"I see a better plan than that," said the captain. "What is it?" cried all the boys. "Why, to make the best of a bad business and go back pleasantly, and like men," said Peter, looking so gallant and handsome as he turned his frank face and clear blue eyes upon them--that they caught his spirit. "Ho! for the captain," they shouted. "Now, boys, we may as well make up our minds there's no place like Broek, after all--and that we mean to be there in two hours--is that agreed to?" "Agreed!" cried all, as they ran to the canal. "On with your skates! Are you ready? Here, Jacob, let me help you." "Now. One, two, three, start!" And the boyish faces that left Haarlem at that signal were nearly as bright as those that had entered it with Captain Peter half an hour before. XIV HANS "Donder and Blixin!" cried Carl angrily, before the party had skated twenty yards from the city gates, "if here isn't that wooden-skate ragamuffin in the patched leather breeches. That fellow is everywhere, confound him! We'll be lucky," he added, in as sneering a tone as he dared to assume, "if our captain doesn't order us to halt and shake hands with him." "Your captain is a terrible fellow," said Peter, pleasantly, "but this is a false alarm, Carl--I cannot spy your bugbear anywhere among the skaters--ah! there he is! why, what is the matter with the lad?" Poor Hans! His face was pale, his lips compressed. He skated like one under the effects of a fearful dream. Just as he was passing, Peter hailed him: "Good day, Hans Brinker!" Hans' countenance brightened at once.--"Ah! Mynheer, is that you? It is well we meet!" "Just like his impertinence," hissed Carl Schummel, darting scornfully past his companions, who seemed inclined to linger with their captain. "I am glad to see you, Hans," responded Peter, cheerily, "but you look troubled. Can I serve you?" "I have a trouble, mynheer," answered Hans, casting down his eyes. Then lifting them again with almost a happy expression, he added, "but it is Hans who can help Mynheer van Holp _this_ time." "How?" asked Peter, making, in his blunt Dutch way, no attempt to conceal his surprise. "By giving you _this_, mynheer"--and Hans held forth the missing purse. "Hurrah!" shouted the boys taking their cold hands from their pockets to wave them joyfully in the air. But Peter said "Thank you, Hans Brinker," in a tone that made Hans feel as if the king had knelt to him. The shout of the delighted boys reached the muffled ears of the fine young gentleman who, under a full pressure of pent-up wrath, was skating toward Amsterdam. A Yankee boy would have wheeled about at once and hastened to satisfy his curiosity. But Carl only halted, and with his back toward his party wondered what on earth had happened. There he stood, immovable, until, feeling sure that nothing but the prospect of something to eat could have made them hurrah so heartily, he turned and skated slowly toward his excited comrades.