he wanted to get this boat," replied Thad.

"Well, I have had enough of this thing. Here we are cruising all over
the lake with a thief, running away, and dodging a steamer sent after
him; and we are getting into it as deep as he is," blustered Corny.

"Shut up, Corn Minkfield, or I'll smash your head!" exclaimed Thad,
leaping to his feet, and moving towards the sceptic.

"None of that, Thad!" interposed Dory, putting his arm between the two
belligerent members. "I don't want any fight over it."

The skipper put the helm up, and gybed the boat.

"What are you going to do now?" demanded Corny when Thad had resumed his
seat. "I am not going to be carried all over the lake with one who is
running away from the officers."

Thad sprang to his feet again, but Dory quieted him.

"I am going back to Plattsburgh to face the music," said Dory.

Corny looked more disgusted than ever.

CHAPTER XVII.

DORY DORNWOOD DECIDES TO "FACE THE MUSIC."

"I'm not going back to Plattsburgh!" exclaimed Corny Minkfield. "My
mother will want to know what has become of me by this time."

"What are you going to do, Corny?" asked Dory in the gentlest of tones.

"I am going back to Burlington," answered Corny.

"All right! I don't object," added Dory, as he headed the boat for
Plattsburgh.

Thad laughed, and Nat and Dick smiled. Corny talked and acted as though
he "owned things;" and the others were rather pleased to see him taken
down a peg when he was in this mood.

"You promised to take us back to Burlington, Dory; and now you are going
to drag us back to Plattsburgh," growled Corny.

"But you don't want to sail all over the lake with a thief. If I go to
Burlington now, I shall be running away from the officers. I must go to
Plattsburgh, and face the music."

"Hurrah for Dory!" shouted Thad. "Is that the way a thief does it?"

"Hurrah for Dory!" added Dick Short. "That isn't the way a thief does
it."

"But I want to go home. I don't want my mother to worry about me," added
Corny.

"You called me a thief just now, and I can't run away from the place
where they accuse me. I will put you ashore at the light-house, or on
Colchester Point."

"You might as well put me ashore on Stave Island. I want to go back to
Burlington."

"We are bound to Plattsburgh now; and I shall not stop to rest until I
have seen the men that charge me with stealing that money," replied Dory
very decidedly.

"The man that charges you is i