The boys came slowly down from the gallery and mingled unnoticed with the throng. Bob was a little worried. He had not meant to humiliate the minister, but had counted on Captain Spark getting stuck to the chair. The captain, he knew, would make light of the prank. But it was no small matter to have done this thing to the clergyman.

"Going to supper?" asked Ted of Bob.

"No. I don't feel like eating. Guess I'll go home."

But Bob's plan was frustrated. His mother, who had been looking for her son, caught sight of him.

"Oh, Bob!" she exclaimed. "I hope none of the boys that you go with played that horrid trick on the minister! It was a very mean thing to do! But you had better have your supper. The table will soon be ready again."

Bob did not have much appet.i.te. He was afraid of being discovered.

The chair, with the glue on it, had been taken to the cellar, and the minister had gone home to change his trousers. Captain Spark, who had begun to turn certain things over in his mind, approached Bob. He had a sharp eye, had the mariner, and, in looking closely at his relative's son, he saw a bit of evidence that Bob had not counted on. This was nothing more nor less than a big spot of glue on the lad's coat sleeve.

"What's this?" asked the seaman, pointing to the sticky place.

"I don't know. Glue--I guess," replied Bob, turning pale.

"Glue, eh? Seems to be about as sticky as that on the minister's chair."

At the mention of glue several persons about Bob and the captain looked curiously at them. Mrs. Henderson, who was just then pa.s.sing, carrying a big platter of baked beans, stopped to listen to what the seaman was saying.

"Yes, it's glue," remarked the mariner. "Just like that on the chair. Bob," he asked suddenly, "did you put that glue there?"

Now, with all his faults, Bob would never tell a lie. He regarded that as cowardly, and he was always willing to take whatever punishment was coming to him for his "jokes."

"Yes, captain," he said in a low voice. "I did it."

"Ha! I thought so."

"Bob Henderson!" exclaimed his mother, her face flushing red with mortification. "Did you play that horrid joke on the minister?"

"Yes, but I didn't mean to."

"You didn't mean to?"

"No. I thought some one else was going to sit on that chair."

"You thought some one else was? Why, that's just as bad--almost.

Who did you think would sit there?"

"Captain Spark!"

"You young rascal!" exclaimed the commander of the _Eagle_, but he did not seem very angry. "So that was intended to anchor me down, eh? Well, I must look into this."

"I thought you'd sit there," went on Bob.

"So I was going to, but the minister made me change, as he's a little deaf on one side, and he wanted to ask me some questions about the Fiji Islanders."

There was now quite a crowd around Bob, his mother, and the captain.

Mrs. Henderson did not know what to do. Up to now Bob's pranks had been bad enough, but to play this trick on the minister, and at the annual donation supper, where nearly every person in the village was present, was the climax. She felt that she had been much humiliated.

Bob's father heard what had happened, and came up to his son.

"Bob," he said, in a curiously quiet voice, "you must go home at once. I shall have to punish you severely for this."

Bob knew what that meant. He wished, most heartily, that he had not played this last prank. But it was too late now.

"I told you I thought he was up to something," whispered the captain to Mrs. Henderson.

"Yes, you were right," she admitted. "Now my mind is made up.

Captain, I wish you would take him to sea with you at once! I can stand his foolishness no longer!"

Bob was out of the room by this time and did not hear his mother's decision.

"Do you mean that, Lucy?" asked Captain Spark eagerly.

"Yes, I do. I am determined. Bob shall go to sea. Perhaps it will teach him a lesson, and he will mend his ways."

"It will be the making of him," declared the captain heartily. "I'm glad you decided this. I'll make arrangements at once."

CHAPTER VII

BOB IS DELIGHTED

The excitement caused by Bob's prank had somewhat quieted down, and the preparations went on for giving the young people their supper.

Several of Bob's chums, however, fearful that they might be suspected of having taken part in the trick, left the church.

As a matter of fact, though, Bob alone was concerned. He had thought of the trick, procured a bottle of liquid glue from the drug store, and, watching his chance, had poured it on the chair. Then he had told his chums of it, and they had withdrawn with him to the gallery to watch events, which came quickly enough.

At the supper-table of the young people, little was talked of but Bob's prank, and opinion was pretty evenly divided as to what would happen.

"Maybe the minister will have him arrested," suggested one girl.

"Oh, I don't think so," was the opinion of another. "Mr. Blackton is a kind-hearted man, and he likes Bob."

"But I don't believe he'll like him after tonight."

"Maybe not. It was a mean thing to do, but I couldn't help laughing when the minister stood up and the chair went with him, swinging around every time he moved, the legs. .h.i.tting everybody."

"Yes, it was odd. I had to laugh, too."

The girls and several of their companions indulged in merriment at the recollection. The minister soon returned to the church parlors, wearing a different pair of trousers, and he seemed to have regained his good humor.

"Who was the boy who wanted me to remain seated all the evening, and perhaps longer?" he asked.