"It means that you were right, and that I was wrong," replied Dory candidly. "I should have done better if I had left the schooner where she was."
"I don't say that; and if I had thought so at the time, I should have spoken. We will deal with the present situation," added the instructor.
"I thought the plan would work all right, and I am disappointed," said Dory. "Those fellows believe that Sang and Wick, as they call them, have gone ashore in the boat, and they have started to look for them. My strategy has failed, and I am disgusted with it."
"What shall we do? That is the question now," suggested the machinist.
"I don't like to go back to Beech Hill without those fellows, after we have spent so much time in hunting them down," added Dory.
"They will come back when they fail to find their companions."
"But I don't care about waiting all day for them. If you will go with me, we will go on shore, and take the bull by the horns. We can handle them."
"All right, Dory; but how can we get ashore? We have no boat," replied the machinist, who was quite as impatient as his younger companion.
"I will bring off the boat for you, and I will go ashore on one of the fenders."
Dory handed his revolver to the instructor, and prepared for his trip to the shore by taking off his coat and shoes. It was a trifling feat for him, and in a few minutes he was on the beach. It was a harder matter to get the boat into the water; but he had carried a line to the shore with him, so that his companion could assist in the work. The machinist hauled the boat alongside the schooner as soon as it put into the water.