“I can’t get into a much worse fix,” growled the ex-ship’s captain. “I’ve lost my position and without a recommendation, too. If I can’t get it back through your crowd I’m going to make you pay for it. Reckon that professor of yours has considerable money, hasn’t he?” went on Jason Sudlip, craftily. “If he has you’ll never get any of it,” answered Darry, quickly. “I’d rot here first before I’d let him give you any on my account.” “And I say the same,” came from Sam. “Reckon you’ll both sing a different tune when you are good and hungry,” retorted the captain, but it was plain to tell by this tone that this was not exactly the reply he had anticipated. “Will you tell us where Hockley is?” went on Sam, after a painful pause. “He is not a million miles from here.” “Is he a prisoner, too?” “I won’t tell you.” “How did he come to write that note?” “I won’t tell you that either.” The boys could now hear the _volante_ driver calling up from below, and a moment later they heard the captain move along the hall and descend the stone stairs. “Well, this is a pickle and no mistake,” grumbled Darry, when they found themselves alone. “What do you make of it?” “I hardly know what to make of it, so far,” was the slow answer. “For all we know, Hockley has turned traitor to our crowd and is in with the captain.” “Do you think he is as bad as that?” “If he isn’t, how did he come to write that note?” “That’s true. But I shouldn’t think it, even of Hockley. Ever since we saved him from that boa constrictor he has acted pretty decently, for him.” They moved over to the windows, to see if they could catch sight of the captain or the _volante_. At first they saw nothing, but presently they caught a flying glimpse. “There go the both of them!” cried Sam. “Darry, we have been left to our fate.” “Glummy wasn’t with them.” “No.” “I wonder what Professor Strong will say when he finds we, too, are missing?” “He’ll be very much worried, no doubt of that. Perhaps he’ll set the police on the track. I’d like to know if he found out anything about Glummy.” They did not intend to remain prisoners if they could help it, and so set to work immediately, exploring every nook and corner of the room, which was large and built in the shape of the letter L. “I don’t see any way out, excepting by way of the iron door, and that’s as fast as can be,” said Sam, after an hour had passed. “Excepting we can pry off the bars from one of the windows.” “Even if you did that, how are you going to get to the ground? It’s a good eighteen or twenty feet. If you dropped that far on those stones you might break a leg.” “Oh, I’d risk a drop. Besides, we can make a rope by tearing up a shirt, or one of our jackets. Anything to get away, to my way of thinking.”