lied the
skipper, chuckling at his own reply.

"What does this mean, Hawlinshed?"

"Well, it means any thing you please, Peppers. So you had passengers in
the cabin, Dory; and that is the reason you didn't want to open the
cabin," added Pearl.

"Open this door, and let us out, Hawlinshed, if you have the key," said
the detective in a mild and good-natured tone, as though he expected the
villain to do it.

"No: I think I won't," replied Pearl. "I am afraid you wouldn't behave
yourself as well out here as you do in the cabin."

The officer said no more for several minutes. Dory concluded that he was
looking over his chances of getting out of his prison. Probably he was
willing to admit by this time that the tables had been turned upon him.
The owner of the Goldwing could think of no way by which the prisoners
could get out. The doors were made of plank, and he could not get at the
hinges to operate upon them.

"I think we had better talk this thing over, Pearl," said Peppers, after
a silence of several minutes. "We may be able to come to an
understanding."

"I don't object to talking it over. I haven't got any thing else to do;
but I am afraid we can't come to any understanding," replied the
skipper. "You are a constable, police-officer, detective, and all that
sort of thing; and I suppose you went over into Vermont on business. Did
you finish it before you were locked into that place?"

Pearl chuckled, and was very good-natured in his remarks; and he plainly
felt that he was master of the situation.

"I didn't finish my business; but, if you will open the door, I will end
it in a very short time," answered the officer.

"Then I guess I won't open the door," laughed Pearl. "Perhaps you won't
object to telling me what your business is in these parts."

"I can't do any thing till you let me out."

"Then you can't do any thing at all. You had better turn in, and take a
nap for the rest of the day."

"Do you mean to keep us in here all day, Hawlinshed?"

"Yes: and all night if you don't behave yourself."

Another silence followed, in which the caged officer was probably
considering what he should do next. It was broken by a sudden crash,
which startled Dory. He found that something besides the silence was
broken. All the blinds in one of the doors were smashed out at a single
stroke from the shoulder of the detective. It hurt Dory's feelings to
see the beautiful work of the boat reduced to splinters in an i