"No, he walked towards the shaft leading to Dollar Cove," replied the Second of the "Otters." "Baker spotted him and waved his staff and that made the man disappear sharp enough." "Baker was a bit of a donkey to attract attention like that," said Atherton. "But I mean to find out----" "Atherton, there's a man coming this way," announced Tenderfoot Sayers. The Leader looked up. Approaching the camp was Paul Tassh. The butler walked with short, jerky steps. His right shoulder was slightly higher than the other. His face showed that he was badly in need of a shave, for the lower part beneath his side whiskers was covered with a thick stubble. "Good-morning, young gentlemen," he exclaimed, with a forced air of jauntiness. "Good-morning," replied Atherton politely, as was his wont, although he distrusted the man. "If I may be so bold as to ask, sir," continued the butler, "I should like a snack of something to eat. I've had nothing since yesterday morning." "I think we can manage that all right," said Atherton. "What has happened to you, then?" "Oh, I might just as well explain," said the man between the mouthfuls of bread and cold meat that the Scouts gave him. "My name is Todd--John Brazenose Todd. I am a stranger in these parts, having been staying in a cottage just outside Polkerwyck. Yesterday morning I thought I would like to visit the Island, so I hired a boat and landed. Before I could return the fog came on, and afterwards the terrible storm. Being of a retiring disposition I did not like to intrude, so I kept away from your camp and took refuge in yon ruins. But a man cannot fail to be hungry on two or three biscuits in twenty-four hours." Atherton nodded. He knew, as did his fellow Scouts, that the fellow's story was a tissue of lies from beginning to end, and he wondered at his audacity when he could not have failed to notice the Scouts passing the post-office at noon on the preceding day. Atherton's only fear was that some of the Scouts might feel inclined to "chip in and give the show away"; but to his relief the lads left all the talking on their side to their Leader. "There's not much to see on the Island," he remarked. "I suppose you know there was a wreck, and those men over there are some of the crew?" "A wreck? 'Pon my word I didn't," replied Tassh. "Truth to tell I must have been sound asleep in the ruin. Never heard a sound. When was it?" "At daybreak this morning," announced Atherton. "You must have been sound asleep if you failed to hear guns." Paul Tassh finished his meal in silence, furtively eyeing the Scouts with a supercilious smile on his thin, bloodless lips. "They're too jolly well taken up with fooling about to trouble me," he soliloquised. "All the same they are a confounded nuisance on the Island. Still, since my retreat is cut off, the only thing to be done is to put up with them. A fine yarn I'll have to pitch up when I get back to the House."