“I don’t care if you did,” answered Dan. “We left it here.”
“When?” asked a Wickasaw youth.
“That’s no affair of yours,” said Bob. “Just you tumble out or we’ll throw you out.”
“Bring it along, you fellows!” came from the launch. “If it’s theirs they’ll have to prove it.”
“It was on our land,” said Nelson, raising his voice and addressing the party in the launch.
“No, it wasn’t either. Your line’s away over there. This land belongs to Mr. Carpenter. You fellows swiped our flag last night and if you want that canoe you’ll have to come over to camp and prove it belongs to you. Bring it out, Jack.”
“Come on,” said Dan quietly. “We can get to ’em before they reach the launch.” And he led the way into the water on the run, stumbling over hidden obstacles and making straight for the canoe. Bob and Nelson and Tom followed. As soon as there was depth enough they threw themselves forward and began to swim. Meanwhile the two lads in the canoe were paddling for all they were worth and the launch had started up and was coming in gingerly to meet them. Had they been expert paddlers the two Wickasaw youths might easily have won that race with the long start they had, but neither of them knew very much about it and their strokes got more and more flurried and ragged as Dan and the others began to overhaul them. The launch had sighted obstructions and was now backing again, the while its occupants shouted encouragement to their companions and defiance to the foe. Half a dozen yards from the launch Dan’s hand reached up and seized the end of the canoe. The nearest paddler raised his “beaver tail” threateningly.
“If you hit me with that,” said Dan calmly, “I’ll just about drown you.” And while the other hesitated Tom, coming through the water like a torpedo-boat, joined Dan. The launch, its occupants angry and excited, was trying to reach the scene. But it didn’t get there in time.
[“Over with them,” said Dan], and the next instant the two Wickasaw boys were struggling in the water. Dan grabbed one of them and Bob, who had arrived on the scene of action meanwhile, seized the other. The wearers of the white and red disappeared from sight. When they came up a moment later, choking and sputtering, the paddles had been wrested from them and the capsized canoe was yards away in charge of Nelson. A big youth with a very red and angry face stood on the bow of the launch aiming blows at Dan with the boat-hook. But he was a yard too far away and Dan only grinned at him exasperatingly and said:
