“All right then,” answered the eldest Rover. He turned again to the captain of the schooner. “Now listen to me. I know you and I know your boat. If you have told me the exact truth, well and good. If you haven’t—well, you’ll have to take the consequences, that’s all.”
“I didn’t abduct nobody. I only did a job and got paid for it,” muttered the captain.
“Where are you bound?”
“Portland.”
“And after that?”
“Going to—er—take a load of lumber down to Newark, New Jersey.”
“Very well—then we’ll know where to locate you. Come on!” added Dick to his brothers.
“You can rely on me,” said the captain, and spoke quite respectfully. “I’ll tell all I know, and so will my men.”
“Hello, Jack!” cried Larry Dixon to a sailor on the schooner, and the fellow addressed waved his hand.
“I’ll talk to that man a minute,” said Dick, to the captain. The latter wished to demur, but Dick gave him no chance. The fellow was told to go aboard the tug, and there Larry Dixon asked him to tell his story. The sailor had little, however, to add to what his captain had said, excepting that the landing at Chesoque Island had been made in something of a hurry.