For a moment the captain made no reply as he looked keenly at the boys. At last he said, “I have sailed over to Cockburn Island a good many times. Why do you want to know who lives there?”
“We had some strange experiences on that island,” explained Grant.
“I don’t doubt you,” said the captain. “I don’t doubt your word a bit. What did you see there?”
“Why, it wasn’t so much what we saw as the fact that there seemed to be something very mysterious about the island and the people who live there. We went into a little shanty one day. At least it looked like a little shanty, not very far back from the shore and we found it all fitted up like a city house. There were rugs on the floors, and chairs and tables just such as you might see in town. The man had a Japanese servant, but there was something so strange about the whole thing that we didn’t know just what to make of it. Do you know the man who lives there?”
“I have seen him,” said the captain simply.
“Is there anything queer about him?”
The captain whistled as he looked up into the sky as if he was searching the clouds for an answer. “I know him when I see him,” he said at last. A moment later he added, “I guess I see him now.”
Startled by his words the boys looked quickly in the direction indicated, and across the field saw two men approaching the shore. One plainly was the man whom they had seen on Cockburn Island and his companion was the one who had approached from the woods and at his unexpected and startling hail the boys had fled up the shore.
“What do you suppose they want?” said George in a low voice to Grant.
“I haven’t the remotest idea. If we stay here a little while we may know more about it.”