"I'm as certain as I can be that the boat wasn't here when I came down to the wharf last midnight, but the pre-pon-der-ance of evidence is against me." The captain shook his head gravely as he spoke.

It was evident that he was sorely puzzled and half inclined to doubt the evidence of his own senses.
"Douse my toplights," he kept muttering, "if this don't beat a flying Dutchman on wheels and with whiskers!" "I certainly don't believe that your eyes deceived you, captain," put in Rob, in the midst of the captain's rumbling outbursts.

"It looks to me as if somebody really did borrow your boat last night, and that the decoy note supposed to be from me had something to do with it." "By the great horn spoon, yer've got it, my boy!" roared the captain.
"And now yer come ter speak uv it, my mind misgives me that all ain 't right at the island.

I didn't tell yer, but I left a tidy sum uv money in that old iron safe off the Sarah Jane, the last ship I commanded, and all this what's puzzled us so may be part uv some thievish scheme.
"I'm going ter hurry over ter the island and make certain sure," he went on the next minute.

"The more I think uv it, the more signs uv foul weather I see.