scoop a dozen! But
look at that! They've got all they want, and now they're cutting away
our buoys! Here's where I call a halt!"

He sprang out upon the bank in plain sight.

"Hi, there! Stop that!"

One of the men had just gaffed a buoy. At Jim's hail he glanced up and
waved his hand nonchalantly. Then he deliberately cut the warp. The
other man dropped into the cabin and reappeared with the two guns. Jim
threw himself flat on his face.

"Down, boys!" he cried.

A hail of birdshot peppered the bluff and the woods behind it as both
the double-barrels roared out in unison. One leaden pellet drew blood
from the back of Jim's hand, while Throppy, a little slow in dropping to
cover, was stung on the cheek. The others were untouched. Percy shook
with fright and excitement. Lane was boiling with anger.

"Let's take the _Barracouta_ and follow 'em!" he proposed.

"Cool off, Budge!" laughed Jim. "That's just a parting salute. Besides,
they've got two guns to our one. Let 'em go! And good riddance to bad
rubbish! See! They're on their way now!"

The sloop's head swung to the north and she filled away.

"They've done what damage they've dared and they're gone for good.
They'll be up at Isle au Haut to-night, either in Head Harbor or
Kimball's Island Thoroughfare. Forget 'em!"

"Lucky my temper isn't hitched up with your strength," said Lane.

IX

FISTS AND FIREWORKS

Late on the afternoon of July 3d, when the morning's catch of eighteen
hundred pounds of hake had been split and salted, Spurling called a
council of war. Percy attended with the others. He had gone out with
Budge in the morning to haul the lobster-traps; the rest of the day he
had loafed, lying on the soft turf below the beacon on Brimstone Point
and reading _The Three Musketeers_.

Of the work that pleased him he had determined to do only as much as he
liked, and not a stroke more. Lobstering was really attractive; there
was enough novelty and excitement about it to keep him interested. When
a pot came up it might contain no shell-fish or a half-dozen; the
element of uncertainty appealed to his sporting instincts. But fishing
he had stricken utterly from his list. It was too hard and too dirty.
Slogging at the heavy trawls and afterward dressing the catch was too
plebeian a business for the son of a millionaire.

So he let the others tire their muscles and soil their hands and
clothing while he attended strictly to the business of pleasin