Page:Rover Boys on Land and Sea.djvu/264

246 "He'll never take care of me!" cried Dora.

"Nor me!" came from Nellie.

"I'd rather die than leave this place in Dan Baxter's company," added Grace.

"Captain, I want you to understand that Gibson and I didn't agree to what they wanted to do," came from Marny. "But we were over-ruled, and we had to hold our tongues for fear of being knocked down or shot."

"Do you want to join our crowd?" asked Dick bluntly.

"We do, and if you'll take us in we'll promise to stand by you to the end, no matter what comes. We know they've got the best of it—having the ship's stores—but we don't care for that. They are a drunken, good-for-nothing crowd, and we are done with them."

"All right, men, I think we can trust you," said Captain Blossom. "It's a pity that Hackenhaven was lost overboard and eat up by the sharks. We could rather have spared Lesher."

"Or Dan Baxter," observed Tom.

"With three gone they have but eight men left on the wreck," said Sam. "And we now number seven men and three ladies. If we stand our ground, I can't see as we have much to fear from them."

"It will be all right so long as they keep their