"Land all of you in jail, rescue Dora Stanhope, and recover that money you stole." "Indeed!" "Yes--indeed! Don't you think we are pretty close to doing it?" "No, you are a long way off. You won't dare to break this truce while the flags fly. If you do, I'll shoot you just as sure as you are born." "I don't intend to dishonor any truce, Arnold Baxter. But, nevertheless, you and your crowd are almost at the end of your rope, and you know it." "Feeling hungry, ain't you?" put in Martin Harris. "You shut up!" roared Dan Baxter, for Harris had hit the nail exactly on the head. "We'll settle this with the Rovers and the police, not with you." "You'll settle with me for burning my sails and breaking my lanterns," retorted the skipper of the _Searchlight_ wrathfully. "Let us come to terms," went on Arnold Baxter in a milder tone. "I reckon what you want principally is to rescue Dora Stanhope?" "Yes, I want that," said Dick quickly. "If we hand her over to you, will you promise not to follow us any longer?" "Well--er--what of that money--" began Dick, glancing at those around him. "We can't let you go," interposed Sergeant Brown. "You are wanted for that robbery in Albany." "We deny the robbery," said Arnold Baxter. "All right--you'll have a chance to clear yourself in court." "We are not going to court, not by a jugful," put in Buddy Girk. "If we give up the gal that's got to end it. Otherwise, we don't give her up, see?" "But you'll have to give her up later on," put in Tom. "And the longer you keep her the more you will have to suffer for it, when it comes to a settlement." "Let's give her up," whispered Mumps to Dan Baxter. To the credit of the toady let it be said that he was heartily sick of the affair and wished he had never entered into it. "You keep your mouth shut!" answered the former bully of Putnam Hall. "My dad knows how to work this racket." "Somebody said something about being hungry," continued Arnold Baxter significantly, "I imagine Miss Stanhope is as hungry as any of us, if not more so." "Do you mean to say you are starving her!" cried Dick indignantly. "I mean to say that she will have to starve just as much as we do," was the unsatisfactory answer. "And you have run out of provisions?" "We have run out of provisions for her, yes." "That means that you won't give her any more, even though you may have some for yourselves? You are even bigger brutes than I took you to be," concluded the elder Rover boy bitterly. "We've got to look out for ourselves," said Dan Baxter. "If we let you have the girl you ought to be satisfied." "Let us talk to Dora," suggested Tom. "No, you can't see her unless you agree to our terms," said Arnold Baxter decidedly. "If we bring her up now she may try to get away from us."