ad any matches. Harry had none,
Joe had none, and Tom had none; so the plan of building a fire came to
nothing.

The cold gradually chilled them as they stood talking over their
adventure, and their teeth began to chatter. Joe said he wished he could
get hold of Jim for about five minutes, so that he could warm himself up
by convincing him that he ought not to have taken the boat back to the
island. Harry said nothing; but he was wondering whether he would freeze
to death in the fog, and tried to remember how travellers overtaken by
the snow on the Alps contrive to fight off the terrible drowsiness that
steals over them when they are freezing. Tom was more practical. He did
not expect to freeze in July, although he was miserably cold; and he did
not want to punish Jim for a mistake of judgment. He knew that the house
where they were accustomed to get milk was not far off, and that a boat
usually lay on the shore near the house; so he proposed to Harry and Joe
to borrow the boat, and make their way into the camp.

"If we go to that house at this time of night, we shall get shot,"
remarked Harry. "The man is an ugly-tempered chap, and I heard him say
the other day that if he ever heard anything prowling around the house
at night he always fired at it."

"Then we won't ask him for his boat: we'll borrow it without leave, and
Jim can bring it back in the morning," replied Tom.

"This is nice conduct for Moral Pirates," said Joe. "Capturing a vessel
at night is real piracy, and when Jim takes the boat back, the man will
be sure to shoot him. I'm sorry for Jim, but I hope it will be a warning
to him not to leave his friends in such a fix that they've either got to
borrow a boat without leave, or freeze."

They made their way stealthily and with great difficulty to the place
where the boat lay. It was high and dry on the beach, and though the fog
hid the house where the owner of the boat lived, the boys knew that it
was very near. They launched the boat with the utmost caution, lest any
noise should awaken the bad-tempered man with the shot-gun. They had it
almost launched, when Harry's foot slipped on a wet stone, and he fell
with a loud crash, clinging to the boat, and dragging Tom and Joe down
with him.

It was very certain that if anything could wake the owner of the boat,
he must be awake by this time; so the boys sprang up, and shoving the
boat into the water, regardless of the noise, seized the oars, and rowed
aw