“Dunnage!” interrupted Nicky. “Sam—it’s gold!”
Sam’s eyes rolled with excitement.
“They went and found it!” he gasped.
“We did, and they took it away from us,” Tom explained.
“Who’s hiding?” Cliff asked.
Sam suggested that they had better tell him their story first, and he laid on the oars and listened as they gave him a brief history of their adventures.
In his turn he told them his story.
“When I got my head full of crazy scares,” he said, “I left you on Crocodile Key, and sailed for the open water. Later on a revenue cutter overhauled me. Mr. Neale was with the men.”
“Then he was all right?” Nicky asked.
“Yes,” Sam replied, “all right, and mad. When he found out what I’d went and done he gave me an awful talking to, and then they turned the cutter about and went back to look for you.”