avely; "I want to see Captain
Flower."

"Well, you've come to the wrong house," said the red-whiskered man,
shortly, "there's no such name here."

"Think," said Mrs. Tipping.

The red-whiskered man waved the candle to and fro until the passage was
flecked with tallow.

"Go away directly," he roared; "how dare you come disturbing people like
this?"

"You may just as well be pleasant over it," said Mrs. Tipping, severely;
"because we sha'n't go away until we _have_ seen him. After all, it's
got nothing to do with you."

"We don't want anything to say to you," affirmed her daughter.

"Will--you--get--out--of--my--house?" demanded the owner, wildly.

"When we've seen Capt'n Flower," said Mrs. Tipping, calmly, "and not a
moment before. We don't mind your getting in a temper, not a bit. You
can't frighten us."

The frenzied and reckless reply of the red-whiskered man was drowned in
the violent slamming of the street-door, and he found himself alone with
the ladies. There was a yell of triumph outside, and the sounds of a
hurried scramble down the steps. Mrs. Tipping, fumbling wildly at the
catch of the door, opened it just in time to see the cabman, in reply to
the urgent entreaties of the mate, frantically lashing his horse up the
road.

"So far, so good," murmured the mate, as he glanced over his shoulder at
the little group posing on the steps. "I've done the best I could, but
I suppose there'll be a row."

The watchman, with the remainder of the crew, in various attitudes
of expectant curiosity, were waiting to receive them at the wharf. A
curiosity which increased in intensity as the mate, slamming the gate,
put the big bar across and turned to the watchman.

"Don't open that to anybody till we're off," he said, sharply. "Cap'n
Flower has not turned up yet, I suppose?"

"No, sir," said Ben.

They went aboard the schooner again, and the mate, remaining on deck,
listened anxiously for the return of the redoubtable Mrs. Tipping,
occasionally glancing over the side in expectation of being boarded from
the neighbouring stairs; but with the exception of a false alarm caused
by two maddened seamen unable to obtain admittance, and preferring
insulting charges of somnolency against the watchman, the time passed
quietly until high water. With the schooner in midstream slowly picking
her way through the traffic, any twinges of remorse that he might have
had for the way he had treated two helpless women left him,