"Why, confound the boy!" ejaculated Mr. Rogers. "What ever bee has stung him?" And gripping me by the shoulder as I heaved at the boat, he swung me round to face him. "Look here, young Harry Brooks! Do you happen to be sickening for something, that you talk like a gutter-snipe to a gentleman old enough to be your grandfather? Or, damme, have you and Goodfellow been coming to blows? By the nose of you and the state of your shirt a man would say you've come from a street fight; and by your talk, that your head was knocked silly." "It's all very well, Mr. Rogers," said I, sulkily, "and I know I oughtn't to have spoken like that, but I hate to be tyrannized over. That's why I didn't take your warning first along and pull back to the ship--though I thank you for it all the same." "Eh?" said Mr. Rogers. "My warning? What in thunder is the boy talking about?" "When you saw me sculling for shore, here, about an hour ago," I explained, "you pretended not to see me, and went after Captain Branscome; but I saw you, fast enough, standing on the bank yonder, under the trees." "For a certainty the child is mad!" Mr. Rogers stared at me round-eyed. "_I_ saw you? _I_ pretended not to? Why, man alive, from the time we left the ship I never set eyes on you (how should I?), nor ever guessed you were ashore till we came back and found your boat beside the dinghy. And as for standing under those trees, I was never on the bank there for one second--no, nor for the half of one. The Captain and I walked around the spit together--the tide has covered our footmarks or I could show 'em to you." "At any rate there _was_ a man," I persisted. "And he couldn't have been the Captain either, for he was wearing dark clothes--" "The devil! I say, Branscome, listen to this--" "I am listening," answered the Captain, gravely, taking, as he stepped forward, a long look at the bank above us and at the dense forest to right and left. "Did you see the man's face, Harry?" "No, sir, or I should not have mistaken him for Mr. Rogers. He was standing there, under the boughs, and seemed to be looking through them and watching me. I was sculling the boat along with a paddle slipped in the stern notch, and he let me come pretty close--I couldn't have been two hundred yards away--when he slipped to the back of the trees, and I lost him." "You didn't see him again?" "No, sir; I didn't land just at once. I had a mind at first to put about and row to the schooner, thinking that Mr. Rogers had meant it for a hint. When I brought the boat ashore, five minutes later, he was gone." "Which way did you take, then?" "I went straight after you, sir, up the waterfalls; but couldn't find any trace of you except at one spot just beside a waterfall--the fourth, it was--where some one had slipped a foot--"