CHAPTER X.
“DING-DONG” AND A GUN.
All this time Ding-dong Bell had been making history in a fashion all his own. The lad had been below, pottering about his beloved engines, at the time that the others had gone aboard the schooner, and consequently was quite unaware of what had occurred till he emerged on deck and found that the Motor Rangers’ craft was deserted.
“Guess they’ve gone aboard the schooner,” thought the lad, and was preparing to follow, when a sailor, stationed at the latter vessel’s main shrouds, to which the Motor Rangers’ boat was made fast, stopped him.
“Stay where you are, young feller,” he ordered crisply.
It was at this moment that Ding-dong’s sharp eyes noticed a little group, consisting of the captain, the mate, and several of the sailors, standing aft by the cabin companionway.
“I want to join my friends,” exclaimed Ding-dong, forgetting to stutter in his righteous indignation at the fellow’s tone and manner.
“Guess your friends ain’t receiving company, except by permission of Captain Lawless,” was the reply given, with an impudent grin.
As the man spoke, he made a motion as if to grab Ding-dong, who was standing with one leg on board the Nomad and the other on the schooner’s bulwarks.
But Ding-dong was quite as quick in his actions as were his two chums. Moreover, he was a muscular lad, and his thews and sinews had been toughened to a steel-like fineness by his many adventures.