“Halloo!” exclaimed Bert, suddenly, “here we are.  Come this way, Don.  I’ve found a path.”

“A path!” repeated his brother.  “What should make a path through this cane?”

“I don’t know, I am sure.  What’s this?  Can you tell a bear track when you see it?”

“Of course I can,” answered Don, and the listeners heard him pushing his way through the cane toward the path in which his brother stood.  “But I don’t call this a bear track,” he added, after a moment’s pause, during which he was closely examining the footprint his brother pointed out to him.  “A barefooted man or boy has been along here, and that track was made not more than ten minutes ago.  And, Bert,” he continued, in a lower tone, “you were right about that boat after all.  Come on, now, and if the thief is here we’ll have a look at him.”

“Pap,” whispered Dan, hurriedly, “they’re comin’ sure’s you’re livin’.  Le’s slip around to the other side of the island, easy like, and steal their boats afore they know what is goin’ on.”

“We couldn’t do it,” replied his father, in the same cautious whisper.  “They’d be sure to see us.  I’ll fix ’em when they come nigh enough.  I’d like to shoot ’em both, to pay ’em for findin’ my hidin’ place.”

“Don’t do that, pap,” said Dan, in great alarm.  “Here they come, an’——­ Laws a massy?  What’s that?”

As Dan uttered these words, a deep, hoarse, growl, so suddenly and fiercely uttered, that it almost made his hair stand on end, sounded close at his side.  Don and Bert heard it, and they were as badly frightened as Dan was.

“What was that, Don?” asked Bert, in an excited whisper.  “You heard it, didn’t you?”

“I should think so,” was Don’s reply, and the words were followed by the clicking of the locks of his gun.

After that came a long pause.  Don and Bert waited for the warning growl to be repeated, and stooping down, tried to peer through the cane in front of them, in the hope of obtaining a view of the animal, which had been disturbed by their approach, while Dan, crouching low in his place of concealment, looked first at his father and then glanced timidly about, as if in momentary expectation of seeing something frightful.  He could hardly bring himself to believe that the noise, which so greatly terrified him, had been made by his father, but such was the fact.

If there was a person in the world, Godfrey did not want to meet face to face, that person was Don Gordon; and when he first became aware that the boy was close at hand, and that he was about to explore the island, he was greatly alarmed and utterly at a loss how to avoid him.  If Don saw him there, of course he would tell of it, and that would set the officers of the law on his track (no evidence that could be produced was strong enough to convince Godfrey, that he had nothing to fear from the officers of the law) and compel him to look for a new hiding-place.  The conversation he overheard between the brothers,