nt opinion, that we're a
good deal better off--"

"What I say is," said Toby, clapping Freddie on the shoulder, "what I
say is, three cheers for Mr. Hanlon!"

"Yes!" said Freddie. "That's just what I said that day after the
theatre!"

"I wonder," said the Old Codger with the Wooden Leg, "I wonder
if--er--ahem!--if Captain Lingo has--er--such a thing as a pinch of
snuff about him."

CHAPTER XVII

HIGH DUDGEON AND LOW DUDGEON

The pirate captain and his men rose from the ground, and Captain Lingo,
in his politest manner, requested his captives to follow him. The entire
party moved down the slope into the valley, and after a walk of some
quarter of a mile entered a grove of trees. In this grove were tethered
ten handsome mules, of which seven were saddled and three were laden
with packs.

One of the pack-mules was quickly unladen, a fire was built, and in ten
minutes the hungry guests and their hosts were making a very good
breakfast of bacon, fried by Mr. Leatherbread, as the captain called
him, one of the pirates to whom the business of the frying-pan was left
by general consent. When the bacon had been washed down with clear cold
water from a spring near by, and the mule had been packed again, Freddie
and Aunt Amanda were assisted into the saddles of the two smallest
mules, and the captain mounted into the saddle of the largest.

"Now look here, Captain Lingo," said Aunt Amanda, "I want to know where
we are going and all about it. The idea of me sitting here a-straddle of
a mule! And this bonnet simply ruined, and my dress just about fit to go
to the rag-bone man, and my hair--Look here, Captain Lingo, I ain't
going a step on this mule until you tell me what--"

"Pardon me, my dear lady," said the captain, "but I must ask you to put
up with my little whims a short while longer. I beg the pleasure of your
society upon a little journey; nothing more. I assure you the country
is very interesting. May I not promise myself the bliss of your
approval?" He turned to the six pirates with a scowl. "Mount the rest of
them, scoundrels!"

Four of the captives were mounted by the pirates on the remaining mules,
and the procession moved out of the grove into the open valley.

Freddie had never ridden a mule before, and he was delighted. When they
entered, as they soon did, the great forest which they had seen from the
plateau, Freddie was more than ever delighted. After the blazing sun of
the open country, the