The Mystery Boys and Captain Kidd's Message
comes!” he shouted. “Cutter—ahoy!” 
With a common fear Tew snatched up a second pair of oars as the sailor, with a mighty heave on one oar, began to swing his tender in a circle; then both began to row away around the islet with all their strength, while Nicky and Tom, seeing Cliff’s deception, and knowing that it had succeeded because the men thought they could see from the cabin top what was invisible on the water line, leaped up beside their comrade and began to hail and to wave their arms. 
The tender was quickly out of their sight, and yet they kept up their shouting, until, at a sign from Cliff, they desisted. 
“Well, that’s over—for the time!” Cliff said thankfully. 
“But we’re worse off than ever,” Tom added. “They’ll watch——” 
“No they won’t!” Nicky argued. “They’ll hide. We are not so badly off. We can load the guns and if we have to we can shoot over their heads when they come back after us!” 
“But they have guns, too,” objected Cliff. 
“Well,” Nicky proposed, “let’s fix the cabin so we can take refuge there, barricade it. There’s all the food for a long siege, and we can command the doors from those portholes.” 
Tom caught their arms, and with a swift whisper and a nod toward a moving figure on the islet, caused them to begin to wave their hands and to beckon, all looking out toward the Gulf. 
Tom had espied a creeping figure, low on the ground. Tew, with some purpose in his mind, had landed on the islet and crept across to the side nearest the stranded vessel. Cliff covered him and called softly, “Stay where you are, Mr. Tew!” 
The figure on the ground flattened and stopped. 
“I won’t hurt you—I wa’n’t goin’ to hurt you!” he called softly. “How clost are they?” 
“About half a mile off the coast,” Nicky answered, hoping his untruth would be forgiven under the circumstances. 
“I just wanted to warn you—if you let them take you off, don’t say nothing about us—and then no harm’ll come to you. But if any of us gets nabbed—we’ll take care not all are—we’ll hunt you down if it takes all our lives!” 
“All right!” called Tom quickly, neither agreeing nor refusing. 
Tew waited a moment, then seemed to decide that he had better not stay there since they had discovered him and he could not watch. He crept back out of sight at the far side of the islet, behind its small, tangled trees and bushes, and the chums turned again to their plan. 
“One of you go down and see if the cabin doors can be fastened,” Nicky urged. “Tom—you go! Cliff, can’t that skylight on top of the cabin be battened down?” 
“Yes—there’s a covering—but——” 
“I know it won’t help once they get on top—but having it fastened would make it take longer to get to us. And we’d have the light switches and could light the mast light if they come at night.” 
Tom returned to the deck. 

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