The first impulse of the angry givers of the feast was to start in pursuit of the thieves; and Bill Foss had begun to clamber out on the dock in order to get the boat, when Bob stopped him by saying:—

“Hold on! It’s no use to do that! We couldn’t catch ’em now with only one pair of oars, for they’ve got too much of a start. The best way will be to lay for ’em to-night over on the other side.”

“But they’ve stole all our grub!” Bill replied angrily as he halted, “an’ if we wait two or three hours there’ll never be a chance of gettin’ it back.”

“There’s no show of catchin’ them anyhow, so what’s the use of pullin’ all ’round the river for nothin’?”

By this time Bill began to realize that pursuit would be useless, and he came back to where his companions were standing as if dazed by the bold outrage.

“I knew it was Sim Jones gettin’ into that boat on the other side jest before I came below; but what beats me is, how he found out where we was? He must have follered me this afternoon.”

“I don’t reckon there was any need of that,” Tom added. “They could see us all the time while we were comin’ over, an’ after you got inside I reckon they rowed mighty hard. It wouldn’t be a great job to sneak up under the stern of this boat, an’ then, while one of the fellers made a noise on deck, the others crawled in through the windows. That’s the way of it.”

There was but little satisfaction in thus settling the method of the robbery; and Bill asked impatiently as he looked at each of his friends in turn:—

“What’er we goin’ to do ’bout it? Seems pretty tough to let them fellers break our good time up when we’ve counted on stayin’ here all the afternoon an’ evenin’. There won’t be any fun loafin’ ’round with nothin’ to eat.”

“S’posen all hands of us go ashore an’ buy somethin’ more?” Jimmy suggested. “We ain’t got the cash to get so much as we had before; but what we can scare up’ll be better’n nothin’.”

Bob and Tom looked at each other in dismay.

They had spent all their surplus money on the trip to Coney Island, and had no more than enough to buy their supply of papers when Josiah’s visit should have come to an end and they resumed work once more.

Therefore it was impossible for them to act upon Jimmy’s suggestion, and at the same time they felt decidedly awkward in refusing.

It seemed as if Master Skip could read their thoughts, for he added almost immediately:—

“We don’t expect you two fellers to buy anything. We started to get up a reg’lar dinner here, an’ are goin’ to do it ourselves, or go without any.”

“Bob an’ I would like to chip in our share if we had the cash; but we was flyin’ kinder high yesterday, an’ are mighty nigh broke now.”

This remark served as a reminder to Bill Foss that he accepted the hospitality of these two on the previous day, and at the same time had acted decidedly disagreeable. Therefore, in order to make amends, he very quickly adopted Jimmy’s plan.

“Come along,” he said as he clambered on the dock once more. “If we’re goin’ to do the thing there’s no use foolin’ ’round, an’ after we’ve had our time out, all hands of us’ll go for Sim Jones an’ his crowd.”

The other subscribers to the feast followed him without delay, and the young gentlemen from Baker’s Court were left to “keep ship” until their companions returned.

“It’s kinder tough for them to put out all the money,” Tom said reflectively; “but I don’t see how we can help it.”

“I mighter done my share,” Josiah replied thoughtfully; “but I wanted to save what I had to get presents for father an’ mother, an’ I’d rather do that than have anything to eat.”

“There’s no use talkin’ about it,” Tom said, more than willing to put the very unpleasant subject from his mind. “If them fellers invited us here, it was ’cause they wanted us, an’ now they can go ahead an’ do as they please. Some other time we’ll get even with ’em. I wish I’d thumped Sim Jones when I had a chance this mornin’. It seemed to me that I oughter done it.”

“Why, what was he doin’?” Josiah asked.

“Nothin’, only kinder lookin’ as if he was tryin’ some mischief. He acted too sweet, that’s what’s the matter with him; an’ when Sim gets on such a face you wanter watch out for him.”

“Do you s’pose the other fellers will catch him?” Josiah asked.

“Course they will! I’d agree to set up all night rather’n lose the chance of payin’ him off for what he’s done,” and Bob shook his fist in impotent rage toward that point where the thieves had last been seen.

Then the hosts returned, each carrying a parcel, and once more the locker was covered with a varied collection of dainties.

“There!” Bill said, when he had arranged the provision on the impromptu table to his entire satisfaction. “We won’t leave this place agin with so much stuff spread out, if every feller in Jersey jumps on the deck. They sha’n’t fool us twice in the same way. I reckon Sim was mad ’cause we didn’t invite him to chip in with us, an’ that’s why he got away with the dinner.”

There was no delay in beginning the feast after it had been made ready.

Bill invited the guests to commence, by saying, with a majestic wave of his hand toward the locker:—

“Pitch right in, fellers, an’ fill yourselves up. This ain’t no twenty-five cent chowder at Coney Island; but I’ll bet you’ll feel a good deal better when you get through with it than we did down there yesterday.”

During the next fifteen minutes but little conversation was indulged in, for every boy seemed to think it his solemn duty to eat as fast and as much as possible.

Josiah was the first to retire from what seemed very like a contest, and then one by one the others fell out until the feast had come to an end.

Bill added to the illumination of the cabin by lighting the entire stock of candles, and then, as a fitting finale to the festival, produced a package of cigarettes.

“Don’t you smoke?” he asked, as Josiah refused the proffered tobacco.

“I promised mother I wouldn’t, so you see I can’t,” the boy from Berry’s Corner replied, and the other guests looked at each other as if they thought there was something comical in the reply; but no one ventured to laugh.

Josiah was the only member of the party who did not indulge in smoking; and the result was that in a short time the cabin, closed as it had been to prevent intrusion, was filled with the pungent odor, greatly to the annoyance of the boy from the country.

He did his best to hold out against the noisome vapor, lest by making a complaint he should bring the party, arranged in his honor, to an untimely end; but when the hosts lighted their second supply of cigarettes, it was impossible for him to remain silent.

“I guess while you fellers are smokin’ I’ll go up on deck, an’ look ’round. I never saw a canal-boat before, an’ this is a good chance.”

“Don’t feel sick, do you?” Tom asked solicitously.

“No, not exactly; but I’d rather go up-stairs.”

“Too much smoke here, that’s what’s the matter,” Bill Foss said pityingly, as if pained because the boy for whom the feast had been particularly prepared was not sufficiently hearty to indulge in the alleged pleasures of men of the world like himself.

Josiah did not venture into the cabin again, but, after filling his lungs with fresh air, seated himself at the head of the stairs where he could hear what was being said by his friends below, and also take part in the conversation.

It seemed to him a very long while before the young gentlemen were willing to leave the scene of the festivities; and they might have remained much longer, to his discomfort and disquietude, had there been a larger stock of cigarettes on hand.

As it was, however, when the tobacco was exhausted, the cabin of the craft had no further attraction for the merry-makers; and Bill said as he rose to his feet:—

“Come on, fellers, we might as well start for Sim Jones now. It won’t do to wait too long, for fear he’ll sneak off home.”

The chase for the boy who had robbed them offered quite as many inducements in the way of pleasure as an additional supply of cigarettes would have done, therefore no objection was made to the proposition; and, five minutes later, all the party were on board the leaking boat, pulling rapidly toward the New York side of the river, leaving behind them only the fragments of candle and the offensive odor of tobacco.

As a starting-point for the search, it was decided to go directly to the pier from which Bill believed he had seen Sim leave for the Jersey shore; and there was found the boat in which he had probably rowed across to the basin, but with her ended all clew to the direction taken by the thieves.

Master Foss was too good a general to allow anything of this kind to distress him. In fact, he rather prided himself on his abilities as an amateur detective, and lost no time in making what he believed to be a proper disposal of his party.

Two of the boys were sent toward the Battery, two more in the opposite direction, and the remainder ordered to proceed toward City Hall Square.

Bill’s instructions to his subordinates could hardly be mistaken, so simple and expressive were they.

“Keep right on huntin’ till you find ’em, an’ then come down to Dick Murray’s stand where I’ll be waitin’. Don’t let them know you wanter get hold of ’em; but scoot back so’s all hands of us can do the rest of the job. We need the whole crowd, ’cause there ain’t less’n five in their gang.”

Being unacquainted with the city, Josiah was allowed to remain with the leader of the forces; and when the scouts had set out, Bill conducted the boy from Berry’s Corner to the rendezvous.

Dick Murray, who had arrived at the dignity of owning a newsstand only a few months previous, was a friend of all those who were so eagerly searching for Sim Jones, and at once made the new-comers welcome by inviting them into the tiny apartment which he occupied during very cold weather.

“Sim Jones is goin’ to get hisself inter trouble some of these fine days,” Dick said, shaking his head sagely. “That feller’s actin’ altogether too smart.”

“In case we catch him to-night, he’ll be in trouble mighty soon,” Bill replied with a show of anger. “If he thinks he can steal things the way he did this afternoon, an’ then get off without a thump, he’s mistaken. I ain’t got much time to hunt ’round for sich as him; but I sha’n’t go to sellin’ papers agin till this thing is squared.”

“The trouble is, Bill, he’s got his gang with him, an’ you know it won’t do to have a row on the street, ’cause you wouldn’t wanter get locked up.”

“I’d like to see the cop what could catch me, if I knew he was comin’,” Master Foss replied.

Then he proceeded to tell a long yarn about an encounter he once had with some newsboys from Brooklyn, which was interrupted by the police, when only his legs saved him from arrest.

By the time this story, in which Master Foss posed as a hero of the first water, was concluded, Tom arrived, breathless from rapid running.

“All that crowd are down by the Vesey Street Market now, an’ they’ve got a good deal of the stuff with ’em. If our fellers would only come in this minute, it wouldn’t take us a great while to clean out the whole gang.”

Bill was immediately plunged into a state of the greatest excitement, and but for the fact that Sim’s party numbered five, he would have insisted on making the captures single-handed.

“We’ll have to wait, I reckon,” he said with a sigh, “an’ it’ll be jest our luck to find ’em gone when we get there.”

If “luck” had any part in this evening’s doings, then it certainly favored Master Foss; for in less than five minutes from the time Tom arrived, every member of the party returned to report his inability to find the boy who had attempted to destroy their pleasure.

Bill did not wait to give the new-comers any particulars regarding the information brought by Tom; but simply commanded them to “foller the best they knew how,” and set off at a rapid pace with Tom and Josiah by his side.

Upon reaching a point a short distance from where the evil-disposed crowd was supposed to be, the leader of the force halted, and thus mapped out the plan of battle:—

“We’ll sneak right up on ’em, so’s they won’t hear a thing, an’ then make a rush. I’d like to tie their hands, an’ leave ’em on the sidewalk till most mornin’. I reckon that would serve ’em out for stealin’ the grub. Now come on!”

The attack was successful so far as surprising the enemy was concerned, but the captures were not made as readily as Bill had fancied.

Sim and his friends, knowing full well the possibility of pursuit and an attempt at punishment, were prepared for just such an onslaught; and the result was that instantly Bill’s force appeared, each of the plunderers was ready to defend himself to the utmost.

As a matter of course, a pitched and exciting battle ensued.

Josiah, to whom no orders had been given, save in a general way when Master Foss instructed all the party on their duties, felt it incumbent upon himself to assist his friends, and the first blow had hardly been delivered when he was in the thickest of the fray, receiving more in the way of punishment than it was possible for him to return.

It appeared as if Sim and his friends had some especial cause for complaint against this boy from the country, and were doing their utmost to pummel him, while they paid but little attention to the others.

It was just at the moment when Josiah began to realize he had placed himself in a very awkward position, that the fight was stopped as if by magic, at the cry:—

“Cops! Cops!”

It was Jimmy Skip who gave the alarm; being too small to make much of a show as a belligerent, he had assumed the part of sentinel to guard against just such a danger.

“Come on!” Tom shouted; and Josiah, not a little bewildered by the suddenness with which his friends departed, each in a different direction, stood motionless, unable to so much as take a single step.

He heard Tom and Bob shouting from a distance, and yet paid no attention to anything until a heavy hand was laid upon his shoulder, and, looking around quickly, discovered that he was in the clutch of a burly policeman who appeared far from friendly.