ling voice said: "Lowise, you better pull over that
hatch right smart. It's agoin' to pour cats and dogs in a minute."

"You get the mewels hitched on, Pap," said a shriller and younger voice.
"Where's the key to the house? Give it here. And you, Beauty, come
aboard. Ain't no rabbits fur you to chase so near town as this."

"Oh," whispered the little girl below in the hold, "they have come on to
our boat!"

"Hist!" said Sammy, shakingly.

"Do--do people do that to pirates?" demanded Dot, anxiously. "I--I
thought we were going to--to get on to other people's boats and make
them walk over a board."

"_Walk the plank!_" hissed Sammy.

"And aren't we?"

"Wait!" commanded the pirate chief in a most threatening tone.

They waited. By and by somebody came along and kicked the hatch-cover
into place and the light was suddenly shut out of the hold. At the same
time big drops of rain began drumming on the deck and the thunder burst
forth in a rolling reverberation overhead.

"I guess we _will wait_, Sammy Pinkney!" gasped Dot, nervously. "They've
shut us up down here!"

CHAPTER XI

AFLOAT ON THE CANAL

Dot Kenway might have been much more frightened, shut into the canalboat
hold in the dark, had it not been for two things. She was more afraid of
the thunderstorm raging overhead than she was of the dark. Secondly, she
had Sammy Pinkney with her.

That savage pirate might shake with nervousness, but he certainly could
not be afraid!

"Don't you mind, Dottie," he said to her. "They don't know we're here
yet."

"And if they do find out?" she asked.

"Why, if they _do_-- Well, ain't we pirates?" demanded Sammy boldly. "I
guess when they find that out they'll sing pretty small. Besides,
there's only one man and a dog."

"But isn't there a girl!" asked Dot doubtfully.

"Pooh! what's a girl!" demanded Sammy loftily. "Girls don't count. They
can't fight."

"No-o. I s'pose not," admitted the smallest Corner House girl, who knew
very well that she could not fight. She was willing to cook, wash and
keep house for pirates; but Sammy must do the fighting.

However, Sammy Pinkney was to learn something about the canalboat girl
that would open his eyes. Just at this time something occurred that
startled both runaways so greatly that they even forgot the thunder that
rolled so threateningly.

The canalboat began to move!

"Oh, dear me! what can have happened?" gasped Dot as the boat rocked and
swayed in bein