"I am not a fighting character," added Dory.
"I should say not! I have handled you twice; and I don't know that I should have dared to touch you if I had known who and what you were," chuckled the leader. "But let us take hold of the boat, and see what we can do with it."
"Won't you give us a lift, Dory?" asked Chuck. "I did you a good turn in the boat."
"I cannot do any thing to assist in your escape, though I should be glad to reciprocate your kind act," replied the prisoner.
"It's no use to waste words with him," interposed Angy. "He is the paragon of that school, and goes to the Sunday school."
They raised the boat from the beach, and Mack declared that it was not half as heavy as he had supposed. They rested several times, and carried it to the water on the other side of the point without any great difficulty. Angy returned for the prisoner as soon as they had put the boat into the lake, and conducted him to it. He was put in the bow, where he had been before.
The water was sheltered by the point; and though it was rough anywhere on the lake, it was smooth compared with its condition outside of the bluff. It was just a mile from Bluff Point to Gardiner's Island, beyond which Dory discovered the two masts of a vessel anchored there. He had already heard enough to assure him that the burglars had composed the crew of the schooner which had anchored in Beaver River. A portion of them had visited the school, and in this way had obtained some knowledge of the premises.
"This storm won't last much longer," said Angy, as he looked out on the stormy lake. "The wind is hauling more to the westward."
"What's the reason we can't stay here a while, then, and wait till the sea isn't quite so rough?" asked Mack, who evidently did not like the looks of the water between the point and the island, smooth as it was compared with the open lake.
"How long do you suppose it will be before the men you heard in the road will be down this way?" demanded Angy, with his chronic sneer.
"They may not be here at all. They will take it for granted that we don't go out on the lake in this weather; and it is a sensible view to take of it," added Mack.
"But they were coming this way when you heard them; and you forget the plan I laid down to you yesterday afternoon," continued the chief, in a more persuasive tone. "We don't want any one to know that the party who did this job belong to the schooner. That would spoil all our plans, and expose us; and this is the last of the jobs we had on our hands."