"This is the luckiest thing that could have happened for us! The breaking of the red oar came at the right time. Kelly, give me a match and we'll make a little bonfire of these same papers."

"Don't you dare!" cried Denny, and, making a leap forward he s.n.a.t.c.hed from Kelly's hands the precious doc.u.ments that had so strangely come from the secret hiding place in the red oar.

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE DISCOVERY--CONCLUSION

Wild with rage the three men with one accord made a leap for Denny Shane. But the old fisherman was not to be easily taken. Holding the precious papers close to him, he made a jump for a corner of the room, where hung an old musket.

"Oh, he's going to shoot!" screamed Bess.

"And small blame to him if he did," declared Cora. "Oh, those men must not destroy those papers, if I have to take them in charge myself!"

Denny Shane had reached the corner where hung his musket. It was not loaded. Cora knew this, for the old fisherman had said he was always afraid of some accident happening, and he never kept a charge in the gun. It was for the effect of it, he said, that he had it hanging on his wall. Now it would be useful as a club, at least--more useful than the easily shattered red oar had been.

But before Denny could reach the gun Kelly was upon him. With a fierce motion the desperate plotter grasped the fisherman around the neck.

Holding him thus with one arm, he s.n.a.t.c.hed the papers from him with his other hand.

"Here you go!" Kelly cried to Bruce. "Take the papers while I hold him. Burn 'em if you want to, but be sure you do the job well! Then we'd better get out of here. I think I hear a boat coming. This place will soon be too hot for us!"

Bruce took the papers from his crony. Hastily scanning them, to make sure he had the right ones, he struck a match that Moran handed him.

Kelly and Denny were struggling in the corner of the room. But poor old Denny had not much strength left. The events of the night had been too much for him, and he was giving way under the cruel pressure of Kelly's arms.

"These are the very papers we want--or don't want, rather!" exulted Bruce. "With them out of the way the property is ours."

The match flickered in his fingers.

"Don't you dare burn them!" cried Cora.

One corner of the papers had caught fire.

Then from without the cabin sounded a chorus of cries.

"Come on, fellows!"

"We're just in time!"

"The girls are here ahead of us!"

"What a night!"

They were the voices of Jack and his chums.

"Oh, the boys have come! The boys have come!" cried Lottie.

"Jack! Jack! In here! Quick!" screamed Cora. "He's burning the papers!

Get them from him!"

Into the cabin, already crowded, the boys flung themselves.

"Just in time!" cried Cora, motioning to Jack. "Get those papers from him before they burn!"

Over in the corner poor Denny had fallen unconscious under the attack of Kelly.

"Cut it and run!" advised Moran, making for the door.

"No, you don't!" shouted Walter, blocking it. "Guard the windows, Dray--Ed!" he called.

"The papers! The papers!" voiced Cora. "Get them before they burn, or Mrs. Lewis will lose the land!"

"I'll get them!" shouted Jack.

He flung himself upon Bruce as he had often flung himself upon a player in tackling him on the football field.

"Look out for yourself!" threatened Bruce.

But Jack was not afraid. He twisted himself about Bruce, and sought to reach the papers.

Bruce, to get them out of Jack's reach, held them high in the air, over his head. The two were struggling. Moran and Kelly were wrestling with Ed and Walter, while the other girls cowered behind Dray, who had caught up a chair as a weapon.

Cora saw her chance. She slipped around behind Bruce, and with a leap that had often enabled her to outwit an opponent in playing basket ball, the plucky motor girl s.n.a.t.c.hed the papers from the man's hand.

Full and clean was her jump, and the smouldering papers came away in her grasp.

"I have them, Jack!" she cried. "Look out for the men!"

And with that, to make sure that she would not lose the precious doc.u.ments, Cora held them tightly under her arm and ran out of the cabin door, after putting out the little blaze.

"All over!" cried Jack, putting out his foot, and tripping up Bruce, who aimed a savage blow at him. "All over!"

Bruce went down heavily. At the same time, from without the cabin there flashed several lights, and the voices of men were heard asking:

"What's going on here?"

"Who's been screaming?"

The plotters gathered together. Bruce leaped from the floor.

"Come on!" he cried desperately. "It's all up. Get away!"

He leaped out of the window, followed by the other two.

"Get them!" yelled Ed.