"If he spends any money on you he'll be foolish," returned the shipowner's son. "Now go ahead, we are not going to waste all our time on you." It was not long after this when they came in sight of the other boys. Ben and Roger were still fishing, while Luke and Shadow were resting on the rocks, the latter telling one of his favorite stories. "Hello! What luck?" called Ben, looking up. And then he added: "Great Caesar's ghost! if it isn't Link Merwell!" "Where did you run across him?" cried Luke, leaping to his feet, followed by Shadow. "We found him running away from some kind of a wild man," answered Dave. "The wild man who scared us into fits the other day?" queried Roger. "We don't know if it was that fellow or somebody else," answered Phil. Link Merwell was much crestfallen to confront so many of his former schoolmates of Oak Hall. He realized that he was "in the camp of the enemy" in more ways than one. At one time or another he had played each of them some sort of a scurvy trick, and he realized that not one of them would have a good word to say for him. "Well, I see they have made you a prisoner," remarked Luke, as he noticed that Link's hands were tied behind him. "Humph! they had no right to do it," growled the prisoner. "Where are you going to take me, anyhow?" "We are going to take you to our bungalows," announced Dave. "There you will have the pleasure of talking the matter over with Mr. Wadsworth." At the mention of the name of the man he had robbed, Link Merwell winced and his face paled. Evidently he did not relish what was in store for him. "Say, having his hands tied behind him puts me in mind of a story," began Shadow. "Once there was a fellow----" and then, as the would-be story teller saw a look of disgust coming over the faces of his chums, he added hastily: "Oh, well, never mind. I'll tell you that story some other time." "Is Mr. Wadsworth staying up here with you?" asked Link, while Ben and the others prepared to return to the bungalows. "He is," answered Dave. "Is his family with him?" "Yes, we are all up here for a short vacation." Dave looked at his enemy squarely in the eyes. "Link, do you think you are treating me just right? I never put a straw in your way, and yet you have done everything you could to make things unpleasant for me. I tried to help you down on Cave Island, and in return for that you have been sending letters to Nat Poole asking him to help you in hurting me. And then the other day you sent that note calling me a 'poorhouse nobody.'" "Oh, don't preach to me, Dave Porter!" growled the youth who had been made a prisoner. "I hate that kind of talk. You always tried to set yourself up as being better than any one else. Maybe you could get on the soft side of Gus Plum, but you can't play any such game as that on me. I know what I am doing." "Link, I'm sorry to hear you talk that way," went on Dave, earnestly. "Do you want to spend all your life in prison?"