"Hold on to him, my lads!" added the captain. "Don't let him go."
Pearl struggled for his liberty; but the two young fellows jammed him down in the bottom of the boat, and held him there in spite of his efforts to shake them off.
"This is an outrage, Captain Gildrock!" gasped Pearl, out of breath from the violence of his exertions. "I did not think this of you! I have always heard you spoken of as a fair man; but you interfere with my business, and hand me over to my enemies!"
[Illustration: "THE YOUNG FELLOWS GRABBED PEARL WITH NO TENDER GRASP." PAGE 264.]
"Your enemies, as you call them, are willing to have the truth, whatever it is, shown out; but you are not," replied Captain Gildrock. "If the officer in the cuddy don't make out a case against you, I shall not meddle with you; and you can go to Canada, or wherever else you please. Give way," he added to the two after oarsmen.
The two men pulled the boat, and the captain steered it to the spot where Dory was looking for the key. He had taken no notice of what had been transpiring behind him, but had kept his eyes fixed on the spot where he had seen the key drop into the water. After a few minutes' search he saw it lying on the sand, and picked it up. By this time the boat had come up to him; but he paid no attention to it, and began to wade back to the schooner.
"Come into the boat, Theodore," said Captain Gildrock.
"No, I thank you, sir: I will wade back to the Goldwing. It won't take me but a moment."
The captain thought the boy behaved very strangely, as he had ever since the boats from the Sylph had come alongside the schooner. But he permitted his nephew to have his own way, and Dory soon climbed over the side of the boat into the standing-room. Taking the key from his pocket, he unlocked the padlock, and threw the doors open. Peppers and Moody crawled out of their prison, and stretched their limbs; for they were rather stiff after being kept so long in one position.
By the time Captain Gildrock's boat came along side, the two prisoners were at liberty. The two bow oarsmen were told to let their captive up. Pearl could not have been more wrathy if he had tried. The pleasant game over which he had rubbed his hands so felicitously had gone against him. He knew that Peppers would get the best of him in the argument, and he had lost all hope. He regarded Dory as the cause of all his misfortunes; and, as soon as he was released, he sprang into the standing-room of the schooner, and rushed upon him.