"Just as you knew where to look for the throat-halyards," laughed the skipper.
Thad took a picture of a sloop from his pocket.
CHAPTER XVI.
ON BOARD OF THE LA MOTTE.
Perhaps the principal reason why Dory Dornwood and the instructor in mechanics had obtained so easy a victory over the two members of the Nautifelers Club who remained on board of the La Motte, was that both of them were soaked with beer. They were not intoxicated in the worst sense of the word: they were "boozy" and stupid.
They had been left on board while the other three had gone on shore to "do the job" at the school, and, no doubt, the time in the furious storm hung heavy on their hands. They had imbibed from the keg until they were deprived of whatever natural energy belonged to them, and they did not seem to have either the pluck or the ability to do any thing for themselves. A stronger intoxicant might have made them wild and desperate: the beer simply stupefied them.
"We have got the vessel," said the machinist, with a cheerful smile, as he held on to the robber whom he had just secured.
"No doubt of that," added Dory, as he rose from the deck where he had been attending to his prisoner. "These fellows don't seem to be very desperate characters."
"I expected a far worse time than we have had," added Mr. Jepson. "What is the next move? Shall we take them to the school in the vessel?"
"Not yet a while," replied Dory, glancing towards the shore where the two had landed on the rafts. "We have another job on our hands; but I think we had better put these fellows where they will not be in our way."
As he spoke, he assisted the one who was lying on the deck to rise. Leaving both of them in charge of his companion, he went down into the cabin. It was a very small apartment, not intended for more than four persons. On the table in the centre of it was the keg of beer, carefully secured with blocks, and lashed down.