Part 18 (2/2)

”What do you want to know, Corny?” asked Dory.

”I want to know where you got the money to buy this boat,” replied Corny, rather more warmly than the occasion seemed to require.

”I shall not tell you,” answered Dory firmly, but very quietly.

”You won't?”

”No, I won't,” repeated Dory. ”That is my secret. I have to keep it, not on my own account, but for the sake of a person who was very kind to me, and gave me a meal when I was hungry. That is all I can say about the case. I didn't steal a dollar or a cent, and I am willing to face any man that says I did.”

”That fellow in the steamer says you did; and we have been running away from him since yesterday morning,” replied Corny.

”That man, whose name is Pearl Hawlinshed, has something against me; and I don't care about putting myself into his hands,” answered Dory.

”I suppose you don't,” added Corny with a sneer. ”I don't like this thing a bit. We have been with you since yesterday morning, and they say the receiver is as bad as the thief.”

”Do you believe I am a thief, Corny?” said Dory, looking his accuser squarely in the eye.

”I don't see how I can believe any thing else. I don't want to believe such a thing of you, Dory. Fellows like you and me don't have forty-two dollars in every pocket of their trousers; and you won't tell us where you got the money,” answered Corny a little more moderately.

”You talk and act just as though you did want to prove that I stole the money I paid for the boat,” added Dory. ”All I ask of the fellows is to believe that I am innocent until I am proved guilty.”

”That's the talk! that's fair! I don't believe Dory did it!” exclaimed Thad.

”Let him tell where he got the money, then,” replied Corny.

”That's his business, if he don't choose to tell,” argued Thad. ”It don't prove that Dory is a thief because that fellow says so. We don't know any thing about that fellow.”

”Do you believe that he would chase us for two days in a steamer if there wasn't something serious the matter?” asked Corny.

”Yes, if he wanted to get this boat,” replied Thad.

”Well, I have had enough of this thing. Here we are cruising all over the lake with a thief, running away, and dodging a steamer sent after him; and we are getting into it as deep as he is,” bl.u.s.tered Corny.

”Shut up, Corn Minkfield, or I'll smash your head!” exclaimed Thad, leaping to his feet, and moving towards the sceptic.

”None of that, Thad!” interposed Dory, putting his arm between the two belligerent members. ”I don't want any fight over it.”

The skipper put the helm up, and gybed the boat.

”What are you going to do now?” demanded Corny when Thad had resumed his seat. ”I am not going to be carried all over the lake with one who is running away from the officers.”

Thad sprang to his feet again, but Dory quieted him.

”I am going back to Plattsburgh to face the music,” said Dory.

Corny looked more disgusted than ever.

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