hat the things
people worry about never happen."

"Well, if I were you, then," said the other, emphasizing his point with
the spoon, "I should just worry as much as I could about it. I'd get up
worrying and I'd go to bed worrying. I'd worry about it in my sleep."

"I shall come out of it all right," said Flower. "I rather enjoy it.
There's Gibson would marry Elizabeth like a shot if she'd have him; but,
of course, she won't look at him while I'm above ground. I have thought
of getting somebody to tell Elizabeth a lot of lies about me."

"Why, wouldn't the truth do?" enquired the mate, artlessly.

The skipper turned a deaf ear. "But she wouldn't believe a word against
me," he said, with mournful pride, as he rose and went on deck. "She
trusts me too much."

From his knitted brows, as he steered, it was evident, despite his
confidence, that this amiable weakness on the part of Miss Banks was
causing him some anxiety, a condition which was not lessened by the
considerate behaviour of the mate, who, when any fresh complication
suggested itself to him, dutifully submitted it to his commander.

"I shall be all right," said Flower, confidently, as they entered the
river the following afternoon and sailed slowly along the narrow
channel which wound its sluggish way through an expanse of mud-banks to
Seabridge.

The mate, who was suffering from symptoms hitherto unknown to him, made
no reply. His gaze wandered idly from the sloping uplands, stretching
away into the dim country on the starboard side, to the little
church-crowned town ahead, with its out-lying malt houses and neglected,
grass-grown quay, A couple of moribund ship's boats lay rotting in the
mud, and the skeleton of a fishing-boat completed the picture. For the
first time perhaps in his life, the landscape struck him as dull and
dreary.

Two men of soft and restful movements appeared on the quay as they
approached, and with the slowness characteristic of the best work,
helped to make them fast in front of the red-tiled barn which served as
a warehouse. Then Captain Flower, after descending to the cabin to make
the brief shore-going toilet necessary for Seabridge society, turned to
give a last word to the mate.

"I'm not one to care much what's said about me, Jack," he began, by way
of preface.

"That's a good job for you," said Fraser, slowly.

"Same time let the hands know I wish 'em to keep their mouths shut,"
pursued the skipper; "just tell them it