Leaving Sam to stow away the stores as he saw fit, Dick and Tom
sprang in to assist Martin Harris, and soon the mainsail and jib
were set, and they turned away from the dock and began the
journey down the Hudson. As soon as they were clear of the other
boats, the skipper set his topsail and flying jib, and they
bowled along at a merry gait, the wind being very nearly in their
favor and neither too strong nor too slack.

"Now I'd like to hear the particulars of this case," remarked
Martin Harris, as he proceeded to make himself comfortable at the
tiller. "You see, I want to know just what I am doing. I don't
want to get into any trouble with the law."

"You won't get into any trouble. Nobody has a right to run off
with a girl against her will," replied Dick.

"That's true. But why are they running off with her?"

"I think they have been hired to do it by a man who wants to
marry the girl's mother," went on Dick, and related the
particulars of what had occurred.

Martin Harris was deeply interested. "I reckon you have the best
end of it," he said, when the youth had finished. "And you say
this Dan Baxter is a son of the rascal who is suspected of
robbing Rush & Wilder?"

"Yes."