"They've drawn the port-hole and transom curtains, but they've
got a hidden light down there, and I can hear voices."

"Wait a moment, then," said Captain Tom, apprehensively. "I've an
idea."

He crept back into the motor room, again striking a match. By the aid
of this feeble light he found his way to the passageway that connected
the motor room and the cabin under the bridge deck. After a brief
inspection he hurried back to his comrades.

"The passage door is padlocked on the motor room side," he whispered.
"Our pirates had no key to unlock that with. Now, can you walk the
deck as though your shoes were soled with loose cotton?"

"Yes," grumbled Hank, disjointedly, "but the snare-drum solo my teeth
are doing may make noise enough to give me away."

"Cram your handkerchief between your teeth," retorted Captain Tom,
practically. "Come along, fellows. But hold your clubs ready in case
your feet betray you."

Stealing along, each holding to the edge of the deck house with one
hand, the motor boat boys approached the after hatchway. This,
evidently for purposes of ventilation, had been left partly open.

Nudging his comrades to pause, Joe, bending so low as to be almost
flat on the deck, prowled further aft.

There, in the darkness, he used his eyes to find out what might be
down in the cabin. Then he came back.

"Eight tough-looking men in the cabin," he whispered, in Tom
Halstead's ear.

"Is Anson Dalton one of them?"

"Yep."

"Hurrah! Then we've bagged him, at last!"

"Have we, though?" muttered Joe Dawson, dubiously.

"Well, we're going to," declared Tom, radiantly. "My boy, we're going
to cut out of this cove with, the whole crew held in down there."

"Hope so," assented Joe, not very enthusiastically.

"Why, we've got to," argued Halstead. "If we don't, then that crew
would have the upper hand, instead, and make penny jumping-jacks of us
until they saw fit to let us go. But wait a moment. I must get back
and have a look at them."

This time it was the young skipper who crawled aft. Joe and Hank
followed part of the way, holding their sticks in readiness in case
Dalton and his men discovered their presence.

"I reckon, Cap, you'll find you've got the right crowd for to-night's
work," a rough voice was declaring, as Halstead came within ear
range.

"Now, don't you men misunderstand me," replied Anson Dalton in a
smooth yet firm voice. "I'm not paying you for any piratical acts. I
have to give