ibble me, Sammy Pinkney, I'll
ne-never forgive you for taking me away off to be pirates."

"Oh, goodness, Dot Kenway! Who wanted you to come! I'm sure I didn't. I
knew girls couldn't be pirates."

"I'm just as good a one as you are--so now!" she snapped, recovering
herself somewhat.

Sammy found something just then in his pocket that he thought might aid
matters. It was a bag of "gumballs."

"Oh, say, Dot! have a ball?" he asked thrusting out the bag in the dark.

"Oh, Sammy! Thanks!" She found one of the confections and immediately
had such a sticky and difficult mouthful that it was impossible for her
either to cry or talk for some time. This certainly was a relief to
Sammy!

He could give his mind now to thinking. And no small boy ever had a more
difficult problem to solve. Two youngsters in the hold of this huge old,
empty canalboat, the deck planks of which seemed so thick that nobody
outside could hear their cries, and unable to lift the cover. Query: How
to obtain their release?

Sammy had read stories of stowaways who had wonderful adventures in the
holds of ships. But he did not just fancy climbing around in this black
hold, or exploring it in any way far from the hatch-well. There might be
rats here, just as Dot suggested.

Of course, they were in no immediate danger of starvation. His two
dollars so lavishly spent drove the ghost of hunger far, far away. But,
to tell the truth, just at this time Sammy Pinkney did not feel as
though he would ever care much about eating.

Even the gumballs did not taste so delicious as he had expected. Anxiety
rode him hard--and the harder because he felt, after all, that the
responsibility of Dot Kenway's being here rested upon his shoulders. She
would never have thought of running away to be pirates all by herself.
That was a fact that could not be gainsaid.

Meanwhile the canalboat was being drawn farther and farther away from
Milton. Sammy did not wish to go with it, any more than Dot did. The
situation was "up to him" indeed--the boy felt it keenly; but he had no
idea as to what he should do to escape from this unfortunate
imprisonment.

CHAPTER XII

MISSING

Agnes and Cecile had gone down town on a brief shopping trip, and Ruth,
with Luke Shepard, was on the wide veranda of the old Corner House.

The great front yard that had been weed grown and neglected when the
Kenway sisters and Aunt Sarah had come here to live, was now a well kept
lawn, the