"Then I'll let you stay a while."
These strange words were uttered by the man who stood outside the door, looking in at the lad with an odd smile on his countenance.
"What do you mean?" asked Jim, filled with a terrible fear.
"I mean just this: I want you to stay on the boat for the present. If you keep quiet and do what is told you, you won't be hurt; but if you go to howling and kicking up a rumpus, you'll be knocked in the head and pitched overboard."
"But tell me why you have brought me here?" asked Jim, swallowing the lump in his throat, and looking pleadingly up to the cruel stranger. "What do you want of me?"
"We want a big thing of you, as you'll learn before long; but you mustn't ask too many questions, nor try to get away, nor refuse to do what is told you. If you do, your clock will be wound up in short order; but remember what I've told you, and you'll be released after a while, without any harm to you. I will now bid you good-night."
With this the man shut and fastened the door of the cabin, using a padlock to do so.
The lad heard his footsteps as he walked rapidly over the deck, leaping upon those adjoining, and quickly passing up the wharf.
"Well, this beats everything," remarked Jim with a great sigh, sitting down again on the camp-stool.
As he sat thus in deep thought, it seemed to him, more than once, as if it was all a hideous dream, and he pinched himself to make sure it was not.