"What are you doing up there?" demanded Pearl fiercely. "What are you about?"
"I want to see how far off the shore is," replied Dory, for the want of something more sensible to say.
"Come down this instant, you young villain!" yelled Pearl, whose hope of saving himself was thus endangered by the unexpected freak of the owner of the boat.
"I think I can make myself very comfortable up here for a while," replied Dory, as he placed his feet on the foresail gaff, and passed his arm around the topmast.
"If you don't come down, I will shoot you!" stormed Pearl angrily, as he saw the two boats of the steamer coming nearer to him every moment.
Dory had the average aversion to being shot, and he did not like the sound of the threat. He did not know whether or not Pearl had a pistol, though it was not improbable that he had one. He looked at the approaching boats. One of them was not thirty yards from the schooner, and the officer could hardly have helped hearing the threat of the skipper. The port boat had come near enough by this time to enable Dory to see that his uncle was in the stern-sheets.
"Give way, my lads, with all your might!" said the officer of the nearer boat, speaking with great energy, as though he meant to take a hand in the business on board of the Goldwing.
"Are you coming down, Dory Dornwood?" demanded Pearl, as he stopped on the forward deck of the schooner.
"I think I will come down," replied Dory, who had made up his mind not to run the risk of being shot; but he was satisfied that one of the boats would be alongside the Goldwing before he could reach the deck. "But it isn't so easy to get down as it was to come up," he added, making it as an excuse for the slow movement in coming down to the deck. Dory descended with the utmost caution. He had gained time enough to enable the starboard boat to reach the schooner, and this was all he expected to accomplish by going aloft.
"Come, hurry up, Dory!" shouted the skipper, when he was about half way to the deck.
Dory immediately changed his movement, and began to ascend again.
"What are you about, you young cub? Are you going back again?" cried Pearl.
"You told me to hurry up," pleaded Dory, wishing to gain all the time he could.
