f recollection Randolph remembered the obtruding miner on
the ferry boat, the same figure on the wharf corner, and the advantage
taken of his absence with Miss Avondale. And Miss Avondale was the
"party" this man's shipmate was watching! He felt his face crimsoning,
yet he dared not question him further, nor yet defend her. Captain
Dornton noticed it, and with a friendly tact, which Randolph had not
expected of him, rising again, laid his hand gently on the young man's
shoulder.

"Look here, lad," he said, with his pleasant smile; "don't you worry
your head about the ways or doings of the Dornton family, or any of
their friends. They're a queer lot--including your humble servant.
You've done the square thing accordin' to your lights. You've ridden
straight from start to finish, with no jockeying, and I shan't forget
it. There are only two men who haven't failed me when I trusted them.
One was you when I gave you my portmanteau; the other was Jack Redhill
when he stole it from you."

He dropped back in his chair again, and laughed silently.

"Then you did not fall overboard as they supposed," stammered Randolph
at last.

"Not much! But the next thing to it. It wasn't the water that I took in
that knocked me out, my lad, but something stronger. I was shanghaied."

"Shanghaied?" repeated Randolph vacantly.

"Yes, shanghaied! Hocused! Drugged at that gin mill on the wharf by
a lot of crimps, who, mistaking me for a better man, shoved me,
blind drunk and helpless, down the steps into a boat, and out to a
short-handed brig in the stream. When I came to I was outside the Heads,
pointed for Guayaquil. When they found they'd captured, not a poor Jack,
but a man who'd trod a quarterdeck, who knew, and was known at every
port on the trading line, and who could make it hot for them, they were
glad to compromise and set me ashore at Acapulco, and six weeks later I
landed in 'Frisco."

"Safe and sound, thank Heaven!" said Randolph joyously.

"Not exactly, lad," said Captain Dornton grimly, "but dead and sat
upon by the coroner, and my body comfortably boxed up and on its way to
England."

"But that was nine months ago. What have you been doing since? Why
didn't you declare yourself then?" said Randolph impatiently, a little
irritated by the man's extreme indifference. He really talked like an
amused spectator of his own misfortunes.

"Steady, lad. I know what you're going to say. I know all that happened.
But the first t