"Come! don't hold a grudge, John, just because _I_ have been wicked enough to hold one all these years. I was wrong. I freely admit it. Come and sit down here, old man, and let's talk all that old matter over and see where our misunderstanding lay." "Misunderstanding?" "Aye," said the other, warmly. "Misunderstanding. For I am convinced now that a brave and generous man like you, John Jarley, would never have knowingly done what--all these years--I have held you to be guilty of!" He had put his arm through the boatman's. Together they walked aside and sat down upon an upturned skiff. And they were sitting there long after it grew pitch dark upon the landing, with only the glow of Polly's lamp in the kitchen window and that uncertain radiance upon the lake which seems the reflection of the distant stars. Finally the two men stepped into a skiff and Mr. Jarley rowed it over to Green Knoll Camp. They did not reach the camp until nearly bedtime, and they came so softly to the shore that the girls did not hear the scraping of the boat's keel. Lavine seized his old friend's hand before leaping ashore. "Then it's understood, John? You're to get out of this place and come back to Denton? I'm sorry Dr. Shelton is ahead of me in giving Polly something substantial; but you and I are going to begin just where we left off in that Steel Rivet Corporation deal, John. "About next month I'll have a bigger thing than _that_ in sight, and you shall have the same share in it that you would have had in the old deal. You used to be mighty good in handling your end of the game, John; I want you to take hold of it in just the same way again. Will you agree, old man?" And Mr. Jarley gave him his hand upon it. The girls put their visitor to sleep in the cook tent that night and the next morning the whole party went over to Gannet Island to see the work of raising the sunken motor boat carried on. The Busters were as excited as the girls themselves over the affair, and Cave-in-the-Wood Camp was a lively place indeed that day. Tubby Blaisdell was the only person in the party who wore an aggrieved air. At first he could hardly be made to believe that the girls had not "sicked" the goat upon him two days before when he had stolen away from the other boys for a nap in the woods. Tubby walked lame and could have displayed bruises for several days. The derrick barge had been towed over to the place where the _Bright Eyes_ was sunk, the evening before. The boys helped put the chains around the hull of the sunken boat, for they were all good divers--save the fat youth, who remained on the invalid list. Before noon the lost boat was raised to the surface and lashed to the side of the barge. Mr. Jarley very quickly tacked a tarpaulin over the hole in her bottom, and then she was pumped out. Further repairs were made and by night the _Bright Eyes_ was riding safely to her own anchor and Mr. Jarley pried open the rusted lock of the cabin.