“Ye kin see I did some fightin’,” said Bromley, who was now sitting down and holding his head, on one side of which a big lump had come into sudden being. “There’s my butter crock smashed—I heaved it at one of the villings—I did so!
“But three ter one is big odds for an old feller like me. Ye see what they done to me? And they went off with your new boat, Master Dan. That’s what they was after.”
“What did they look like?” queried Dan, sharply.
“They was masked—every one o’ them,” replied Bromley.
“They went up the river, Dan,” said Billy, eagerly. “Didn’t you hear the exhaust of their engine?”
“I couldn’t place it.”
“I could,” declared Billy, earnestly. “I was out on the end of the dock, and I marked it well. ’Twas up-stream——”
“Ye’d better telephone to the constable,” said Old John.
“To Josiah Somes?” laughed Billy. “A fat lot of good that would do us.”
“You ’phone to the sheriff, John,” commanded Dan, suddenly deciding the matter. “And tell father about it, if he asks. But Billy and I will follow the robbers.”