Page:Bedford-Jones--Boy Scouts of the Air at Cape Peril.djvu/183

 on, "Yes, 'twar him we saw on the beach yestiddy."

"That stranger—the one in the oilskins?" asked Turner, starting, while a stir occurred among the fishermen.

"It war him," insisted the old man promptly.

"I suspicioned that man o' some devilment soon as I seen him prowlin' around," declared one fisherman.

"But we'll get him as soon as day come on," said another hotly, "and when we ketch him!" He added a significant gesture.

"Now, Cap'n Buffum," encouraged Turner, "tell us how it all happened, in order. Stop if you feel excited. Take your time."

Twar this way," began the old man, catching his breath, and talking in panting phrases. "After I eat my supper and dark war comin' on, I goes up to start the light, and seen everything was shipshape and cosy, fer I knowed if thar ever war a night when a light war needed, this war the time. Then I come down and set a while. Then, thinks I to myself, I'll go ashore and limber up my legs and take a look at that nasty sea good and close, and down I walks. I