"Do you reckon he'll let me stay, too?" Tom asked anxiously.
"He has just the same as said you could, an' all we've got to do in order to have as good a home as any fellow could ask for, is to jump right inter the work, same's you've begun. It's a big lot of help to Uncle Ben, now that he's gettin' 'under old, to have somebody pull the pots, an' between the two of us we oughter tend to the business without his raisin' a finger."
"You can bet I'll do my part of it all right; but perhaps he ain't countin' on stayin' here very long."
"What do you mean?" Sam asked in alarm.
"That plan of his that he keeps tellin' about may have somethin' to do with leavin' the island."
Such a suggestion as this would have caused Sam no slight anxiety at any other time, for the possibility that Uncle Ben's "plan," whatever it might be, would involve his abandoning Apple Island had never occurred to the lad until this moment. Just now, however, while the "Sally D." was slowly but surely approaching the anchorage, he could give little heed to anything save the fear that Captain Doak might succeed in getting hold of him once more.
Soon the lads could see the two men clearly, and Sam knew only too well that his stepfather was in a towering rage.
"He'll use up more'n one rope's end on me if he gets the chance!" the lad said with an indrawing of the breath, and his companion, trying to speak in a careless tone, replied:
"Oh, he'll have a mighty tough time gettin' near enough to make much trouble, no matter how long he stays. We'll wait here till we see what his game is, for there won't be any sense in runnin' 'round very lively before there's need for it."
The lads were not kept in suspense many moments. Within a quarter hour the "Sally D." was inside the cove; Rube Rowe let the anchor go with a rush, the sails were hauled down, but not furled, and with everything on the deck at sixes and sevens, Captain Doak jumped into the dory which was towing alongside, shouting impatiently to his solitary sailor: