“And, last of all, let me tell you that neither you nor your crew are going to try to be revenged on us. Why? Because you don’t dare to. It wouldn’t be healthy for any of you, if it became known in the village what was in that cave, and nobody knows that better than you. Not that Bob and I intend to tell, ever, unless you give us cause to. But let me tell you that it won’t do for you to play any tricks on us.
“Please don’t forget that neither you nor a single one of your crew dares to disturb so much as a rope around this camp. Now you can get up.”
Harvey rose, white with rage, and stood for a moment, as though undecided whether or not to continue the unequal combat; but his better judgment prevailed, and he walked slowly out of the tent, pausing at the door long enough to say:
“You need not have any fear of our troubling you or your camp. You have been too smart for us, and we shall steer clear of you after this.
“In fact,” he added, sneeringly, “any little thing we can do for you at any time, just let us know. We shall think a great deal of two such smart fellows as you, I assure you.” And so saying, he left them.
“Sorry we can’t say as much for you,” Bob called out after him, and was half-sorry for the words the next moment; for it was foolish to increase an enmity which could only lead to trouble.
CHAPTER VII.
SQUIRE BRACKETT’S DOG
The island got a respite of at least a week, after the explosion, from excitement of any sort. A calm like that of the primeval days before the “boom” pervaded all the settlement. But it was not to endure. One morning a little fishing-schooner, which had fallen into the hands of Squire Brackett, through a mortgage which he had foreclosed upon a poor skipper across the bay, and which was now lying at anchor in the harbour, was found painted with broad stripes of blood red, and flying the skull and cross-bones at the masthead, a veritable pirate craft.
The squire was never able to discover whether the authors of this piece of mischief were the boys or some of his own townsmen, who, indignant at his seizure of the only means of livelihood belonging to the unfortunate skipper, had roundly denounced Squire Brackett for his meanness. However, the incident resulted in the squire leaving on the boat one day for the city of Benton to make a purchase.
What the squire purchased he brought back with him the next day. And, as it is a matter of passing interest how his purchase arrived at the island and how brief a time it remained there, it shall be here recorded. By the same boat there came to the village an individual whose arrival made no stir, but who remained long enough to create the greatest excitement the village had ever known.