"Do you think I would let Dory Dornwood boss me?" growled Tom.
"He is the captain of the steamer; and I would rather have him boss me in the steamer, than have you do it in a sailboat, for he knows what he is about every time."
"All right! You have gone over to the enemy."
"What's the use to talk about bossing, Tom?" interposed Nim Splugger. "You want to be boss all the time; and, in a boat, you are ten times as rough with a fellow as Dory Dornwood. He is as polite as a dancing-master."
"Then you are going to leave me to fight this thing out alone?" demanded Tom, disgusted with the admissions of his friends. "You don't catch me bending my knee to Dory Dornwood."
"He don't ask any fellow to bend his knee to him. He shows you how to do a thing, and don't bully, like you do, Tom," added Kidd.
"If you think more of him than you do of me, you can throw me over," added Tom, with a show of meekness. "But I thought you were going to make the best of it till we had a good chance to make a strike."
"I am making the best of it, and I am getting along first-rate," added Kidd, as he turned upon his heel and walked away.
"When there is a chance to do any thing, you will find us there," added Nim Splugger. "But I think you are making a fool of yourself, by setting your teeth even against things you like. I have had a first-rate time to-day, and we are living as well as we should at the hotel."
"And when you go on shore you will be locked into a room with iron bars on the windows," sneered Tom.