"You keep quiet where you are! We will let you out as soon as we have time to clear the stuff from the hatchway," said Dory.
"We can't keep quiet: the keg of beer is empty.--But we can tap another," answered Chuck; and the last remark seemed to indicate a sudden new idea.
Dory was not willing to encourage him to drink any more beer; and he left his place at the stern, to end the conversation. At this moment he took a survey of the lake, and discovered the Sylph coming out of the river. He had been expecting to see her for the last two hours, and her appearance was a source of intense delight to him.
"Our troubles will soon be over," said the skipper to the machinist, as he pointed up the lake at the steam-yacht.
"Our troubles!" exclaimed Mr. Jepson. "Why, Dory, I had made up my mind that you rather enjoyed this circus."
"I am sure, I don't enjoy it a bit more than you do, sir," replied the skipper, somewhat astonished at the remark.
"You certainly need not have engaged in this affair if you had not been so disposed."
"I think I speak the honest truth when I say that I believed these villains would escape if I did not do something; and that was my only motive in undertaking to capture them, or at least in watching to see where they went," replied Dory, as though he were defending himself from a criminal charge. "Perhaps I did more than was necessary, but I could not very well help doing it."
"Two-thirds of the students would have considered it as a jolly time, if they could have taken part in the affair. At any rate, we shall hand over the whole of the crowd to the principal, and he can do as he pleases with them."
"He will put them through, you may be sure of that."