“Hello, yourself!” returned the smaller of the men. “What do you think you are doing?”
“We’re surrounding you,” said Chot, “and now we’ll ask you to give an account of yourselves.”
“Well, just ask away, sonny.”
“Yes, don’t be bashful. If there’s anything we can tell you, don’t fail to mention it,” said the big man.
He was apparently resting easily on his oars, but Chot noticed that he was in a position where he could send the skiff spinning ahead in an instant.
Pod, as if guessing what was passing in Chot’s mind, pushed his canoe around until he was directly behind the man at the oars, and straight in the path of the skiff.
“To make a long story short,” said Chot, “we didn’t know who you were when you ran into our camp on the lake shore last night.”
“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” said the smaller man. “We’ve never seen you fellows before.”
“That tale won’t go. We saw you last night, and we’d know you again if we met you in China, so there’s no use trying to evade the issue. What is more, we know you are the men who robbed Dave Higgins’ house two nights ago.”
At this the men burst into a laugh, but it was an unnatural laugh, and could not deceive the keen ears of the boys from Winton.