THE FREEDOM OF THE SEAS
we'll be arrested for carrying rifles around the country without a license, or whatever you have to have. I want some sleep, but I don't care to take it in jail!"
"We'll have to risk that," said Martin. "Besides, we're American sailors and if they arrest us we'll threaten to tell Mr. Wilson. Say, am I dippy, or is that a light ahead there?"
"Both, I guess. Anyway, it's a light." Nelson was beginning to regain his cheerfulness. "But we'd better not stop anywhere just yet, Mart. Those fellows might persuade folks that we'd stolen their team."
"The very idea! Do we look like fellows who would steal?"
"I can't see what we look like, but I have a strong suspicion that we do. Also murder. I know my trousers are torn on both knees, and they're my best ones, too, by the way, and I'm pretty certain that I'm wet and dirty and generally hoboish. I'd rather not have any traffic with a cop, Mart."
"Maybe you're right. Appearances are sometimes deceitful. Anyhow, I guess that's only a house, that light. Probably a farm. We aren't going very near it."
The light, a dim glimmer through some trees,
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