"Hear! hear!" muttered Jerry, who in an emergency always looked to Frank to do the right thing.
He immediately extinguished the light.
"Don't make the least noise, if you can help it. Get the anchor off the ground, but don't attempt to bring it aboard," continued Frank in a whisper.
"Going to start the motor?" asked Bluff.
"Certainly not! It's shallow here, and the push-pole will have to move us along." Saying which, Frank possessed himself of the useful article in question, without which no small boat ever cruises in Florida waters.
"I hope we don't get mixed up, and run afoul of those chaps," breathed
Will.
"I've got them located, all right. We'll go in closer to the island, that's all. Perhaps they won't come at all until daylight."
"But if they do, Frank?" asked Bluff.
"We've got a right to protect ourselves, and we will," declared the other between his set teeth, for he was now silently pushing with the pole, Jerry having raised the anchor at the bow.
This sort of thing kept up for ten minutes. By that time Frank knew they were as close to the shore as prudence allowed.