hat
this implies. You charge me with a plot to intoxicate your friend and
take a mean advantage of his condition."

"No; I don't go so far. I think you should have stopped the game, but
Fuller accuses a man called Black of playing the wrong card. In fact, I
admit that you don't mean to harm him, by taking it for granted that
you'll let me have the check, because if you kept it, you'd have some
hold on him."

"A firm hold," Kenwardine remarked.

Dick had partly expected this, and had his answer ready. "Not so firm as
you think. If there was no other way, it would force me to stop payment
and inform my employer. It would be much better that Jake should have to
deal with his father than with your friends."

"You seem to have thought over the matter carefully," Kenwardine
rejoined. "Well, personally, I'm willing to accept your offer and give up
the check; but I must consult the others, since their loss is as much as
mine. Will you wait while I go to the telephone?"

Dick waited for some time, after which Kenwardine came back and gave him
the check. As soon as he got it Dick left the house, satisfied because he
had done what he had meant to do, and yet feeling doubtful. Kenwardine
had given way too easily. It looked as if he was not convinced that he
must leave Fuller alone.

On reaching the dam Dick gave Jake the check and told him how he had got
it. The lad flushed angrily, but was silent for a moment, and then gave
Dick a curious look.

"I can't deny your generosity, and I'll pay you back; but you see the
kind of fellow you make me out."

"I told Kenwardine you left me to deal with the matter, and the plan was
mine," said Dick.

Jake signified by a gesture that the subject must be dropped. "As I did
agree to leave it to you, I can't object. After all, I expect you meant
well."

CHAPTER XVII

THE BLACK-FUNNEL BOAT

The breeze had fallen and the shining sea was smooth as glass when the
launch passed Adexe. Dick, who lounged at the helm, was not going there.
Some alterations to a mole along the coast had just been finished, and
Stuyvesant had sent him to engage the contractor who had done the
concrete work. Jake, who occasionally found his duties irksome, had
insisted on coming.

As they crossed the mouth of the inlet, Dick glanced shorewards through
his glasses. The whitewashed coal-sheds glistened dazzlingly, and a
fringe of snowy surf marked the curve of beach, but outside this a belt
of cool, b