of foot and having no desire to be caught and treated as a
spy, he set off running at full speed. The ground was quite rough and he
had to turn aside to avoid bushes and hollows, yet he had no difficulty
in keeping ahead of his pursuers. The very impediments in his way
served to retard pursuit, and he did not despair of escaping. He had to
cross over a ridge, at the top of which he was exposed to view. He had
just reached it, when he heard some one shout:
"Stop! Come down,---or I'll fire!"
"Fire away!" thought Hugh, knowing how unlikely it was that any one
would be so desperate as to shoot at him. "You can't stop me with that
foolish bluff!"
Ignoring the threat, he rushed down the little hill, hoping soon to find
some spot where he could turn off to one side or the other, hide in
shelter, and thus evade the rascals. He was surprised to find that he had
gone so far in his wanderings, that the smugglers' island was so much
larger than it had seemed. For a moment he felt a vague fear that he had
lost his bearings and was running in the wrong direction.
To ascertain how near his pursuers were, he threw a glance over his
shoulder. This proved fatal to his hopes, for his foot caught in a tangle
of crab-grass and down he came headlong. Over and over he rolled; and
then for some seconds he lay still, a little dazed by his fall, unable to
move. The next minute he found himself in the grasp of two men.
"Hullo, youngster! What made you try to git away from us?" asked one
of them in an angry tone. He was a short, thick-set, burly man, with
black eyes that seemed to glitter like a serpent's. His huge hands
fastened upon Hugh's arm in a grip of steel.
Hugh replied truthfully but not very wisely: "I'm on my way to camp,
and I want to get there as soon as possible."
"Camp, eh? Who are you?"
"I don't see what that has to do with my being in a hurry to get there."
"Maybe not, but we want to know where you was hidin' before you hit
the trail," said the other man, a dark-visaged fellow with a sinister cast
in one eye. "Come on now! Spit it out!"
"I was just exploring this island for fun," replied Hugh. "I was hunting
for---"
"You were hiding!" vehemently declared the black-eyed man.
"Whereabouts?"
"On the ground, of course; there are no trees to climb around here."
"None o' yer guff!" The swarthy captor dealt Hugh a hard thwack on
the side of his head. "What's yer business here, anyhow? Where's yer
camp?"
No answer.
"By gad, I'll make ye open up!" cried the cross-eyed knave, losing his
temper. He was about to strike Hugh again, when the other man, still
holding the lad in a steel-trap grip, pushed him aside with one foot.
"Hold off, Harry," he commanded gruffly. "I know where his camp is.
He's one of Lem Vinton's crew. That's the Arrow over yonder, but he
ain't going back to it yet awhile."
"Let me go!" shouted Hugh, struggling to free himself from the grasp
of those sinewy hands. "Let me go, I say! What---what do you want
with me? I tell you---help! Hel-----"
The frantic shout was checked by another blow from the angry ruffian's
fist, and Hugh measured his length upon the sand.
"Shut up, will ye?" snarled the man, thrusting a bunch of sharp-edged
grass into Hugh's mouth. "Look here, Branks," he added, "we can't let
this kid blow the gaff on us to Lem Vinton. Why, the cap'n wouldn't
wait ten minutes before he'd sail out to find that blamed cutter ag'in;
and then we'd have him and the Petrel on our trail."
"Harry, you're right---dead right. The boy has got to come with us,
until-----"
"Sure! Here, lend a hand. Tie his arms."
With their leather belts they bound the lad's hands securely, despite his
struggles. Once, by a manful effort, he managed to break away and run
forward a few yards. But they were after him instantly, before he could
get the gag out of his mouth. In the tussle that followed, he kicked and
writhed so vigorously that the cross-eyed captor howled with pain.
Then, beside himself with rage, he felled Hugh by a blow on the head.
Myriads of stars reeled in the sunlight before Hugh's eyes, then the
light of day changed to pitch darkness, and Hugh sank down on the
sand---a limp heap, unconscious.
CHAPTER V
KIDNAPPED BY SMUGGLERS
When Hugh regained his senses, about half an hour later, he found
himself lying on the
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