“Say!” he cried; “you’re too fresh, Mr. Frank Merriwell! I know you! Because you are a college chap and have had your name printed in the papers, you think you can come down here into Maine and run over the countrymen you find here. Well, you will find out the countrymen won’t be run over. I don’t believe you are such a much, anyway. What you really need is a good thumping, and I’d like the job to give it to you. I’d done it yesterday if it hadn’t been for that big lummuxing chum of yours who meddled in. I’ll do it yet when I get the chance! I promise you that I will thump you, and Jim Welch always keeps his promises. Now, you chaps had better git!”
“You are very amusing, Mr. Jim Welch,” he declared. “It is evident that you think yourself a dangerous sort of individual, but you are dangerous only when you have a shotgun in your hands and are hidden behind some reeds. It would be just like you to try to shoot somebody in the back. Your face shows that.”
“I didn’t shoot at all, and you don’t want to say I did.”
“Then your friend did!” cried Hodge, who was fairly quivering for trouble. “His face shows he wouldn’t hesitate to——”
“Look here, confound you!” growled the man, scowling at Hodge; “you want to go slow! Neither of us did any shooting, for we ain’t got anything to shoot with.”
“Well, it don’t make a bit of difference whether you believe it or not. You’re nothing but kids, and we can’t fool with you. Come, Welch, if we’re going to get any fishing this morning we must get started. Come on.”
He placed the oars in the rowlocks and got into position for rowing.
“What were you doing in there behind those reeds?” asked Frank.
“That is none of your business!” shouted Welch. “Now, you chaps want to get out of the way, or you’ll get into trouble, for we won’t fool with ye!”
He lifted an oar threateningly, but the canoe was beyond his reach, and so he sat down, after half rising to his feet.
“Take your paddle out of the water, Bart,” whispered Frank. “I’m going to have a look into their boat.”
Hodge obeyed, and then, with a single, long, quick stroke, Merriwell whirled the canoe up beside the boat.
“What are you doing?” growled the startled man.
“To blazes with you! I told you we had no guns, and you can see for yourselves. Do you see any guns?”