"No, sir: I will not! And I will not allow anybody else to interfere with my affairs," answered Pearl angrily.

"I am going to open those doors," added Captain Gildrock decidedly.

"I don't believe you will," said Pearl, as he took the key of the padlock from his pocket.

He held it up so that the captain could see it, and then jerked it into the lake. It struck the water about fifty feet from the boat. The next instant Dory dropped into the water, and waded in the direction the villain had thrown it. He had kept his eye on the spot where it had fallen; and the water was so clear that he could see the grains of sand on the bottom.

Pearl saw that his purpose was likely to be defeated by the prompt action of the boy; and, before any one could stop him, he had leaped into the water after Dory.

"That man will drown your nephew if you let him do it, Captain Gildrock!" exclaimed Peppers, as he saw Pearl leap into the water.

But the captain had no intention of being a pa.s.sive observer of what was about to transpire in the water; for he leaped into his boat, and ordered his crew to back her. In an instant they were pulling with all their might; and the boat had nearly run over Pearl before the captain gave the order, "Way enough!"

"Lay hold of that man," said the captain to the two men who pulled the bow oars.

The young fellows unshipped their oars, and grabbed Pearl with no tender grasp. They threw him down, and then dragged him into the boat.

"Hold on to him, my lads!" added the captain. "Don't let him go."

Pearl struggled for his liberty; but the two young fellows jammed him down in the bottom of the boat, and held him there in spite of his efforts to shake them off.

"This is an outrage, Captain Gildrock!" gasped Pearl, out of breath from the violence of his exertions. "I did not think this of you! I have always heard you spoken of as a fair man; but you interfere with my business, and hand me over to my enemies!"

[Ill.u.s.tration: "THE YOUNG FELLOWS GRABBED PEARL WITH NO TENDER GRASP."

PAGE 264.]

"Your enemies, as you call them, are willing to have the truth, whatever it is, shown out; but you are not," replied Captain Gildrock. "If the officer in the cuddy don't make out a case against you, I shall not meddle with you; and you can go to Canada, or wherever else you please.

Give way," he added to the two after oarsmen.

The two men pulled the boat, and the captain steered it to the spot where Dory was looking for the key. He had taken no notice of what had been transpiring behind him, but had kept his eyes fixed on the spot where he had seen the key drop into the water. After a few minutes'

search he saw it lying on the sand, and picked it up. By this time the boat had come up to him; but he paid no attention to it, and began to wade back to the schooner.

"Come into the boat, Theodore," said Captain Gildrock.

"No, I thank you, sir: I will wade back to the Goldwing. It won't take me but a moment."

The captain thought the boy behaved very strangely, as he had ever since the boats from the Sylph had come alongside the schooner. But he permitted his nephew to have his own way, and Dory soon climbed over the side of the boat into the standing-room. Taking the key from his pocket, he unlocked the padlock, and threw the doors open. Peppers and Moody crawled out of their prison, and stretched their limbs; for they were rather stiff after being kept so long in one position.

By the time Captain Gildrock's boat came along side, the two prisoners were at liberty. The two bow oarsmen were told to let their captive up.

Pearl could not have been more wrathy if he had tried. The pleasant game over which he had rubbed his hands so felicitously had gone against him.

He knew that Peppers would get the best of him in the argument, and he had lost all hope. He regarded Dory as the cause of all his misfortunes; and, as soon as he was released, he sprang into the standing-room of the schooner, and rushed upon him.

Very likely it would have gone hard with poor Dory, if Moody and Peppers had not seen what the villain intended. Both of them dropped upon him, and bore him to the floor. He struggled desperately, but foolishly; for he had no chance whatever against Moody, who was a powerful man.

While the maker of tomato-wine held him, Peppers put the irons on his wrists.

CHAPTER XXV.

WIND SOUTH-SOUTH-WEST, BLOWING FRESH.

"I think we have him now where we want him," said Peppers, after Moody, under his direction, had tied the prisoner, with the rope that had bound Dory, to the side of the boat.

Pearl Hawlinshed was panting from his effort to escape. He made no reply to the remark of the detective. He felt that he had lost the battle, and any further resistance would be useless.

"I am ready to hear any thing you have to say, officer," said Captain Gildrock, as he stepped into the standing-room from his boat. "If you haven't any case, I shall simply put things where I found them, with the exception of taking my nephew on board of the Sylph."

Dory had his doubts about this; for he was as determined as ever not to put himself into his uncle's hands. He had a sore grudge against him, and he did not want to have any thing to do with him. He had no doubt that the captain would decide against Pearl, for he knew enough of the case to understand that it was a good one. He was already considering in what manner he should get away from his uncle after the robbery question had been settled. He was likely to have a chance yet to use his skill and ingenuity in getting away from the Sylph.

"I am entirely willing to have you do what you think is right after you have heard the facts in the case," replied Peppers.

"Have you arrested my nephew for robbery, stealing, or any other crime?"

asked the captain, glancing at Dory, who had retreated to the forward deck; for he wished to be in a situation for action when he felt that it was required of him.

"No, sir: I have not, and he has not been arrested. But I will tell you the whole story, and you will see in what manner Dory is connected with the robbery," answered the detective.

Peppers narrated all that had occurred at the hotel in Plattsburgh, giving all the details that were known in regard to the robbery of Moody's room. He added to it the particulars of the two days' chase of the Missisquoi after the Goldwing, with the landlord's statement in regard to Dory's supposed connection with the robbery.

"Then Theodore was charged with the robbery?" asked Captain Gildrock.

"By Hawlinshed, he was; but that was to cover up his own tracks. As soon as the landlord told me that Pearl accused your nephew of the crime, declaring that he had bought this boat with the money he stole from the room, I got an idea," continued the detective. "I found Moody, and he frankly told the facts. He will excuse me; but he makes temperance wine, though he drinks whiskey himself."

"I don't believe I shall ever drink any more," interposed Moody. "I have been in the habit of drinking considerable whiskey when I went to Plattsburgh: and, after I had done my business, I felt pretty good; for I had sold two hundred dollars' worth of my goods, and I felt like celebrating the event with a little tear. But I was afraid that I might lose my money; and I put one hundred and fifty dollars of it in my bag, keeping the rest in my pocket. I guess that scoundrel saw me put it there."

"It was not till after the Missisquoi had gone off on her cruise that Moody told me he had marked his money with the rubber stamp," continued Peppers. "Then the landlord told me that Dory had taken the money, and had been seen about the hall, near the room. He had bought and paid for the boat that morning, and I went to the auctioneer. I wanted to see the money the boy had paid. It was five ten-dollar bills; and that settled it that Dory had not paid for the boat with the money taken from Moody's room."

"I am glad to hear that," added Captain Gildrock.

Dory had thought he would be sorry to hear it; but there was a bad misunderstanding between him and his uncle.

"When Dory came back, he showed me the money he had, about sixty dollars," continued Peppers.

"Sixty dollars, besides what he had paid for the boat?" queried the captain.

"That is what he had; but he got eight dollars back from the auctioneer," replied the officer.

"That makes over a hundred dollars," said Captain Gildrock, knitting his brow as though he did not like the looks of this fact. "Where did he get so much money, if he did not steal it?"

"That's the question, Captain Gildrock," interposed Pearl, who spoke for the first time since the narrative was begun. "When you have looked into the matter, you will find that he stole it."

"I don't know where he got it," Peppers proceeded. "That is none of my business. All I know is, that none of the money found upon Dory, and none that he had paid out, was the bills Moody lost."

"But have you no idea where my nephew got so much money?" asked the captain.

"I have not the remotest idea, Captain Gildrock. It don't concern me to know, and I make it a rule to mind my own business. But I did find some of Moody's money in Plattsburgh. One five with the stamp on it was paid for a pistol, and the other for the provisions taken on board of the Missisquoi. Both of them came from Hawlinshed."