Ed and Jimmy told me how they had found the Captain at Big Duck Island, and how he had spent the night with them all on the “White Rabbit.”  In the morning the whereabouts of the “Hoppergrass” was still a mystery, although the Captain had been told that the Kidds had probably taken her.  Everyone was too impatient, however, to stay at Big Duck until noon, so they set out for Lanesport.  Of course they did not find me at the Eagle House, so they decided to make for Rogers’s Island.  They were on their way when they sighted us.  It was our action, in altering our course, that made them think there might be something in the theory that the “Hoppergrass” had been stolen by the burglars.

Then I told them about my adventures with the gold makers, and Spook—­to the Captain’s great delight—­related the troubles of the Kidd brothers on board the “Hoppergrass.”  Toward five o’clock we got a breeze, and half an hour later sailed up the river again, to Lanesport.

“We won’t land at Mulliken’s Wharf,” said Captain Bannister, “I’m kinder superstitious ’bout that.”

“Why did you come over here that afternoon?” I asked him.

“To see if I could get some letters to put on the stern of this boat.  I’d rigged up a sign on canvas ’fore I left the Harbor, ’but it didn’t look quite fust class.  I’d no manner of notion but what I’d get back ’fore you boys did from Fishback.”

At the wharf next the one where we landed the “May Queen” was lying, still covered with flags and bunting.  She was empty, however, except for a man washing down the deck.  The band had gone and her glory had departed.  There was a boy in a small boat rowing around the steamer, and staring at her.  I seemed to remember his round, red face and when he put down an oar, and waved his hand, grinning and showing where his front teeth ought to have been, I recollected him instantly.  He was the boy who had driven the horse-car from Squid Cove yesterday afternoon.  Now, he let his boat float down alongside the “Hoppergrass.”

“Have you heard about the Comp’ny?” said he.

“No,—­what about it?”

“Gee!  Bust up!  Yes,—­the excursion went over again this afternoon, on the ‘May Queen’ here, an’—­an’ Gran’father went too, an’ while Mr. Snider was doin’ the ‘speriment Orlando Noyes an’ two other fellers pried up a place on the wharf with a crow-bar, an’ they found the P’fessor down there,—­he was up to some monkey business, an’ they say the whole thing is a fake!  Gee!  An’ that aint all, neither.  They’ve arrested Mr. Snider an’ the P’fessor,—­they’re the burglars that have been burglin’ houses over on Little Duck.  One of the fellers with Orlando was a special perlice an’ they went through the house an’ found a whole lot of spoons an’ things that they stole outer Mis’ Ellis’ house.  They say the P’fessor aint a p’fessor at all,—­he just got outer State’s Prison ’bout a month ago!”