s, captain?"

The big man leaned back in his chair and laughed long and loud. The boys
looked at him in surprise. It was not an agreeable laugh although there
was no ill-humor in it.

"What in thunder does he see to laugh at?" whispered Bert to Harry in a
disgusted tone.

"Wait, we shall find out in good time."

"We should like to be put ashore at Cottage City, if you please,"
continued Harry, ignoring the captain's merriment, "but if that is too
much out of your way, Nantucket will do and we can take the boat home in
the morning."

Again the captain went off into a paroxysm of laughter. The peals of
loud guffaws grated on the ears of the anxious boys.

"He can't be a bad man at heart," whispered Mason to Harry, "or he
wouldn't have taken so much trouble and run so much risk to pick us up
after his steamer ran us down."

"No, I don't understand it. I feel as if I were being kidnapped," said
Bert.

Presently the captain's fit of humor passed and his face became serious
again.

"Boys," he said, "I shall have to ask you to take things as they are and
ask no questions. You are my guests. Do not worry."

"But, captain, we must get home," said Mason petulantly.

The man smiled at the speaker.

"I hope we will all get home sometime," he said, quietly.

"You speak as if there were some doubt about it," said Harry quickly.

"There is," answered the captain, slowly.

The boys looked at one another in dismay. What did it mean? Harry was
the first to recover his composure.

"You surely intend to land somewhere," he said, half questioningly.

"Sure--if we are lucky."

"You mean that this storm is so bad that there is danger we may not
weather it?"

Again the captain laughed his big laugh.

"We'll weather this all right. It's only a capful of wind for the old
_Mariella_. She has ridden out many a storm that would make this one
look like thirty cents."

"Then if there is no danger from the weather, we demand that you land us
at the nearest port."

Harry drew himself up and looked very important as he spoke. The captain
only smiled indulgently.

"You might as well learn at the start, young gentlemen," he said
quietly, "that there is no such word as _demand_ recognized by Captain
Dynamite."

"Sounds like a pirate name," whispered the irrepressible Midget, loud
enough to be heard by the captain.

"I am something of a pirate," said the big man as if in reply. "Now I
will be quite frank with you. I shall