ir assistance, and ask them if they will stand by and see
your passengers insulted in this fashion."

"Ho, ho, ho!" laughed the skipper. "Hoist the boat out. We will soon
see if my crew dare to disobey me. Pieter, there, be smart about it."

The one-eyed mariner started up and eyed the Count and the Baron with
his single blinker, making a grimace as much as to say he could not help
it. He and the mate and the small ship's boy soon got the boat into the
water.

"Step in," cried the skipper. "You said you wanted to be put on shore,
and I am going to put you on shore. Pieter, you're to row. If you want
your dinners you'll embark, if not you'll go without them."

"And are you going too, Captain Jan Dunck?" asked the Baron.

"Certainly, it is my intention," answered the skipper, and the Count and
the Baron, with their valises, got into the boat.

"Look after the vessel," shouted the skipper to the mate and small
ship's boy, as he stepped into the boat and seated himself in the stern
sheets, with the Count on one side and the Baron on the other and Pieter
pulling. As there was not a breath of wind the water was perfectly
smooth. The Baron's hunger increased, the Count also had regained his
appetite, and they were eager to reach the shore in the hopes of getting
a dinner. The skipper said nothing, but looked very glum. At last the
island appeared ahead, with a few huts on it and a tiny church in the
midst, but it was green and pleasant to look at.

"That does not look like a place where we can get dinner," observed the
Baron, eyeing it doubtfully.

"And he does not intend to give you any dinner either," whispered the
one-eyed mariner, whose good-will the Count and Baron had evidently won.
"Take my advice, tell him to go up and obtain provisions, and say that
you will eat them on board."

"What's that your talking about?" exclaimed the skipper. "Silence
there, forward!"

The one-eyed mariner rowed slower and slower, and managed to carry on
the conversation alternately with the Count and the Baron. Suddenly the
skipper, who had been partly dozing, though he had managed to steer the
boat, aroused himself. "Pull faster, Pieter," he shouted out: "I have
heard what you have been talking about, and will pay you off."

"I was merely giving the gentlemen good advice, Captain," answered
Pieter. "And there's one thing I have to say to you; if you can get
provisions at Marken, you had better do so in a hurry, fo