t; but you want to get a move onto you
in a hurry."

Bewildered and indignant as he was, Winn was yet cool enough to realize
the folly of resistance. He also reflected that when these men found
the hut deserted, and that there was no one besides themselves on the
island, they would be willing to listen to his story. At any rate, so
long as he was in their power it was best to do as they directed. So,
with the leader's hand still grasping his arm, the boy led the way into
the narrow trail that he had already traversed so often.

Proceeding slowly, and with such extreme caution that not a sound
betrayed their presence, the men followed in single file. At the edge
of the little clearing Winn halted, and was about to speak, when a hand
was again clapped over his mouth with the force of a blow.

"Whisper!" came the order.

"Well there's your hut," whispered the boy, as soon as he was given the
chance, "and if you find any one in it, then I'm a liar, that's all."

The hut was plainly visible by the firelight that streamed from its
open window. Winn wondered at the brightness of this light, for it
seemed as though the fire he had left there the evening before ought to
have burned out long ago. He also wondered that he did not remember
having closed the door. As no light came from its direction, it
certainly appeared to be closed now. As these thoughts flashed through
the boy's mind, the man who held him, and who was evidently the leader
of the party, whispered,

"You say there isn't anybody in there, but it looks to me as if there
was. Anyhow, we'll find out in another minute, and if you've led us
into a trap or played us false, I'll see that you swing for it, or my
name's not Riley. Bill, you stay here and see that this chap doesn't
put up any game on us while we surround that den of thieves. Have your
guns ready for use, men."

Although all this was spoken in a whisper, inaudible beyond its
immediate group of hearers, there was no mistaking the man's stern
meaning, and Winn experienced an uneasy dread such as he had not
heretofore felt throughout this strange adventure.

Suppose there should be some one in the hut? Suppose the
"river-traders" had returned to the island and should resent this
intrusion even to the point of resisting it? In such a case what would
happen to him? If his captors were triumphant they would declare he
had led them into a trap, for doing which they had promised to hang
him.