t of him? If
anybody was dead, who was it? It might be his mother. His blood seemed
to freeze in his veins as he thought of the possibility of such a
terrible event. He sprang upon the seat, and hailed the boat at once.

"Is my mother dead?" shouted he; and the agony of his tone was borne
across the water with his words.

"No: your mother is not dead. She is quite well," replied the officer,
who could not but have been impressed by the despairing tone in which
the question was put to him; and he had not lost an instant in relieving
the anxiety of the inquirer.

Dory dropped down upon the seat again. His mother was not sick or dead.
The current of life began to flow through his veins again. A terrible
load was removed from his mind almost as soon as laid upon it. He even
began to think that the officer was playing a trick upon him to get him
to see the captain of the steamer, whom he had so carefully avoided.

"Give way, my lads!" shouted the officer of the boat, as soon as he had
answered Dory's question. "I want Theodore Dornwood. Will you give him
up?"

This question was addressed to the skipper of the schooner, which was
not more than a hundred feet from the boat.

"Yes, with the greatest pleasure," replied Pearl. "I will put him ashore
in here, and you can take him on board."

Dory heard this reply with astonishment and indignation. Pearl intended
to put him ashore, and then allow the boat from the steam-yacht to pick
him up. If he could keep the boat from coming alongside, and thus
prevent the officer from ascertaining the condition of things on board
of the Goldwing, the Sylph would trouble him no more. If the business on
which she came after Dory was a matter of life and death, Captain
Gildrock would not be likely to molest him after he had accomplished his
mission.

The Goldwing was now within a hundred yards of the shore. Through an
opening in the land she was getting a better breeze, and was making at
least four miles an hour. Dory saw that something must be done very
soon. He had been released from his imprisonment so that the owner of
the steamer should not see that he was in trouble. The boat from the
steamer was not hurrying; for the officer seemed to be satisfied with
the arrangement Pearl had proposed, to put the boy ashore.

When the steamer's port boat saw that the schooner was cornered, she
began to pull towards the scene of action. It had gone but a short
distance from the vessel before sh