“Well, anyhow,” responded Captain Sam, “they are coming back of their own accord, and that is something in their favour.” The colonel and the squire only sneered. Meanwhile the little _Spray_ came running down the wind in merry style, and the end of the next hour found her swinging up into the wind, with sails flapping, while the _Nancy Jane_ ran alongside. The colonel and the squire were at last avenged. Full of wrath was the one, and brimming with wrathful satisfaction was the other. “So we have caught you at last, have we?” exclaimed Squire Brackett. “We seem to have sort of caught ourselves, squire,” answered George Warren. “Well, never mind about being smart,” said the colonel, hotly. “You are under arrest for burning my hotel down. Perhaps that will take some of the smartness out of you.” “Under arrest!” George Warren’s face paled. “It isn’t right,” he added. “We didn’t do it nor have any hand in it.” “Guess you won’t attempt to deny that you were in the billiard-room, will you?” broke in Squire Brackett. “Because, bein’ as I saw you all in there, it might not do you any good to swear as how you wasn’t.” “Don’t you dare accuse us of trying—” But young Joe got no further. “Be quiet, Joe,” said George Warren, calmly. And then, turning to the colonel, he said: “We are not going to deny anything, Colonel Witham. That is why we are coming back of our own accord. We have got nothing to conceal, and we are going to tell everything just as it happened.” “That is just about what we are arresting you for,” said the squire, sneeringly. “We calculate you’ll have to tell everything.” “Hold on there a minute, squire,” cried Captain Sam. “Let’s not be too hard on these boys. There may be some mistake, as they say. I hold these ’ere warrants, and I don’t see as there is any necessity of serving of ’em just yet. If these boys will give me their word to go along straight as they can sail for Mayville, and agree to appear when wanted before Judge Ellis, why, I guess maybe the warrants will keep till—say, just as we go in the door. Or perhaps Judge Ellis will consent that they come before him of their own accord, without serving these warrants at all, considering as they are only boys.” It is needless to say that Captain Sam’s legal experience was of the most limited sort. “Bully for you, Captain Sam!” cried Bob. “You’re a brick,—and you won’t regret it.” And a yell of thanks from the others gave Captain Sam a warm glow under his blue shirt. The squire and the colonel were loud and furious in their denunciation of such a course.