"Why not?" and Bartholomew stood before them, a perfect picture of
painful surprise.

"Well, you see we hain't sure that you own the boat, an' we concluded
not to run any
risks."

"S'posen I don't own the boat, so long as I can get her. I'll fix all
that, an' you've only got
to come along."

" I guess we can walk, thank'ee. We'd rather do that than steal a
boat."

"Oh, you're too much of a girl to suit me, if you don't dare to do a
little thing like that,"
said Master West, loftily, and then he walked slowly away, much as if
he expected the' boys would call him back, when they found that he was
really intending to leave them to their fate.

" We want to get home pretty bad," said Joe; "but not so much that
we're willing to steal a
boat to go in."

"All right, you can stay here, an' starve to death, for all I care.
You'll be sorry, though."

"You'll be sorry, Bart West," cried a voice from up the street; "but
you can't get any messenger boy to go in with you when you're goin' to