The men answered for the girl: 

“Yes; she is going with us.  Who are you, and what have you got to say about it?”

“When I speak, it will be from these; you fellows get in your boat or I fire!”

“Who are you?” came the question.

“Get in your boat, and leave, or down you go!  The other two chaps are settled.”

“But give us an explanation.”

One of the men made a movement to draw his weapon, but the detective called: 

“Hold on there, my friend!  And now, you fellows, get in your boat, or at the call of three it will be too late!”

“One!” called the detective, and he made one step nearer the men.

“Two!” he called a second later, and he advanced another step.

The men did not wait for the third call, but leaped into their boat.

The detective advanced to the spot where Renie stood, and in a low voice, he said: 

“Am I right?”

The girl made no reply.

A suspicion of the truth flashed through the detective’s mind, and he said: 

“Renie, run to your father’s cabin, the road is clear!”

The girl, who had stood speechless during the whole time that the exciting incidents we have described were transpiring, suddenly bounded away, but without speaking one word.

The detective called to the two men in the boat: 

“Don’t you fellows land again, or it will cost you your lives!”

The men made no reply, and the detective moved away in the same direction that had been pursued by Renie.  He had gone less than a hundred feet, when he met the girl coming toward him.

The detective was both amused and pleased.  He realized that in case of an emergency the girl would be of great help.

“Never mind, my child, I’ve settled ’em!” he said: 

Still the girl made no reply, and it was then the detective discovered that she had been gagged.  He also discovered that her arms had been secured, so she could not raise them to her head.

It took him but a moment to release her with his knife, when she exclaimed: 

“I thank you for coming to my aid; but where are the villains?”

“I reckon they’ve gone off to their boat; but come, we will see.  With such a noble and brave ally I would not hesitate to invite a scrimmage with half a dozen of them.”

The detective’s guess proved correct.  The two men whom he had first dropped had evidently recovered their senses, and had joined their pals on the beach, as a boat bearing four persons could be seen moving off toward the yacht.

As our readers can well imagine, it was not because of the detective’s warning that the men pulled away to their boat.  Garcia remembered that he had stricken down the old smuggler, and it was the consequences of that act which made him anxious to get away.

“There they go, Renie!”

“Yes; thanks to you, I am not going with them;” answered the girl.