human
But those fellows were surveyors, all right, all right, declared Billy Long, weakly.
gpt
And they were not the fellows I saw afterward----
human
After what, Billy?
gpt
Yes; do tell us all about it,
human
I don't know anything about their old robbery, said the boy, angrily.
gpt
That man from the store kept coming here and threatening to put me in jail. And I didn't want to go to jail. I guess I wouldn't have had any worse time than I _did_ have. For when Laura found me I hadn't eaten anything but a handful of berries that I could reach on that ledge, for 'most two days!
human
Oh, oh! How dreadful!
gpt
Guess I should have died, Billy said, more cheerfully, enjoying the sensation he was creating.
human
And you bet that stuff I swiped out of your boats last Saturday a week ago, just came in handy.
gpt
Oh, Billy! was that you?
human
The lone pirate!
gpt
And all those whiskers----
human
That wig and whiskers I had last Hallow E'en; don't you remember? I saw you girls a couple of times, too.
gpt
And we saw you and thought you might be one of the robbers, after all.
human
That's all right; I didn't do any robbing, except of your boats, said Billy.
gpt
But there were two fellows over on the island who I believe _did_ rob that store.
human
No!
gpt
Yes.
human
Oh, tell us all about it, urged the girls again, just as eager to hear the particulars as though it were a story out of a book. And it _did_ sound like a story; only Billy Long was much too much in earnest to make it up. Besides, he had learned a lesson during his weeks of
gpt
So I got up early that morning to go fishing. I knew where the white perch were thick as sprats. I got Mr. Norman's boat; but I knew he wouldn't mind. And I went over to Boulder Head. As I was starting to fish I heard two men talking just in the mouth of the old cavern. They were quarreling. I guess they must have been foreigners; I couldn't understand all they said. But I got enough of their broken-English talk to understand that one of them had hidden some money in a tight-covered lard can, and part of the money the other fellow claimed.