Page:Harry Castlemon - The Steel Horse.djvu/396

 "There, now," cried Joe, indignantly, while Arthur Hastings looked and acted as though he wanted to fight.

"But what object did you have in doing it?" continued Roy. "Who put you up to it—Willis?"

"He's the very chap, sir: but we've been punished for it, and we hope—"

"You've nothing whatever to fear from me, if that is what you want to say," interposed Roy, who was impatient to get at the bottom of what was to him a deep mystery. "You know how I got away, and here I am, safe and sound. Your actions proved that you did not think you were going to be shanghaied yourselves—what are you looking for?"

"You're right we didn't know it, sir," answered Tony, who pulled out his ditty-bag, and after a little fumbling in it drew forth a piece of soiled paper which he handed to Roy. "That, sir, is the letter I took to Cap'n Jack that night. If I had only known what was writ onto it, me and Bob would have kept clear of that ship, you may be sare [sic]. The cap'n dropped it on deck shortly after you went