He made a gesture that sent the Indian away; the lantern, set down as he left, gave the scene a weird green light.
“Well, my lads,” began the man, “how’d you come to stay here, when the sloop sailed?”
Nicky told him about their colored man and his terror of the ghostly boat the night before.
“Ho-ho-ho!” laughed their new acquaintance. “Scared him, did it? We aimed to scare the whole passel of you—we went to enough trouble.”
“Why did you want to scare us?” demanded Nicky eagerly.
The other did not answer. He seemed to be deep in thought.
“When are you going to feed us?” demanded Tom, more practically. Fearful though he might be in face of the unknown, he was no coward when face to face with a situation he could understand. And hunger was such a situation.
“No eats! Hum—well—” The man rubbed a stubby, brownish beard, reflectively. “We can’t starve you—we aimed to drive you away, but that didn’t work—still, no use to starve you till we know all we want to——”
He made a sign, as if he had decided on his course.
“Go ahead, back down the trail,” he ordered. Nicky, Tom and Cliff lost no time in complying.