sped, and a
tremendous blow was delivered in his face, hurling him stunned and
bleeding to the ground. With a bound the new-comer threw himself upon
two of the other men. Grasping them by their throats he shook them as if
they had been children, and then dashed their heads together with such
tremendous force that when he loosened his grasp both fell insensible on
the ground. The other robber took to his heels at the top of his speed.
All this had passed so quickly that the struggle was over before Wilfrid
and the Allens could get to their feet.

"Not hurt, I hope?" their rescuer asked anxiously.

"Why, Mr. Atherton, is it you?" Wilfrid exclaimed. "You arrived at a
lucky moment indeed. No, I am not hurt that I know of, beyond a shake."

"Nor I," Bob Allen said.

"I have got a stab in my shoulder," James Allen answered. "I don't know
that it is very deep, but I think it is bleeding a good deal, for I feel
very shaky. That fellow has got my watch," and he pointed to the man who
had been first knocked down.

"Look in his hand, Wilfrid. He won't have had time to put it in his
pocket. If you have lost anything else look in the other fellows' hands
or on the ground close to them."

He lifted James Allen, who was now scarcely able to stand, carried him
to the wood pile, and seated him on a log with his back against another.
Then he took off his coat and waistcoat, and tore open his shirt. "It is
nothing serious," he said. "It is a nasty gash and is bleeding freely,
but I daresay we can stop that; I have bandaged up plenty of worse
wounds in my time." He drew the edge of the wound together, and tied his
handkerchief and that of Wilfrid tightly round it. "That will do for the
present," he said. "Now I will carry you down to the boat," and lifting
the young fellow up as though he were a feather he started with him.

"Shall we do anything with these fellows, Mr. Atherton?" Wilfrid asked.

"No, leave them as they are; what they deserve is to be thrown into the
sea. I daresay their friend will come back to look after them
presently."

In a couple of minutes they arrived at the landing-place, where two men
were sitting in a boat.

"But how did you come to be here, Mr. Atherton?" Wilfrid asked when they
had taken their seats.

"I came to look after you boys, Wilfrid. I got on board about eleven,
and on going down to the cabin found you had not returned, so I thought
I would smoke another cigar and wait up for you. At twelv