"How did it happen, boys? How could it have burned? Wasn't you here, or did it—— No, that couldn't be, for we didn't leave any fire in the stove!"
"That pirate of a Doak did it, Uncle Ben!" Tommy cried passionately. "We got back just in time to see him pullin' outer the cove, an' then the shanty was in a blaze. But I'm thinkin' he won't set any more houses afire, leastways, till that vessel gets to Cuba!"
As a matter of course Uncle Ben could not understand the meaning of the words and no small amount of time was spent in telling the whole story. When all the details had been given, and not until then, did Reuben Rowe speak, when, raising his hand as if taking an oath, he cried angrily:
"I hope that miserable specimen of a man will know what it is to go hungry before he dies, an' if I'm anywhere around I'll chuck good grub away before givin' him the littlest bit!"
"Now, now, Reuben, that's bein' downright wicked," Uncle Ben cried, seizing Mr. Rowe by the arm. "We'll hope Eliakim will come in time to realize what he's about, an' turn from the evil of his ways."
"Wa'al, I s'pose I'm wishin' somethin' of the same thing; but at the same time I'd like to have a hand in the turnin' of him, an' then I'll go bail he'd know it had been done!" and Mr. Rowe went back to snugging down the mainsail as if fearing he could not contain his wrath before the head of the family.
"Wasn't anythin' saved from the fire?" Uncle Ben asked after a long pause.
"Everythin' was burning when we got ashore, an' now we'll have to live aboard the schooner, I reckon," Tom replied.
"If the folks at the Port are goin' to furnish lumber for a new house, why not run over there to-night?" Reuben asked, ceasing work suddenly again. "The boys have 'tended to the pots an' there bein' nothin' here for us to do we may as well be savin' time."
"Do as you like, Reuben, do as you like," the old man said in a sorrowful tone as he turned abruptly and went into the cabin, Mr. Rowe saying in a whisper as Uncle Ben descended the companionway: