"Good-by, Freddie, good-by," called the three Go Ahead boys together, as their comrade obediently followed the call and at once joined his grandfather and the man who had demanded the bond and turned into the street.
"That fellow was waiting for us," exclaimed George in surprise. "I believe that Mr. Button knew all the time that he was to be here."
"Well, what do you make of it?" inquired Grant.
"I don't know what to make of it. That man and a lot of his friends from the canal-boats force their way on board the Black Growler and leave only when they are scared by the coming of the Caledonia. Then the first thing we know he shows up here at Cape Vincent and orders us to give up a bond which he says we have."
"And the worst of it is that we have it," said George ruefully.
"HAD it, you mean," suggested Grant soberly.
"That's right," joined in John. "We gave it up and had it recorded in Fred's name. Now I suspect that those two men somehow have put up a job on Fred and that we'll lose our bond."
"'Our' bond is good," scoffed George.
"Well, whose is it?" demanded John.
"That's what we don't know, but that doesn't mean that everything we see, which may be the property of somebody we don't know, belongs to us."