“We haven’t got much choice in the matter, have we?” Jerry answered. “The longer we stay here, the worse our chances will be. There’s no telling when the man with the gun or somebody else will come out here to do something with this money, and if they find us here....”
“I’d sure hate to cross that fellow,” Sandy agreed. “I don’t like the way he handles that rifle of his. He looks too darn ready to use it!”
Stuffing the counterfeit five-hundred-dollar bill into his pocket, Sandy stood up. “We’d better get going now, while we still have a chance,” he said. “The only thing to do now is to get this bill to the police as evidence of what we’ve found, and to put them on to this island.”
Sandy started up from the cabin but, as his head emerged from the hatchway, he stopped dead in his tracks, for floating in a dinghy just a few feet away was the mysterious owner of the island accompanied by two tough-looking sailors! Sandy looked in dismay from their three faces to the muzzles of three guns pointed directly at him!
It was not a pleasant smile that the man from the island gave him as he said, “Well! This is quite a surprise for all of us, isn’t it? Are you still looking for water? Or do you have a better story to entertain me with today?”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Double Blackout
Sandy tried his hardest to look unknowing and innocent, and at the same time shocked and outraged. With the three guns aimed at him, it was not an easy job.
“What’s the idea?” he exclaimed. “I’ve never seen anybody so ready with a gun as you are! We were only looking for our boat. You know it looks the same as yours. We thought for a while that this was it, but....”
“But you found out, after some thorough snooping, that it wasn’t, didn’t you?” the man sneered. “Of course you did. It’s my boat, all right! And you’re trespassing on it! And this is my island too, and you were trespassing there yesterday! And if I were to shoot you, I would be perfectly within my rights as a landowner!”
Sandy tried with difficulty to smile reassuringly. “Take it easy, mister,” he said. “Honestly, we were just looking for our boat. It dragged anchor in the storm last night, and when we saw yours we made a natural mistake and thought it was ours. Okay, it isn’t. We made a mistake, that’s all. Now if you’ll just let us apologize, we’ll get off your private property and go looking again.”