“They’ll know better now,” grumbled the cautious one. “We gotter beat it.”
Meanwhile two of the men were lifting out what the hollow under the hearthstone contained. This was a heavy box, some two feet square, bound with iron bands, and padlocked.
“Knock off the lock and let’s see ’em!” exclaimed the more excitable fellow.
“No, we won’t,” declared the leader. “We gotter beat it.”
“The wind’s all right. We can get away just the way we come—sure.”
“And these kids?” growled the other, eyeing the panting and bruised Speedwell boys with much disfavor.
“They’ll set the officers after us in short order.”
“Not if these two lads were foolish enough to come here to the island alone,” growled the first speaker.
“You bet. And Dummy, too. They can stop here a while and be company for each other,” and the fellow laughed in anything but a comforting way.
Dan and Billy were badly frightened, whether the dummy was, or not. The latter nursed his scorched legs in one corner. The Speedwell boys lay side by side in another. There wasn’t the first chance for them to escape, and the brothers knew it.
“We butted in where we had no call to, this time,” muttered Billy, in despair.
They had not long to wait. The three robbers had come to the island for just one thing, and they had found it. Whatever was in the padlocked box, they seemed delighted to have it.
Dan had joked about there being treasure buried on the island; but that is exactly what there was—so Billy thought. Dummy had been left to guard it, and was to show the hidden box to somebody. But these three ruffians were not the people who had any right to it.
This was easy to understand. And Dummy, although he had screamed and would not put up a fight, was brave in his way. He had suffered torture rather than show these men where the box had lain.
Now two of the fellows seized him once more, and the poor chap screamed again. They only bound him, however—but they bound him so tightly that he had good reason to cry out.
It was so with Dan and Billy, in turn, as well. At wrists and ankles the three boys were lashed with strong fishline, that cut into the flesh. It was impossible to stretch their bonds at all without lacerating their wrists and ankles.