“Dat mak no matter. You goin’ geet out build up dat pier, oui,” the breed shouted as he rose in his seat. “Looks as though he meant business,” Jack whispered. “Get a hold on that rope and be ready to pull in when I give the word,” Bob whispered back. He had risen to his feet again and stood, peavey in hand, as two of the men were pushing the row boat sideways toward the scow. He waited until the two boats were but four or five feet apart. “Now,” he shouted, and at the same instant he threw his peavey with all his strength. The sharp point of the peavey went through the bottom of the row boat as though it had been made of paper. With a gasp of surprise the two men, who had been pushing with the oars, dropped them and did just what Bob had hoped for. Both grabbed the peavey and with a strong wrench, pulled it out. By this time Jack had the rock off the bottom and the scow quickly drew away. “Look out,” Bob shouted, and Jack dodged just in time to escape the peavey which the maddened breed had hurled at him. It struck the bottom of the scow but at such an angle that it did no damage. “That was mighty close,” Rex gasped. “Another inch and it would have hit you, Jack.” “A miss is as good as a mile,” Jack laughed, but both of the others could see that his face was white. “What idiots,” Bob said. “If they’d have let that peavey alone it would have kept the water from coming in fast enough to do much harm and they could have got us. But I thought they would do that very thing.” Looking back they could see that the row boat was sinking rapidly. “Lucky for them it isn’t deep there,” Jack said. “That must have made a pretty big hole by the way she’s sinking,” Rex declared. “I guess it did,” Bob replied. “But we’d better get to the shore as soon as possible. They’ll be mad enough to do murder and it won’t take them long to wade ashore.” As rapidly as possible they worked the heavy scow toward the bank. “We’re not out of the woods yet, not by a long shot,” Bob declared a little later as he saw the men, having abandoned the row boat, wading toward the shore. “You’re right,” Jack agreed. “And,” he added, “it’ll be light pretty soon. And if they get hold of us goodnight.” A glance toward the east told the others that what Jack had said was right. Already dawn was lighting up the sky. “What’ll we do?” Rex asked anxiously. “Run for it as soon as we get ashore,” Bob replied as he redoubled his efforts. Nothing more was said while they were urging the scow shoreward. Both Bob and Jack, being well acquainted with the nature of the half-breeds of Northern Maine, knew that the situation was serious. Should the five men get hold of them, while still maddened at the wetting and the tearing down of the pier, they would be lucky indeed to escape serious injury to say the least. But they were careful not to alarm Rex, hoping that they would be able to escape.