"Here! What's this? Splane, are you crazy to tie me up this way? Let me go, I say, or I'll make you sorry for this. Let me go, I say!"
He was struggling violently, swaying to and fro as he sat on the sands. Then his vision, which was probably obscured by the blow he had received, cleared, and he saw the two boys holding the ends of the ropes that bound him.
"Oh, it's you; is It?" he gasped, plainly astonished. "Didn't I tell you to stop following me? I won't have it! If you don't—" He stopped short. A look of wonder followed by one of alarm came over his face.
"The cave!" he exclaimed. "I left you in the cave. The tide was rising. You—you—"
"Yes, we escaped, but no thanks to you!" exclaimed Frank sternly. "You meant us to be drowned, but we found a way out, and now we have you just where we want you, you rascal! You'll tell us what we want to know, you'll clear up the mystery of Paul Gale, and you'll confess what you want of this motor boat now, I guess."
"Suppose I refuse?"
"Then we'll take you before the authorities.
"Ha! Ha! A likely story. Marooned on this lonely island you can't do much. You see I happen to know your boat is gone, and—"
"Gone, yes, because you took her," interrupted Andy.
"No, I didn't take either your sailboat or the rowboat," spoke the man simply. "I wanted to, but some one else got ahead of me. I had to row away from the island as the storm came up, and it was no joke, either."