Page:Dick Hamilton's Steam Yacht.djvu/157

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UNCLE EZRA AS A SAILOR
139

"Then, can't you advance us a little more money?" asked Simon. "I need a new necktie."

"You don't need one aboard this ship, and when we get through, and I pay you the rest of your wages, after you've helped me to capture my nephew, you can buy as many neckties as you want. Now, hurry off, for I don't want to stay here any longer than I have to. It costs money every day I have this steamer."

Grumbling at the stinginess of their employer, Guy and Simon, with the help of one of the few sailors on the Princess, lowered a small boat, and pulled laboriously ashore. Meanwhile, Mr. Larabee went below with the two men, whom, had Dick seen, he would have at once recognized as those who acted so strangely toward him in New York.

"If we can't intercept him any sooner, we'll have to go all the way to Cuba, I guess," admitted Mr. Larabee, after a long talk with the two unscrupulous men he had hired. "But it's going to cost me a power of money."

"What of it? You'll get it all back, won't you?" asked Ike.

"Indeed, I will, and with interest, too. But I hate to put out so much at once. This is more than I've spent in a whole year at Dankville, and we've only been on this trip a few days. Oh, why didn't you hold on to him, when you had him that night in the rainstorm at Hamilton Corners?"

"We had a very good reason," said Sam. "His