Adventure stories; Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Sailing -- Juvenile fiction; Ship captains -- Juvenile fiction
"We shall have no trouble," added Pearl, as he walked aft with the
captain. "I shall not meddle with your management of the boat. I only
said what I did to quiet the engineer."
But the boat had to take in a supply of fuel, for which Pearl promised
to pay out of the landlord's pocket. She could not leave for a couple of
hours. Pearl wanted to go back to the hotel, and attend to some matters
in connection with his mission which he had forgotten.
"I am to pay you five dollars, and the engineer five dollars, when you
put me on board of the Goldwing," said Pearl, as he was about to leave
the boat. "Is that the trade?"
"That's it," replied the engineer; and so answered the captain.
Pearl walked up the pier, and then went down the railroad till he could
see outside of the breakwater. He found the Goldwing lay at anchor in
the place she had chosen at first. Ten dollars would be a good sum to
pay if the Missisquoi was obliged to take him only out to the
breakwater. But, the sooner he brought Dory on shore, the sooner the
Goldwing would be put up at auction again.
He walked to the Witherill House, and informed the landlord of what he
had done, and declared that the boy who had stolen the money should be
handed over to him in a couple of hours. The hotel-keeper did not object
to the expense; but he wished his representative to be careful how he
managed the business, for it was by no means certain that the boy had
taken the money.
"I am as certain of it as I am of my own existence," replied Pearl
warmly. "I have found out something about the boy since I was here. He
has the reputation of being wild, and no one sent him over here to buy a
boat. And a fellow like him don't have forty or fifty dollars to invest
in boats."
"All that may be; but you can be careful just as well as not," added the
landlord.
"He is nothing but a young cub, and has no friends, so that nothing will
come of it if he shouldn't happen to be the thief."
"If he has no one to defend him, so much the more reason why he should
be fairly dealt with," replied the hotel-keeper,--a sentiment with
which Pearl Hawlinshed had no sympathy. "I have seen Moody since you
went out, and he says a man was looking into the keyhole of the room
next to his about ten o'clock last evening. That was your father's room.
Have you any idea who that man was, Hawlinshed?"
"I haven't the least idea in the world," answered Pearl; and possibly
the landlord did not notice his confusion when he replied, "Very likely
it was this same boy."
"It wasn't a boy, but a man: I asked Moody particularly about this
matter."
"I don't know any thing about the matter at all," protested Pearl. "If
the man that lost the money saw any thing of this kind, why didn't he
tell of it before?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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