"Very likely," added the principal with a smile. "If Spickles had reached the schooner without being discovered, he would have been at Ticonderoga this morning before you left; that is, if the violent storm had not upset his calculations. He would have taken your party on board; and with the proceeds of the burglaries, amounting to several thousand dollars, he would have been able to run the schooner all summer."
"I had no suspicion that he was such a fellow," added Ripples, shaking his head. "But I confess that I am greatly disappointed at the failure of the excursion, though I have no doubt it is the best thing in the world for us."
"So far as the excursion that was planned in New York is concerned, it is certainly a godsend to you that it failed; and even if half of your club had not come to grief, the result would have been the same. A month or two in company of such fellows as the burglars, guzzling beer, would have taken you a long way down towards a life of dissipation and evil."
"I begin to think so myself. I suppose my father will read about this affair in the newspapers; and I am sure it will make him shake," continued Ripples. "I will write to him as soon as I get a chance, and tell him all about it."
"If you will give me his address, I will give him my impressions of the matter," said Captain Gildrock.
"Thank you, sir: you are very kind, and I should be glad to have you tell him that his son has not been guilty of any crime. But I suppose we might as well go home: our fun here is spoiled," replied Ripples.
"The proposed excursion, as you understood it, was certainly an innocent one. For what time had Spickles chartered this vessel?" asked the principal.
"For two months; and paid down for one month."
"As you are a part of the party, it seems to me that the schooner belongs to you for the time it was engaged; and there is nothing to prevent you from making the excursion around the lake, and remaining upon it as long as you please," suggested the captain.
"There is only one thing in the way of doing that: we have no skipper, and we are not competent to handle the vessel. Angy was the only one of us who knew how to handle a schooner, though Mack and Chuck knew something about the business," replied Ripples.