"Is this the boat that went off from here yesterday morning?" asked one of the men.
"Yes, sir: this is the boat," replied Dory, hoping that the men's business related to the charge against him.
"Are you the boy that bought her?" continued the man who did the talking.
"Yes, sir: I am the one that bought her and paid for her," answered Dory. "Do you know of anybody in this town that wants to see me?"
"I can't say I do," said the man, looking at the other one, and laughing.
"There was a little steamer here in the forenoon."
"That was the Missisquoi."
"A man went off in her to look up this boat. Have you seen any thing of the steamer?" asked the man.
"Yes, sir: she is hard and fast aground on the Colchester shoal, near Law Island. The man that went in her to look up this boat was Pearl Hawlinshed. I don't believe in him, and I kept out of the way of him and his steamer."
"How could you keep out of the way of a steamer in a sailboat?"