"No!" was his decided reply. "We've got to get away to-night."

"To-night?" echoed Jim in amazement. "Why, man alive, you can't do that!
It's fifteen miles to Matinicus, and you're loaded so deep it'd take you
almost until morning to row there. And even if you made it all right,
you wouldn't gain anything, for the boat for Rockland doesn't leave
until the first of the afternoon. Besides, this wind's liable to blow up
a storm. Of course you could row ten miles north to Head Harbor on Isle
au Haut, walk up the island, and catch the morning boat for Stonington;
but you'd have to pull most of the way against the ebb, and when this
wind gets a little stronger it's going to be pretty choppy. _I_ wouldn't
want to risk it. Better stop with us to-night and let us make you as
comfortable as we can; and to-morrow you can start for any place you
please."

The man shook his head stubbornly.

"How far is it to the mainland?" he asked.

Jim could hardly believe his ears.

"The mainland!" he exclaimed. "A good twenty-five miles."

"Well, we've got to be there before morning."

"You're crazy, man! Twenty-five miles across these waters in the night,
with thirteen men in each dory! You'd never make it in the world. You
can't do it."

"Well, maybe we can't," retorted the other, impatiently, "but we're
going to. There's more ways to kill a cat than by choking her to death
with cream."

He walked back to the smaller group, and soon they were in heated, but
indistinct, argument. Jim noted that the men with handkerchiefs over
their faces seemed now to have no difficulty in bearing their share of
the conversation. Captain Sykes, in especial, was almost violent in his
gestures.

Presently they seemed to have reached an agreement. The spokesman walked
back to Jim and came directly to the point.

"What'll you take to set the crowd of us over on the mainland near Owl's
Head before daylight?"

Jim was equally direct.

"No number of dollars you can name. I don't care to risk my boat and
twenty-five or thirty lives knocking round the Penobscot Bay ledges on a
night like this. But I'll be glad to take you all over to Matinicus
to-morrow for nothing."

"That won't do. We've got to reach the mainland to-night. I'll give you
fifty dollars. Come, now!"

Jim shook his head.

"Seventy-five! No? A hundred, then! What d'you say?"

"No use!" replied Jim. "I told you so at first."

The stranger eyed him a moment, then stepped aside to