nel.

"You livea 'cross dis island ... yes?" shouted the man after him. "We
come see you to-night!"

Budge made no response to this advance. Steady, rapid pulling soon
brought the boys again into open water.

"Well, what do you think now?" asked Percy.

"Wait till we hear what Jim says," was Lane's reply.

The remaining traps were hauled in double-quick time and they made a
bee-line for Sprowl's Cove. Spurling and Throppy came in at noon on the
_Barracouta_. Jim's brows knitted when he heard of their new neighbors.

"What should you say they were?" he inquired.

"Don't know," answered Lane. "Only I'm sure they're not Yankees."

"And they had no brand on their buoys?"

"Not a letter!"

"That's against the law. Suspicious, too. So they intend to build a camp
here and spend the summer?"

"That's what they said."

The anxious furrows in Jim's forehead deepened. He brought his fist down
hard on the _Barracouta's_ cabin.

"Boys," he said, firmly, "they can't stop here. There aren't lobsters
enough on these ledges for them and for us. What they get we won't.
They've got to pull up those traps and get out just as quick as we can
make 'em."

The others exchanged looks of surprise. Though they knew Jim's absolute
fairness and sense of right, they could not help feeling that his
decision was a harsh one. Jim read their faces.

"I know what you're thinking, boys. It seems as if I had no right to
drive 'em off. But suppose any one of you owned a piece of woods on the
mainland, and a stranger should come and begin to chop the trees down
without your permission. How long would you stand it? The same principle
holds good here, even if it is twenty-five miles offshore. This is my
uncle Tom's island. He's been paying taxes on it for years. His living
comes from it and the waters round it. He's leased it to us on shares,
and we've got to look out for his interest as well as our own.

"But how can you stop them from setting traps?" queried Lane. "I thought
the sea beyond low-water mark was public property."

"It is. They can set as many traps as they can bring on their sloop, and
I never could trouble 'em so long as they lived aboard. If they fished
with only the few they've got now I'd never say a word. But when they
talk of building a camp ashore, and going into the business wholesale
with one or two hundred pots, we must draw the line, and draw it sharp.
They can't use any of the shore legally without my permission,