Page:Dave Porter and his Classmates.djvu/262

238 "Oh, I reckon somebody will come to take them off."

"Do you sup—suppose they saw us run away with their boat?" Poole was now so scared he could scarcely talk.

"No. We didn't see them, and consequently I can't see how they'd know us. But you want to keep mum."

"Maybe somebody saw us bring in the empty rowboat."

"I don't think so; nobody was around when we came in. Now you just keep quiet and it will be all right."

"If they have to stay on the island all night they'll be as mad as hornets."

"I don't care—I'd like to pay them both back for some of the mean things they've done to us."

"I don't know that they've done any mean thing to me," answered Nat Poole. He felt that he would give a good deal not to have touched the rowboat found on the shore of Bush Island tied to a tree. That it had been a craft used by Doctor Clay and Mr. Dale there was now not the slightest doubt.

Dave was in the library of the school, consulting a history of Rome, when Ben came in with news that Doctor Clay and Mr. Dale were missing. It was almost time to go to bed and a number of the students had already retired.