Well, you may heartily distrust a person; but that is no reason why you should not answer a simple question.  So I showed him the thing I had made—­and he did not believe me!

“You’re perfectly right,” he said.  “Every game has its secrets.  I had no business to ask.  But you haven’t caught me with that feather-duster thing any more than you caught that fish with it.  I don’t mind your not telling me.  That’s your privilege.  But isn’t it rather rubbing it in to make fun of me?”

“Nothing of the sort!” Aggie said angrily.  “If you had caught it—­”

“My dear lady,” he said, “I couldn’t have caught it.  The mere shock of getting such a bite would have sent me out of my boat in a swoon.”  He turned to Tish.  “I have only one disappointment,” he said, “that it wasn’t one of our worms that did the work.”

Tish said afterward she was positively sorry for him, he looked so crestfallen.  So, when he started for his canoe she followed him.

“Look here,” she said; “you’re young, and I don’t want to see you get into trouble.  Go home, young man!  There are plenty of others to take your place.”

He looked rather startled.  “That’s it exactly,” he said, after a moment.  “As well as I can make out there are about a hundred.  If you think,” he said fiercely, raising his voice, “that I’m going to back out and let somebody else in, I’m not.  And that’s flat.”

“It’s a life-and-death matter,” said Tish.

“You bet it’s a life-and-death matter.”

“And—­what about the—­the red-headed man over there?”

His reply amazed us all.  “He’s harmless,” he said.  “I don’t like him, naturally; but I admire the way he holds on.  He’s making the best of a bad business.”

“Do you know why he’s here?”

He looked uneasy for once.

“Well, I’ve got a theory,” he replied; but, though his voice was calm, he changed color.

“Then perhaps you’ll tell me what that signal means?”

Tish gave him the glasses and he saw the red flag.  I have never seen a man look so unhappy.

“Holy cats!” he said, and almost dropped the glasses.  “Why, he—­he must be expecting somebody!”

“So I should imagine,” Tish commented dryly.  “He sent a letter by the boat to-day.”

“The h—­l he did!” And then:  “That’s ridiculous!  You’re mistaken.  As a—­as a matter of fact, I went over there the other night and commandeered his fountain pen.”

So it had not fallen out of his pocket!

“I’ll be frank, ladies,” he said.  “It’s my object just now to keep that chap from writing letters.  It doesn’t matter why, but it’s vital.”

He was horribly cast down when we told him about Hutchins and the pen and ink.

“So that’s it!” he said gloomily.  “And the flag’s a signal, of course.  Ladies, you have done it out of the kindness of your hearts, I know; but I think you have wrecked my life.”