"Very well: they may go with you, and I will bring them back. I have a scheme in my mind upon which I have been at work this forenoon; but, if you have concluded to do a boating business for a living, I shall have to give it up, at least for the present."
"Has the scheme any thing to do with me?" asked Dory, his curiosity awakened by the remark.
"It has to do with all the members of the Goldwing Club. I have been to see Mrs. Short and Mrs. Minkfield in regard to Richard and Cornelius. But my plan is not yet matured, and I will not say any thing more about it until we see how you make out boating."
"I bought the boat in order to do something to help mother," added Dory. "I didn't give forty-two dollars for it for a plaything."
"Your mother tells me that you have done every thing you could to help her, and have given her all the money you earned. I am very glad to hear so good a report of you, for I have been told that you were rather wild. The only doubt I have in regard to you now is as to where the money came from to pay for the Goldwing."
Dory told all he felt at liberty to tell, but this did not satisfy his uncle any more than it did his mother.
"A man doesn't give a boy over a hundred dollars without some very strong motive; and your mother is not likely ever to know the nature of this mysterious transaction," added the captain.
"I can't break my promise, uncle Royal," protested Dory.
"Some promises are better broken than kept."
Captain Gildrock's residence was about twenty miles up the lake on Beaver River, where he had a large estate. Dory had never been there, though he had seen it from the river. It was decided that Mrs. Dornwood and Marian should go to Plattsburgh in the Sylph and then go home with the captain, as Dory was to be away for three days.