“Mind that warning!” they cried.  “Remember, we are ten to four!”

“There are two more of ’em,” cried Shelley.

“Confound the luck, what sort of a game is this anyway?” said Sid Merrick, much chagrined.

“Well, it is more than we expected,” answered Shelley.  “I, for one, don’t care to risk being shot down.  I reckon they have the bulge on us, if there really are ten of ’em.”

“I’ve seen but five the three ahead and the two over yonder.”

“There are two more!” answered Shelley and pointed to another rock, to which Sam and Tom had just crawled.  “That makes seven.”

“Go back, I tell you,” warned Dick.  “We’ll give you just two minutes in which to make up your mind.  If you don’t go back we’ll start to shoot!”

“Come on back!” cried Tad, from a safe distance.  “Don’t let them shoot you, Uncle Sid!”

“We’ll go back to our ship,” called out Sid Merrick.  “But remember, this thing isn’t settled yet.”

“If you have any differences with the Stanbopes you can settle with the folks on the steam yacht which has just arrived,” answered Dick, not knowing what else to say.

The party under Sid Merrick began to retreat, and Dick, Tom and Sam watched them with interest, until the lights faded in the distance.  Then Tom did a jig in his delight.

“That was easier than I expected,” he said.

“Even if we didn’t scare them playing ghost,” added Sam.  “I wonder if they really thought we were ten in number?”

“Well, they thought we were seven anyway!” answered Dick.  “It was a clever ruse you two played.”

What to do next the Rover boys did not know.  It was impossible for any of them to calculate how far they were from the spot where they had landed or to determine the best way of getting back to Foreshow Bay, as they had named the locality.

“If we move around very much in this darkness we may become hopelessly lost in the forest,” said Dick.

“Maybe we had better stay right where we are until morning,” suggested his youngest brother.

“I’m agreeable to anything,” were Tom’s words.

“If we stay here we want to remain on guard,” said Dick.  “Merrick may take it into his head to come back.”

An hour later found the three Rover boys encamped in a small opening to one side of the forest trail.  They made beds for themselves of some soft brushwood, and it was decided that one should remain on guard while the other two slept.

“Each can take three hours of guard duty,” said Dick.  “That will see us through the night nicely,” and so it was arranged.

CHAPTER XXII

PRISONERS IN THE FOREST

Dick was the first to go on guard and during the initial hour of his vigil practically nothing came to disturb him.  He heard the occasional cry of the nightbirds and the booming of the surf on the reefs and the shore of the isle, and saw numerous fireflies flit to and fro, and that was all.