“This ducking will be the death of me,” said Barney, as he got into the boat.

“A little hard pulling will warm you, and when we get back, we shall make a fire on the island,” answered Charles, in a conciliatory tone, “Now, ready—­pull!”

The Rovers worked better now, and the Zephyr moved with tolerable rapidity towards the shore; but it was very dark under the shadow of the trees, and Charles could not readily find the place where the materials for the tent had been concealed.  Each of the crew thought he knew more about the business than the coxswain; and in the scrape the Zephyr was run aground, heeled over on one side, and filled half full of water.

It required some time to bail her out; but it was accomplished at last, the stakes and poles put on board, and they rowed off to the island again.  Tim had arrived before him, and had landed the stores.

“Where are the matches, Tim?” asked Charles.

“What are you going to do?”

“Make a fire.”

“What for?”

“Some of us are wet, and we can’t see to put up the tents without it.”

“But a fire will betray us.”

“What matter?  We are safe from pursuit.”

“Go it, then,” replied Tim, as he handed Charles a bunch of matches.

The fire was kindled, and it cast a cheerful light over the scene of their operations.

“Now, Rovers, form a ring round the fire,” said Tim, “and we will fix things for the future.”

The boys obeyed this order, though Barney, in consideration of his uncomfortable condition, was permitted to lie down before the fire and dry his clothes.

“I am the chief of the band; I suppose that is understood,” continued Tim.

“Yes,” they all replied.

“And that Charley Hardy is second in command.  He can handle a boat, and the rest of you can’t.”

“I don’t know about that,” interposed one of them.  “He upset the boat on the beach.”

“That was because the crew did not obey orders,” replied Charles.

“He is second in command,” replied Tim.  “Do you agree to that?”

“Yes,” answered several, who were willing to follow the lead of the chief.

“Very well; I shall command one party and Charley the other; each in his own boat and on the island.  Now we will divide each party into two squads, or watches.”

“What for?” asked Barney.

“To keep watch, and do any duty that may be wanted of them.”

Tim had got this idea of an organization from his piratical literature.  Indeed, the plan of encamping upon the island was an humble imitation of a party of buccaneers who had fortified one of the smallest of the islands in the West Indies.  The whole scheme was one of the natural consequences of reading bad books, in which the most dissolute, depraved, and wicked men are made to appear as heroes, whose lives and characters are worthy of emulation.