"We won't trust you."
"Very well," added Raymond, decidedly. "Nothing more need be said. Come, fellows."
The leader of the mild party turned on his heel, and moved aft, followed by his adherents.
"What do you suppose they mean to do?" asked Lindsley, as they halted under the skylight, near the middle of the steerage.
"I don't know; but it must be something desperate to compel the principal to put back," replied Raymond. "It may be to make a few auger-holes in the bottom of the ship."
"I wouldn't do anything of that sort," added Lindsley, shaking his head.
"No matter what it is; we offered to do the fair thing."
"Suppose you had agreed to keep still, and they had proposed to bore holes in the bottom of the ship; would you have kept your promise, and said nothing about it?" asked Lindsley.
"I would not have let them do it; and then there would have been nothing to conceal," answered Raymond.
"Precisely so! That's a good idea. Why not agree to their proposition, and then, if they mean to do anything which endangers the ship, we can easily prevent them from doing it," said Lindsley, who was exceedingly curious to know what the runaways wished to do.