"You talk just as though we could go right over to the main shore without the slightest trouble," said Judd, laughingly. "Are you going to walk over?"
"No," said Budd, briefly; "but I'm going to put my clothes into our smallest tub, and pushing that ahead of me, swim over. We could, of course, make a raft, but we haven't the time for it;" and Budd ran back to the house, appearing again in a moment with the tub.
He found his companion already undressing, and not three minutes had elapsed before both boys, pushing the tub before them, were swimming for the nearest point of the main shore. They were equally good swimmers, and in about fifteen minutes reached the point, and dressing, each hurried off his appointed way.
Budd's way was down across "The Hummocks" to "the narrows," which he was obliged to swim; but as the distance was short, he managed to do it carrying his clothes in a bundle on his head. Dressing again, he ran along the shore to the cove he had mentioned, and laughed aloud when he came to the boats so securely padlocked.
"My dear Mr. Benton," he said, mockingly, as he started back up the bay, "had you hitched them with a tow-line I would not have disturbed them. You will yourself be glad to bring them back before the day is over."
He re-swam "the narrows," and reached the point of land opposite the island before Judd had returned. But he had not long to wait; and when he had taken a seat in Mr. Taylor's yawl with his partner, under their united strokes the light boat sped through the water like a racer. With quick and dexterous hands the fish were packed, and ten minutes before the appointed hour the box was landed at the railroad station.
Budd had told his chum, as soon as he had rejoined him, of the discovery he had made, and so the young partners went directly from the depot to the house of the proper officer for swearing out a warrant against Mr. Benton, and in half an hour Mr. Avery, the constable, was driving toward that gentleman's residence with the warrant in his pocket.
Arriving at the farm a little past seven o'clock, he was told that Mr. Benton had gone down to the shore. He followed him down there, and found the unsuspecting man standing by the stolen boats.
"Good-morning, Mr. Benton," he said. "You have quite a collection of craft here. Isn't that Boyd & Floyd's sloop and yawl?"
It seems almost incredible that Mr. Benton did not even now suspect the officer's errand, or the nature of his own act; and realizing this, Mr. Avery enjoyed the situation immensely.