“Maybe they are tramps, and are holding somebody up.  Anyway, it sounds bad,” returned his brother.

Hauling themselves at last to the top of the rocks, the Rover boys looked ahead.  Down in the swiftly-flowing stream, they saw a flat-bottom boat containing two men.  One man, a tall, burly individual, had a much smaller fellow by the throat, and was bending him backward.  Close at hand, on the shore, stood another man, gun in hand, and with the weapon aimed at the burly individual.

“Now then, shoot!” yelled somebody from the shore of the island opposite, and an instant later the gun went off with a bang.  As the report died away, the burly man in the boat relaxed his hold on the other fellow, threw up his arms, and fell over into the river with a loud splash.

CHAPTER XV

 A telegram of importance

The Rover boys were horrified by what they saw, and for the instant they neither moved nor spoke.  They saw the small man in the boat look over the side into the stream where his assailant had plunged from sight, then this fellow caught up a single oar that remained in the craft, and commenced to paddle quickly to shore.

“Oh, Tom, they have killed him!” gasped Sam, on recovering from the shock.

“It certainly looks like it, Sam,” returned Tom.  “If he wasn’t shot dead, he must be drowned.  Come on!” and, heedless of possible danger, Tom scrambled down from the rocks and hurried towards the men, with Sam close behind him.  They had not yet reached the pair. on the river bank, when, to their amazement, they saw the burly individual who had gone overboard, reappear at a point further down the stream.  He was swimming lustily for shore.

“Hello!  He can’t he so badly hurt!” exclaimed Tom.  “Look at him strike out!”

“Maybe he was only scared, and went overboard to escape a second shot,” suggested Sam.

“Hi! you fellows over there!” yelled the man who carried the gun.  “Was that all right?”

“It looked so to me, although you were a little slow about it,” came from the shore of the island; and now, glancing in that direction, Sam and Tom saw two men.  One had what looked to be a megaphone in his hand, and the second stood behind a high, thin camera with a handle attached, set on a tripod.  At the sight of the camera, both youths stopped short.  Then Tom looked at his brother and began to snicker.

“Sold!  What do you think of that, Sam?”

“Why, they are only taking a moving picture!” exclaimed the younger Rover.  “Talk about a sell, Tom!  That’s one on us.”

“Don’t let them know how we were sold,” returned the brother, quickly.  “If it leaked out we’d never hear the end of it.”

“Right you are!  Mum’s the word!” And it may be added here that the boys kept their word, and said nothing to those at home about how they had been fooled.