"What? Now, you are not in earnest! Ha! ha! He! he! I see that you are something of a joker. It's all right, all right. I tumble to your game." "And I think I tumble to your game, Mr. Cooler," said Merry, sternly. "You can have the information you want." "The information?" repeated the queer old man, in apparent consternation. "Why, it can't be that you are connected with the Eastern Bay Land Syndicate?" "I do not know anything about the Eastern Bay Land Syndicate." "What a relief!" sighed Mr. Cooler. "Really, you gave me quite a start. But I am ahead of them. If the island is as represented, I will secure it. This part of the Bay is bound to become famous with summer people." "I do not know what you are trying to give me, but I tell you I am onto your little game. Go back to Mr. Dave Hicks and tell him I am going to Devil Island. I have met him there once; tell him I shall be pleased to meet him there again." "But I do not want to go back to Mr. Hicks," protested the little man. "I want to go to Devil Island with you." "You can't go." "I must. Young man, I will pay you any----" "I do not want your pay. You came aboard by that boat. Get into it and return ashore. If you are so anxious to get to Devil Island, you will find plenty of fishermen who will set you on there if you pay them for it." "You are wrong. All the fishermen seem afraid to go near it. I tried several of them this morning, and then the man with the broken nose and the bent eye told me you were going down that way. That is why I am here." The little man in gray seemed very much in earnest now, but Frank had made up his mind and was not to be turned. "Get into that boat, sir," he commanded. "We can't take you to Devil Island." "You'll have to," said Mr. Cooler, stubbornly. "I am here, and I am going with you." "I rather think not," drawled Bruce Browning, who had been brought to the deck at last by the sound of talk. The big fellow picked the little man up by the collar, carried him to the rail and dropped him into the dory, saying to the boatman: "Take him ashore immediately, or he will have to swim ashore, for I shall throw him overboard if he boards the _White Wings_ again." The queer little man in gray looked astounded and then amused. He reached up and pulled his coat collar round into place, and stared at Bruce, beginning to chuckle, as if the whole thing was a very entertaining joke. "He! he!" he laughed. "Excuse me. Can't help it. Very funny. You chaps act like you thought I'd bite. I won't bite. Never bit a man in all my life. However, I see you are determined to go away without me, and I'll not try to force myself upon you. If there is anything I detest it is a man who makes himself obnoxious by forcing himself on others. He! he!" "Ha! ha!" laughed Hans. "I vos der funniest man you efer seen, ain'd id? Vale! vale! vale! Der next dime you come aproad der _Vite Vings_ you hat petter stayed ashore."