"Three cheers for the instructor in mechanics!" shouted a student who had heard the conversation.
They were given with quite as much vim as those for Dory.
"But Dory was the leader of the enterprise, though I did the best I could to support him," added the machinist.
"You have done exceedingly well, both of you; but we will drop this subject for the time, and open the cabin-doors," said the principal, as he led the way to the quarter-deck of the schooner.
It was an easy matter to remove the brace which secured the cabin-doors, and to take out the strip of board which held the slide in its place. If either Mack or Ripples had had a moment of liberty after he came on deck from the cabin-window, he could have released his companions below. After Dory's talk with Chuck over the stern of the vessel, the party below were quiet, evidently believing that the deck was in possession of the two who had made their egress through the cabin-windows.
When the door was opened, Chuck, as the leader by succession, was the first to step on the deck. He could not have helped hearing the tramp of many feet on the planks over his head, but he had no positive knowledge of what was going on. He seemed to be astonished at the fact that the vessel was alongside a wharf, and he looked with amazement on the crowd that had gathered near the La Motte.
"What sort of a circus is this?" demanded he, bewildered, as he looked around him.
"It's all up with us, Chuck," said Mack at the rail. "Shut your mouth, and keep it shut."
"But I don't understand what all this means," persisted the astonished successor of Mr. Spickles. "Didn't you tell me that you had knocked over the two fellows on deck, and taken possession of the vessel?"
"No, I didn't!" snapped Mack, who did not appear to be in an amiable mood.
"That was a bit of strategy on the part of Dory," interposed the machinist.
"I told you that we had knocked over the two fellows, but they were the two you sent on deck through the cabin-windows," added Dory.
"There seems to be two classes of these men," said Mr. Bushby. "A part of them had no hand in the robbery, and were not in the vessel at the time; but I don't know them apart."
"This is one of the robbers: he went to the shore with the two who blowed up the safe, and helped them off," added Dory. "The one who is tied to the rail is the fellow that was in the office with Angy."