CHAPTER XXXI.
THE FISH.
"I have rather a personal question to ask you, Captain Brown," Charley said, as the launch ploughed her way through the glowing water.
"Let's hear it," said the fisherman.
The lad hesitated. "It sounds rather impudent, but I want to know just how good a friend you are to Hunter and his gang?"
"Can't say that I am a friend of his at all," answered the man, frankly. "There are quite a few of us fishermen who have no particular love for him, but we all try to avoid trouble with him because he can make things pretty costly for a man in a secret, underhand way which leaves one nothing to grasp upon. I suspect you have found that out for yourselves."
"We have," admitted Charley, candidly. "It's a wonder to me, you fishermen, who do not like him, haven't got together and run him off before now."
"I expect it does look kind of queer to an outsider," replied the man, reflectively. "But it's natural enough when one gets to understand fishermen. You seldom find a fisherman but who has been more or less of a roamer and adventurer. Their lives have made them self-reliant and taught them the rather hard lesson that it don't pay to take up others' quarrels. Unconsciously, perhaps, their motto is 'leave me alone and I'll leave you alone.' They may really be in sympathy with a man, but they seldom will assist him in his disputes. That trait in them explains why Hunter lasts so long. They simply will not combine against him."
"I see," said Charley, thoughtfully, "that puts the matter in a new light to me. I had supposed they stood for Hunter and his ways because they approved of him and them."