o stay in the village any
longer than you can help, do you? Well, there's a yawl at the end of the
pier, an' you can get into it an' pull out into the bay. Hold straight
across fur the head of the island, an' before you get there we'll
overtake you. We've got a little more business to do before we say
good-by to Newport."

The robbers thought it best to follow Sam's advice. They clambered down
into the yawl, and the Crusoe men took their seats in the skiff, and
were about to shove off from the pier, when Tom, upon putting his hand
into his pocket to assure himself that his incendiary materials were
safe, found, to his dismay, that he had forgotten something.

"O, now, hold on, governor," he drawled. "How am I going to set fire to
that yacht without any matches, I'd like to know!"

"You're a purty feller, aint you?" exclaimed Atkins, who had all along
shown a distaste for the dangers that attended their preparations for
the cruise. "We'll have to give up burnin' the sloop now, an' I am glad
of it. There aint no kind o' sense in it, no how. It's runnin' a big
risk fur nothing."

"O, now, I want you to quit calling me a pretty fellow," whined Tom,
who, if he had possessed the courage, would have been glad to fight
somebody. "I won't give up my splendid idea. There's just as much sense
in it as there is in stealing provisions. I am provoked at myself for
forgetting those matches. Haven't you got some, governor?"

"Nary match," replied Sam. "But I'll tell you what you can do, cap'n.
You can run up to the store an' get some. You'll find plenty there, an'
Harding can't hinder you from takin' as many as you want."

"But it is dark, isn't it? How can I find the matches without a light?"

"Them bugglars left their lantern on the counter. Just turn the slide,
an' you'll have light enough. Hurry up, now, an' we'll wait here fur
you."

Tom, whose thoughts were so completely wrapped up in his grand project
that he did not stop to consider that it might prove to be a very
disagreeable piece of business to go groping about the store in the
dark, sprang out of the skiff and ran up the wharf. "I'll see Johnny
Harding," said he to himself. "The governor said that those burglars
left him tied and gagged, and so I can do what I please with him.
Perhaps I'll give him a punch or two, just to show him that I have not
forgotten how badly he has treated me since I had that yacht built. I
told him that I would get even with him some day.