CHAPTER XXVI
THE PRISONER
"What had we better do to him?" asked Andy, as they neared the prostrate man.
"Tie him up so he can't get away again," replied Frank, as he glanced at the seaman who was rapidly rowing away. "If we keep him, now that we've got him, he may tell us what we want to know. And we've got the wreck of the motor boat, too. We sure ought to get at the bottom of this mystery now."
"Well, we deserve something after all we went through," remarked the younger lad, as he thought of the rising tide in the cave.
"That fellow is in a hurry all right," went on Frank, with a wave of his hand toward the sailor who was now some distance out. "I guess he hit him a pretty hard blow."
"Maybe he killed that man, and is afraid we'll arrest him," suggested
Andy.
"Nonsense! I don't believe that man is dead."
They were close to him now and stopped to observe the quiet figure. They hesitated for a moment, for, though they had made up their minds to make the man a prisoner, it was the first time they had done anything of the sort, and, naturally, they were a little timid.
Suddenly the figure on the sands stirred, and there came a murmur from the mysterious man.