"That there watch dog o' the Halseys. There was a fellow here once what was tellin' about some dog that a man named Pluto kept. He said that dog had three heads and they all barked at the same time and all bit together." "Did he tell you where Mr. Pluto lived?" asked Fred soberly. "No, he didn't," said Rufe. "Where does he live?" "Not very far from Cockburn Island, you'll find if you don't quit breaking the laws." There were many conversations during the voyage similar to those which have been recorded, and the boys became more convinced that the strange skipper undoubtedly in some way was sharing in the experiences of the man whom they had met on Cockburn Island and whose name Rufe declared to be Halsey. The little motor-boat stopped for a time on the shore of Mud Lake. There the skipper cooked some of the potatoes and salt pork he had brought with him and the boys declared that never had they tasted food more delicious. CHAPTER XXII A PASSENGER FOR COCKBURN ISLAND Neither George nor Grant was aware of the reason for their abrupt flight when the shout of the approaching man was heard. "Hold on!" called George to Grant after the boys had gone a hundred yards or more. "What fools we are. What are we running for anyway?" "Because we want to get somewhere. We don't know just where it is but we're in a hurry to get there, I guess." As he spoke Grant glanced toward the woods in the distance from which the man that had hailed them had unexpectedly come. "I'm not afraid. Come on, let's go back to the motor-boat." "Did you find them?" inquired the captain when the boys approached the boat. "No." "You look so tuckered out, both of you, that I thought maybe you saw them somewhere." "No, we didn't find them," said Grant, "but we saw--" The boy stopped as if he hesitated to refer to the fact that they had fled from a man who had unexpectedly hailed them. "Saw what?" said the captain. "Do you know who lives on Cockburn Island?" abruptly asked George. For a moment the captain made no reply as he looked keenly at the boys. At last he said, "I have sailed over to Cockburn Island a good many times. Why do you want to know who lives there?" "We had some strange experiences on that island," explained Grant. "I don't doubt you," said the captain. "I don't doubt your word a bit. What did you see there?" "Why, it wasn't so much what we saw as the fact that there seemed to be something very mysterious about the island and the people who live there. We went into a little shanty one day. At least it looked like a little shanty, not very far back from the shore and we found it all fitted up like a city house. There were rugs on the floors, and chairs and tables just such as you might see in town. The man had a Japanese servant, but there was something so strange about the whole thing that we didn't know just what to make of it. Do you know the man who lives there?"