ut, closing the door of the room behind him.

During this absence he did not see the first mate, but he went to a room
where there was pen, ink, and paper, and there he wrote a note to
Captain Burke of the _Summer Shelter_, which note, as soon as he had
signed it, he gave to the men in the small boat waiting alongside,
telling them that it was from their mate who had come on board, and that
he wanted an answer just as soon as possible.

Mr. Burdette, Mr. Portman, and the assistant engineer having no reason
whatever to suspect treachery under circumstances like these,
immediately rowed back to the _Summer Shelter_. And, as we already know,
it was not long before the _Dunkery Beacon_ was steaming away from the
yacht.

The moment that Shirley, who was getting a little tired of waiting, felt
the movement of the engines, he sprang to the door, but found it locked.
Now he began to kick, but in a very few moments the Captain appeared.

"You needn't make a row," said he. "Nobody's going to hurt you. I have
sent a note to your skipper, telling him I'm going to keep you on board
a little while until I can consider this matter. My duty to my owners
wouldn't allow me to be a-layin' to here--but I'll think over the
business and do what I consider right. But I've got to keep on my
course--I've got no right to lose time whether this is all a piece of
foolin' or not."

"There's no fooling about it," said Shirley, warmly. "If you don't turn
back you will be very likely to lose a good deal more than time. You may
lose everything on board, and your lives too, for all you know."

The Captain laughed. "Pirates!" said he. "What stuff! There are no
pirates in these days!" and then he laughed again. "Well, I can't talk
any more now," said he, "but I'll keep your business in my mind, and
settle it pretty soon. Then you can go back and tell your people what
I'll do. You had better go on deck and make yourself comfortable. If
you'll take my advice, you won't do any talking. The people on this
vessel don't know what she carries, and I don't want them to know! So if
I see you talking to anybody, I'll consider that you want to make
trouble--and I can tell you, if some of these people on board knew what
was in them boxes in the hold, there would be the worst kind of trouble.
You can bet your head on that! So you can go on and show yourself. Your
friends won't be worried about you--I've explained it all to them in my
note!"

When Shirley went