in'. Le's slip around to the other side of the island, easy like,
and steal their boats afore they know what is goin' on."

"We couldn't do it," replied his father, in the same cautious
whisper. "They'd be sure to see us. I'll fix 'em when they come nigh
enough. I'd like to shoot 'em both, to pay 'em for findin' my hidin'
place."

"Don't do that, pap," said Dan, in great alarm. "Here they come,
an'---- Laws a massy? What's that?"

As Dan uttered these words, a deep, hoarse, growl, so suddenly and
fiercely uttered, that it almost made his hair stand on end, sounded
close at his side. Don and Bert heard it, and they were as badly
frightened as Dan was.

"What was that, Don?" asked Bert, in an excited whisper. "You heard
it, didn't you?"

"I should think so," was Don's reply, and the words were followed by
the clicking of the locks of his gun.

After that came a long pause. Don and Bert waited for the warning
growl to be repeated, and stooping down, tried to peer through the
cane in front of them, in the hope of obtaining a view of the animal,
which had been disturbed by their approach, while Dan, crouching low
in his place of concealment, looked first at his father and then
glanced timidly about, as if in momentary expectation of seeing
something frightful. He could hardly bring himself to believe that
the noise, which so greatly terrified him, had been made by his
father, but such was the fact.

If there was a person in the world, Godfrey did not want to meet face
to face, that person was Don Gordon; and when he first became aware
that the boy was close at hand, and that he was about to explore the
island, he was greatly alarmed and utterly at a loss how to avoid
him. If Don saw him there, of course he would tell of it, and that
would set the officers of the law on his track (no evidence that
could be produced was strong enough to convince Godfrey, that he had
nothing to fear from the officers of the law) and compel him to look
for a new hiding-place. The conversation he overheard between the
brothers, regarding the capture of the bear, which had so long held
possession of the island, brought a bright idea into his mind, and he
acted upon it at the right time, too. It was the only thing that
saved him from discovery. Don was not afraid of a man, and if he had
known that Godfrey was hidden in the cane a few feet in advance of
him, he would have walked straight up to him, and accused him of
stealing his boat; but