t not in the State of Vermont. I can't arrest Pearl over here."

"Arrest him! Are you going to take him up?" asked Dory, not a little
astonished at this revelation.

"I am not going to do it over here; and he may make me no end of trouble
when he sees how the land lays," added Peppers; and at the same time he
sat down in the bottom of the standing-room.

"What are you going to arrest him for?"

"For stealing Moody's money!" exclaimed the detective desperately. "I
didn't mean to tell you the whole story just yet, but you have dragged
it out of me. Drop down here, Moody."

The loser of the money obeyed, though he seemed to be as much in the
dark as to the object of the movement as the skipper. Dory was worried
at the words of the officer; for, if he would not go on board of the
little steamer when he went alongside of her, he might not be able to
earn the promised reward.

"What is all this for, Mr. Peppers?" asked Dory, quite as anxious to
earn his money as the detective was to secure his prisoner.

"Can't we go into the cabin, and shut the doors, Dory?" asked Peppers.

"You can; but that would bring the boat down by the head so much that
she won't work well. If you want to do that, I will shift the ballast,"
replied Dory.

"I don't want Pearl to see me until we get him into this boat. It won't
do for me to take him out of the steamer over here. I am afraid to do
it. Shift your ballast, and then I will fix it up with you," added the
officer.

"Fix up the ballast!" exclaimed Dory, who did not care to have any one
meddle with the ballast but himself.

"No, no! Fix up a plan to get Pearl into this boat. Don't try to be so
thick, Dory," replied Peppers impatiently.

The skipper could not leave the helm to move the ballast, and neither of
his passengers knew any thing about a boat. But the men shifted the
fifty-sixes under the direction of the skipper. Five of them were
carried farther aft, and the passengers took their places one in each
berth in the cabin.

The doors opening into the standing-room were closed, but the slide was
left open till the schooner came alongside the Missisquoi. The men
declared that they were very comfortable in their quarters, and Dory
could not see why they should not be. He did not think there was any
better place in the known world than the cabin of the Goldwing.

"Now, how are we to get Pearl into this boat?" asked Peppers, with his
head at the opening by the slide.

"I don't