“Guess that is Briggs’ nephew from Cincinnati,” said Leonard, remembering the conversation he had had with the woman who told him of Briggs’ prisoner.
Shirley glanced at the young man in the other boat curiously.
“I seem to have seen him some place before,” she said. “I can’t place him, though.”
Suddenly Jones was seen to rise up in the other boat, and Leonard, divining his intention, cried out in a loud voice:
From the first boat there came a puff of smoke, followed by a sharp crack. Something whined over the _Sybil_.
“They are shooting at us,” said Leonard calmly. “You girls keep down in the boat.”
“Two can play at that game,” said one of the officers.
He drew his own revolver, and brought it to bear. But before he could fire, Shirley sprang to her feet and seized his arm.
“Careful,” she said, “you are likely to hit Jimmy.”
Leonard clapped his right hand to his left shoulder.
“What’s the matter?” she asked anxiously. “Are you hit?”
“Just a scratch, I guess,” replied Leonard quietly. “We’ll make them pay for that.”
“We will,” agreed Shirley through clenched teeth.
“Look out! He’s going to shoot again,” cried one of the officers. “Down, quick!”
Jones was standing aft in the launch and had levelled his revolver in deliberate aim. But before he could pull the trigger, there was an unexpected move in the boat.
The third member of the party of conspirators—the young man whose face was so strangely familiar to Shirley—suddenly sprang to his feet, and before Jones could realize his intention, had wrested the revolver from his hand with a quick move. Jones turned upon him angrily, and they grappled.
For several moments they swayed unsteadily in the boat, causing it to rock violently; and then Jones, putting forth a strenuous effort, sent his opponent hurling overboard and by another and more strenuous effort, succeeded in regaining his own balance just as it seemed that he, too, must tumble into the water.
“Slow down!” cried Shirley to the fisherman. “We must pick him up.”
The owner of the boat complied, and steered the craft to where the unfortunate youth’s head showed above the water at that moment. Leonard stretched forth his unwounded arm, and succeeded in dragging the victim aboard, where he sank to the bottom of the boat panting.