"Don't you wish you knew?" said the skipper. There was an expression in his eyes that indicated that the man was deficient. Indeed, Fred whispered to John, "I don't believe the fellow is all there. I guess if you knocked on his head you'd find nobody home." "He certainly looks the part," agreed John, "but I want to find out more about Mr. Halsey, as he calls him." "You didn't tell us what business Mr. Halsey is engaged in," added John as he turned once more to the skipper. "Of course I didn't. That's the question a good many folks would like to have answered." "Does he have any business?" "Business! Business!" exclaimed the skipper. He had previously explained that his name was Rufus Blodgett and that he was commonly called Rufe by his passengers and friends. "He doesn't work more than twelve hours a day, let me tell you, and he gets better pay than anybody around these diggins." "And nobody knows what his business is?" "I know," said Rufe, slyly winking as he spoke. "What is it?" "That's tellin'. Maybe somebody will know pretty soon. At least I have wrote some letters that will be likely to put somebody on his track that he won't like very much." "Did you write those letters to Mr. Button?" demanded Fred. "What do you know about any letters?" said Rufe, his voice becoming very low as he spoke and the glitter again appearing in his narrow little eyes. "We saw them," said Fred more boldly. "We mean the one that you signed 'American Brother.'" "Who showed it to you?" said Rufe. "Beats all, I never supposed two such youngsters as you knew anything about them letters." "What did you write them for?" asked John. "Didn't I tell you this Mr. Halsey is makin' all kinds of money? He agreed to divide with me and he hasn't done it. I told him I would get even with him and you see if I don't!" "Then he is a smuggler, is he?" inquired John. "You had better take my advice and not say that word very often around in these parts. I guess there ain't any harm in a man buying somethin' on one side o' the lake and sellin' it on the other." "But there's a law against it," suggested Fred. "Nothin' but a man-made law." "What has that got to do with it?" asked John. "I don't care nothin' about man-made laws. I don't find nothin' in the Bible that says I mustn't smuggle, as you call it. Mind you, I ain't sayin' I'm no smuggler, I'm just talkin' on general principles." "But you have not told us what Mr. Halsey smuggles." "No, and I ain't goin' t' tell you." "Is that what you're going to Cockburn Island now for?" "Don't you wish you knew?" said Rufe, laughing as if he considered his question to be a good joke. "Did you say," he continued, "that you had ever been out in the barn?" "We said we hadn't been there," replied Fred. "There's a mighty good reason why you didn't go, I guess." "What's that?"