“The rest of you go on to the cottage,” he directed. “I’ll stay here on guard, in case our friend, the engineer, should have a mind to drop in on a visit. After dinner, let Jake bring me a snack to eat, and I’ll keep watch through the night. You—” he turned toward Margaret and Saxe—“can take me to the island, and show me the entrance to the cave, and then leave me.”
There were protestations from the others, offers to share the watch with him; but Roy resisted all importunities.
“I’d like to meet Masters again,” he declared, in his gentlest voice. “I don’t want any help.” They recognized the emphasis of finality, and forebore further argument.
But, when after dinner at the cottage Jake was about setting forth in the launch with supplies for Roy, which in addition to food included a pair of blankets and a lantern, David appeared at the boat-house, and accosted the old man just as the propeller began to revolve:
“Hold your hosses, Jake!” he called; and the boatman obediently threw out the clutch, and steered in a slowing circle to the dock. As he came alongside, David produced—with a deftness of movement that showed some degree of familiarity with gun-play—a very businesslike appearing automatic, which lay snugly in his palm. With his other hand, he brought forth a box of cartridges. These and the weapon, he extended toward Jake.
“For Roy,” he explained. Jake nodded, and stowed the armament in a locker.
The recipient of this equipment displayed small gratitude for his friend’s thoughtfulness. On the contrary, he sniffed when Jake, after beaching the launch on the strip of sand where Roy awaited his coming, presented the automatic and cartridges as first fruits.
“I sha’n’t need a gun,” Roy declared superciliously; and his pugnacious jaw was thrust forward yet once again. And, afterward, when Jake had accompanied him to the cavern with the blankets and the lighted lantern, the boatman’s well-meant offer to remain for the night was rejected almost with indignation. “You don’t understand, Jake,” Roy said, venomously. “I personally have an account to settle with that infernal engineer.”
The old man grinned a cheerful appreciation of the situation.
“Of course,” he remarked, in a matter-of-fact tone, “you got quite some hefty grudge agin ’im for the way he ducked your sweetheart.”