you more later," and Ben prepared to start as soon as the boys, who were climbing into the motor boat, were ready.
"I'll pay you when we get to land," said Jack to the boatman, "I have no money in my bathing suit."
"Well, see that you do," said the man in a rough voice. "I'm not goin' to leave my work to tow a couple of sports just for the fun of it."
"Oh you'll get paid all right," Jack assured him, "and so will the fellow who stole our boat—when we catch him."
"I'll chip in for that," said Walter. "Never saw such a trick. Hello Bess, also howdy Belle. My, isn't it fine to be rescued from a desert island by three pretty girls?"
"Wallie! Wallie. There's a stranger aboard," warned Cora.
"Oh yes, this is Ben—Ben—"
"Just Ben," interrupted the man at the wheel, with a chuckle.
"But he has been so kind," added Cora. "Only for him we should never have found out where you were."
"If you hadn't taken us off that old sieve," put in Ed, "I think we would soon have had to swim back to the island. We never could have made the shore in that thing, neither could we swim that distance."