They threw themselves flat in their boat till only the hands of Bill, who was steering, were visible.
They need not have feared, however.

The captain's hasty move brought down on his head Rob's wrath, though the young leader could not find it in his heart to be really angry with the old man who had been irritated past endurance by the bully's mocking defiance.
"Shiver my garboard strake," he exclaimed contritely, when Rob pointed out to him that he might have killed one of the occupants of the hydroplane, "shiver my garboard strake, lad, I saw red fer a minute just like I did that time the Chinese pirates boarded the Sarah Jane Butts in the Yellow River." Although there was not much hope of catching the two, Rob stuck to the chase even when he realized the scouts were outdistanced, and in fact kept his attention so closely riveted on the other craft that when there came a sudden jar and jolt and the Flying Fish stopped with a grunt and a wheeze, he realized with a start that he had not been watching the treacherous channel and was once more fast on a sand bar.
With a last shout and a yell of defiance the bully and his companion, who had by now got over their fright, shot out on to the ocean and rapidly vanished.
"There goes our hope of catching those two crooks," cried Tubby angrily, while the engine of the Flying Fish was set at reverse.

"It's all off now.

They know that we have rescued Joe and they'll fly the coop for some other part of the country." "I suppose they came down here to get their tent, not realizing we'd be here so soon," observed Andy, which indeed was the fact.
Fortunately the Flying Fish was not very hard aground and a little manipulation got her off into deep water once more.
"I guess those two chaps are almost in Hampton by this time and getting ready to leave town," observed Rob as the motor boat forged ahead, once more.
"This will be the safest thing for them to do," exclaimed Merritt, "they are in a serious position this time.

Kidnapping is a dire offense." "I wonder what they came back for ?" said Tubby suddenly.
"No doubt to get their tent and the few things they had left on the island," vouchsafed Rob, skillfully dodging a shoal as he spoke, "maybe, too, they intended to see how Joe was making out." "I wasn't making out at all," said the small lad, with a shudder at the recollection of his imprisonment.
"Never mind, Joe, that's all over now," put in Merritt.
"I'm glad it is," answered the small lad, "and just think, if I hadn't been a Boy Scout and understood that code I might have been there yet." "That's true enough," said Rob, "for we had about made up our minds that the bungalow was deserted, and were not going to bother investigating it, till we saw the smoke." About an hour later the boys landed once more in camp, where their reception by the others may be well imagined by my young readers.
"And now comes the final chapter in the career of Messrs.