likes his bottle too well. If he would only keep sober it would be different."
"Why don't you take his liquor from him?" asked Cuffer. "I'd do it quick enough if I was running this thing."
"He says he won't tell us a thing more if we cut off his grog. He is getting mighty ugly."
"Maybe he wants to sell out to those Rovers," suggested Shelley.
"He wouldn't dare to do that—I know too much about him," answered Sid Merrick. "No, it's because he wants too big a share of the treasure."
"Do you suppose the fellows on the steam yacht have landed here yet?" asked Tad, as he prepared to go on.
"I don't know. They are laying-to outside of the reef. I reckon they don't know anything of the landing on the other side of the island," an swered his uncle. "Come on, we haven't any time to waste if we want to head them off. I didn't dream they'd get here so quickly."
"I guess that fellow Wingate was no good," came from Cuffer. "He didn't delay the steam yacht in the least."
"Maybe he got caught at his funny work," suggested Shelley, hitting the nail directly on the head, as the reader already knows.
