“Listen,” said the stranger, hitching up on an elbow. “You fished me out of the water, but that don’t give you no right to put me through the third degree. My business is my business—see!”
“Who are you?” demanded Penny.
She thought he would refuse to answer, but after a moment he said curtly: “James Webster.”
Both Penny and Ben were certain that the man had given a fictitious name.
“You work aboard the Snark?” Ben resumed the questioning.
“No.”
“Then what were you doing there?”
“And why were you pushed overboard?” Penny demanded as the man failed to answer the first question.
“I wasn’t pushed,” he said sullenly.
“Then how did you get into the water?” Penny pursued the subject ruthlessly.