Page:Castlemon--Joe Wayring at Home.djvu/272

 "That's my boat and I'm going to have it, if you fellows will stand by me."

"Now Joe!" exclaimed Roy, reproachfully.

"I didn't mean that. Of course I know that you can be depended on," said Joe, hastily. "Let's take after him. If we find that we can't take the canoe away from him, we'll sink her. Matt Coyle shan't have her any longer."

The three oars fell into the water simultaneously, and the skiff shot silently up the creek in pursuit of the canoe, whose occupant was making his double paddle whirl through the air like the shafts of a windmill. An oar rattled behind him and aroused him from his reverie. He faced about to see the skiff close upon him. The night had grown so dark that he could not tell who the crew were, but he knew that they would not come at him in that fashion unless they had some object in view. Matt and his boys always had the fear of the law before their eyes, and Jake, believing that a constable or deputy sheriff was in pursuit of him, turned about and churned the water into foam in his desperate attempt to outrun the skiff. He succeeded in