"I shan't go away while that schooner is anchored off here," Uncle Ben said decidedly. "What's more, I'm grieved that I've let my temper get the best of me, even though Eliakim did threaten. Howsomever, it stands me in hand to take the consequences, which are that I must go to town after riggin' up some kind of a plan so's to make sure of findin' you lads here when I get back."
"Is it because of your plan that you're goin', Uncle Ben?" Sam asked as if in doubt as to whether he had the right to raise such a question.
"No, lad, I've got to go, seein's how I allowed to bring suit agin Eliakim Doak for trespass, an' it won't do to break my word now. Besides, if I don't do something of the kind, there's no tellin' how far that man may dare to go for the sake of gettin' his hands on you once more, which is what I'm goin' to prevent. My plan can be talked over after we've settled down peaceably, so to speak, though it does really seem as if it was workin' itself out with no help from me."
"I don't believe that the cap'en cares very much about the law, an' I'm expectin' he'll keep on raisin' a row till I just have to go back to the 'Sally D.,'" Sam said, with a long-drawn sigh, and Uncle Ben replied almost sharply:
"I'm allowin' that he hasn't cared much for the law back along, else he wouldn't have dared to sell your home an' put the money inter his own pocket; but it'll go hard if I can't bring him 'round to respectin' what the court says shall be done. It seems as if I was goin' back on all the principles I've held to by gettin' inter law at my time of life; but it's too late to draw out now, for neither he nor any other man shall hector a boy same's he's been hectorin' you."
Then Uncle Ben went into the shanty as if to make preparations for departure, while Sam and Tom stood watching the movements of the two men who could be seen moving about on the deck of the "Sally D.," and Tom finally asked:
"Who's the other feller?"
"Rube Rowe; he's a real good man, an' has told me more than once that he wouldn't sail in the 'Sally D.' if it wasn't that Cap'en Doak pays him better wages than he could get on any other craft. You see, it ain't easy to find decent fishermen who'll sail with a man like him," and he waved his hand in the direction of Captain Doak, "so he has to give good money, or go without."
"Would Rube Rowe do anything to hurt you?"
"Don't reckon he'd think there was anythin' wrong in draggin' me aboard the schooner, if the cap'en said to, 'cause he's my stepfather, an' a good many people believe I'm bound to hang right by him. If it hadn't been for Uncle Ben I'd never so much as thought of runnin' away, an' perhaps it would have been better if I hadn't started, 'cause he'll make it mighty warm for me if he ever gets me aboard the schooner."