By this time the native crew was swarming up from below, and Doris and the professor were standing in the shadows.
“Let the fellow go,” Dave whispered to Johnny. “He’s just some native who happened by in a dugout, saw our boat and thought he’d have a look. He might have meant to steal something, but you can’t prove that. We don’t want to get these natives excited. They might leave us in a body. Then where would we be?”
“Oh—all right,” Johnny agreed, reluctantly. To the man he said: “Come with me.”
The man’s boat was tied to a belaying pin up forward. As they walked in that direction, Johnny and the intruder were out of sight of the others, for a moment.
“I’ll just take this to remember you by,” said Johnny, dragging the man’s knife from its sheath. “If you’re a native—you should carry a machete.”
The man favored him with a mocking smile, then bolted over the rail into his small boat and was gone.
“Well, that’s that!” said Johnny, as he rejoined the others. “Here’s hoping he doesn’t come back.”
“Johnny,” said Dave, “I wonder if you weren’t making a whole lot out of a very little.”
“Perhaps I was,” Johnny answered quietly. He saw no point in arguing.
A moment later he said: “Dave—what was that thing you shocked the octopus with?”