“That was because I didn’t know what I was up against.”
“Even so; that is a risk that often confronts the speculator. That’s where brains count.”
Captain Beasley looked at the clock, laid down his pipe and intimated it was time to turn in.
He led the boys to the forward part of the boat, pointed to a small open scuttle in the deck, and told them they’d find a mattress and a couple of blankets down there. Then wishing them good night, he left them to make the best of their narrow quarters.
CHAPTER V.
IN WHICH SILAS MASLIN FAILS TO RECOVER HIS RUNAWAY.
In the morning the boat was hauled across to the other side of the canal, the side on which the towpath ran; a tandem mule team in charge of a boy who sported the biggest and most disreputable straw hat Dick had ever seen, was hitched on, and the boat began to move slowly down the canal.
As they approached the bridge at Cobham’s Corner, Dick got out of sight of the shore.
He knew there would be trouble if any member of the Maslin family caught a glimpse of him on board the Minnehaha.
So he squatted down inside the limited bit of hold in the eyes of the canal-boat which he and Joe had used for sleeping quarters, while his chum sat on the combings of the hatch with his legs swinging down and his gaze fixed on Cobham’s Corner.