"What do you want?" demanded the master of the _Ice King_, briefly. He could readily see that trouble was brewing. "We came to speak about them boys," replied Loggermore, doggedly. "We been talkin' amongst ourselves, and we don't want to take no more chances." "What boys?" asked the captain, although he knew perfectly well who were meant. "The boys that shot them geese and brought us bad luck." "See here, Loggermore, this is all nonsense." "Excuse me, Cap'n, but it ain't nonsense at all. We talked it over, and we are sure it was the killin' of them geese----" "You talk like a fool," interrupted the master of the steamer. "Those boys are no more responsible for our ill luck than you or I. The ice knocked us a bit too hard, that's all." "We want them boys kept ashore!" cried Pep Loggermore. "Ain't that so, mates?" he added, turning to his companions, and they nodded. "What! Are you going to try to dictate to me?" roared Captain Williamson. "We ain't asking anything but what's right. We----" "Not another word, Loggermore. Go for'ard, all of you, and don't let me hear another word of this nonsense," said the captain, sharply. "But, Cap'n----" "Not another word, I told you, unless you want the cat!" answered Captain Williamson. He drew himself up, and his eyes flashed dangerously, and the men silently left him and resumed their work in the forward part of the ship. "Sailors are queer fellows," was Dr. Blade's comment. "Once they get an idea in their heads, you can't drive it out." "I'll drive it out, don't fear!" answered the captain. "It is too bad that the boys have made such enemies," went on the ship's physician. "I am afraid it will spoil a good deal of their pleasure." When the chums came back to the steamer that evening, they noticed that two of the sailors looked at them darkly. Yet nothing was said to them of what had occurred, the sailors being afraid to speak, and the others not wishing to make the boys uneasy. But among the sailors there was quite a talk over Andy and Chet. "We'll make 'em stay ashore if we can," said Loggermore. "Just wait until we are ready to sail. I am not going to trust myself with fellows like that to bring me bad luck." The repairs to the _Ice King_ took the best part of a week to make, but at the end of that time the ship's carpenter pronounced the craft as seaworthy as ever. "She may stay up here for a year now, and never start those seams again," he said. "Let us hope so," answered Barwell Dawson. "A leaky ship isn't at all to my liking." Pep Loggermore and a crony watched for a chance to catch Andy and Chet ashore. What the sailors might have done, there is no telling, but certainly they would have done all in their power to prevent the boys from returning to the _Ice King_. But the lads kept on the vessel, there being nothing more to visit on land.