"If it was so easy to get out in a few minutes," argued Tommy, "why didn't you get out hours ago?"
Frank only laughed as the impatient question and sprang out of the carriage. The doctor alighted, too, and they both stood for a moment in close consultation with the officer.
Jamison, who was now very drunk, stood weaving about in the street, demanding that all the boys, and the doctor, and the driver of the carriage, be thrown into jail on a charge of piracy.
"Don't you think," Frank suggested to the officer, "that this man is too drunk to be out on the street?"
"Why, of course he is," replied the officer beckoning to an associate who stood watching the group from the next corner.
When the associate came up, Jamison was ordered under arrest, and was taken away with many threats and exclamations of rage.
"I don't like this man Jamison any better than you do," the officer said, speaking to Frank and Dr. Pelton, "but the case did look rather bad for the boys, and I had to do something."
"He collected three hundred dollars of me, for a trip to and from Cordova," Frank explained, "and then tried to maroon us on one of the Barren islands. There's a member of his crew back here in the blacksmith shop who will tell you the same story."
"So you paid him three hundred dollars, did you?" asked the officer.
"Yes, sir," answered the boy.