"You get the mewels hitched on, Pap," said a shriller and younger voice. "Where's the key to the house? Give it here. And you, Beauty, come aboard. Ain't no rabbits fur you to chase so near town as this."
"Oh," whispered the little girl below in the hold, "they have come on to our boat!"
"Hist!" said Sammy, shakingly.
"Do—do people do that to pirates?" demanded Dot, anxiously. "I—I thought we were going to—to get on to other people's boats and make them walk over a board."
"Walk the plank!" hissed Sammy.
"And aren't we?"
"Wait!" commanded the pirate chief in a most threatening tone.
They waited. By and by somebody came along and kicked the hatch-cover into place and the light was suddenly shut out of the hold. At the same time big drops of rain began drumming on the deck and the thunder burst forth in a rolling reverberation overhead.
"I guess we will wait, Sammy Pinkney!" gasped Dot, nervously. "They've shut us up down here!"