"If that was so, why did they run away?"
"I didn't know they ran away—until just now."
"You started to go down the river," said Tom. "Why did you change your mind and come here?"
"They chartered the schooner for a week—I was under their orders."
"Where were they going at first?"
"Down the Jersey coast and back. They said they thought a little ocean air would do the crazy man good before they put him in the sanitarium. I own up that I was suspicious, but they claimed everything was straight."
"They were going to take my father down the coast for several days so that he could not sign important papers," returned Dick. "It is a well-laid plot to do our family out of a great deal of money and dishonor my father."
"Well, I ain't in it, I give you my word. I chartered my vessel to 'em, that's all."
"We will take you at your word, then. But you must tell all you know about them and their plans," said Dick, after a pause.
"And if I do that, will you—er—drop the charge against me?" questioned the master of the Ellen Rodney, eagerly.
"If you don't, we are going to have you
