Then the men sailed away, leaving our lads to stare at each other in speechless amazement.
CHAPTER XX.
AN EXCITING RACE FOR LIBERTY.
"What do you suppose it all means?" asked Alaric, as the boat containing the two white men sailed away.
"If it is true, it means that somebody has been fooling us, and you know who he is as well as I do," replied Bonny, who did not care to mention names within Bah-die's hearing. "If I'm not very much mistaken, it means also that he is trying to hold on to us until the cutter comes back. You know they offered him a reward to find us."
"Only twenty-five dollars," interposed Alaric, who could not imagine anybody committing an act of treachery for so small a sum.
"That would be a good deal to some people. I don't know but what it would be to me just now."
"If I had once thought he was after the money," continued Alaric, "I would have offered him twice as much to deal squarely with us."
"Would you?" asked Bonny, with a queer little smile, for his comrade's remarks concerning money struck him as very absurd. "Where would you have got it?"
"I meant, of course, if I had it," replied the other, flushing, and wondering at his own stupidity. "But what do you think we ought to do now?"