. Most of the time I have been on a shrimping
schooner on the Gulf. This morning the men aboard of her said that I was
dangerous, so they were going to put me out of the way. They brought me
here and tied me up. That's all."

"Didn't you whistle 'Bob White,' at us when we were coming into the
harbor here?" inquired Harry breathlessly. "I know you did."

"Maybe I did," admitted Charley. "I whistled 'Bob White,' at all
possible and impossible times until they threatened to kill me."

"The brutes. I almost believe they'd dare do anything."

The tender sympathy that was evident in the tones of his new found
friends proved almost too much for the fortitude of the late captive. It
was only with a great effort that he restrained the tears.

"Well," at length Harry decided, "if you lads are rested, I move that we
get busy, break out of here and go back to the--"

A heavy footstep sounded on the gallery outside the door. Lopez and
Doright entered through the door. Doright carried a tin pail. He was
followed by Lopez with one of the boys' automatics in his hand. His face
darkened instantly when he saw the lads.

"You sure are tough customers," declared he. "I guess, Doright, youall
better go get them old slave chains. They won't break them."

"Yaas, Sir, Boss," replied the negro hastening away.

"If you're hungry, better get at that grub while you got the chance,"
offered Lopez. "In a minute that nigger'll be back with the irons, and
then you won't be runnin' around loose."

Urged on by their hunger the boys lost no time in attacking the tin
pail. It contained but "grits," a small hominy, cooked with a piece of
bacon, yet never it seemed to the lads had they tasted better food. Only
the merest crumbs remained when Doright entered bearing an armful of
clanking chains. These he threw on the floor.

"Make 'em fast," ordered Lopez, keeping the muzzle of his automatic
pistol ever trained on the group before him. "Put them leg irons on good
and tight. Make sure of your work this time."

Obediently the negro clamped the irons tightly about their ankles. Then
drawing a longer chain through the leg irons he lifted a board from the
floor to pass the long chain under a heavy hewn joist.

A padlock securely fastened the ends of this longer chain and thus the
boys were shackled beyond hope of releasing themselves.

"Now, just to make sure, we'll leave Doright on guard and he'll have a
gun in his hand. He likes to shoot, too. An