Toby returned warm but triumphant at a little after twelve and announced that he had filled the vacant positions. “I’ve got ten fellows altogether,” he said, “and it’s going to be mighty hard to decide which is the tenth! I guess we’ll have to draw lots to see which one of us is the substitute. We’re going to practice tomorrow, if enough fellows can get off. I guess that’s where you’ll have the best of us, Arn. You can practice any time you like.”
“Well, you said you didn’t need to practice.”
“Maybe an hour or so wouldn’t hurt. There wasn’t any letter from those folks, was there, Phebe?”
“No. You know father said it couldn’t come before tomorrow, Toby. Arnold and I have talked it all over. You’re to stand out for two hundred dollars reward, Toby, and Arnold’s going to put his share into a sailboat, and he’s going to have father build it for him!”
“And then I’m going to get you to show me how to sail her,” added Arnold.
“Get Phebe,” was the reply. “She can sail a boat as well as I can. I guess, though, the fellow who lost that launch isn’t going to pay any two hundred dollars to us.”
“You can’t tell,” said Phebe. “She’s worth lots more than that. Father said he wouldn’t build her hull for less than four hundred dollars, and that the engine——”
“What would you do with your share if we did get that much?” asked Arnold.
Toby shook his head. “I’d—I don’t know,” he acknowledged. “But I guess I could find a use for it!”