rewster's the most famous woman in the world for settin' folks to
work. She's made Zenas Henry clean over since his marriage. Why, I
remember the time when you could no more have got him to do a day's
work than you could have lined up the fish of the sea in a
Sunday-school. But with trainin', Zenas Henry now does his plowin',
plantin' an' harvestin' in somethin' approachin' alarm-clock fashion.
Of course, he backslides if he ain't constantly held to it; but knowin'
his past it's a miracle what Abbie's made of him. She ain't never
wholly reformed his temper, though. There's plenty of cayenne in that
still. I reckon if you was to amputate Zenas Henry's temper you'd find
you had took away the most interestin' part of him."

His listener smiled.

"Now you go ahead an' arrange things with Delight, Bob," continued
Willie. "An interview with her won't be no great hardship for you,
will it? I thought not. An' any fillin' in I can do, I'll do--any
fillin' in," he repeated significantly. "You can count on me to plug
any gaps that come anywheres--remember that."

"It's bully of you, Willie!" cried Bob, seizing his hand.

"Not a mite," protested the little man, with a deprecating gesture.
"Now that I've got Bart Coffin an' Minnie livin' like turtle doves, an'
Jack Nickerson as good as married to Sarah Libbie Lewis, two of my
ships seem to have dropped anchor safe an' sound. I reckon I shan't
need to do no more pilotin' there."

The little old inventor stopped a moment, then added:

"Sometimes I figger what I was put in the world for was to do pilot
duty. You know there's folks that never own a ship of their own but
just spend their days towin' other people's ships into port. They
ain't so bad off neither," he went on in a merrier tone, "'cause
there's a heap of joy in helpin' some other vessel to make a landin'."

More moved by the words than he would have confessed, Robert Morton
watched the bent figure move through the door and out into the
sunshine; and afterward, banishing the seriousness of his mood, he
climbed the hill to the white cottage, there to evolve with Delight a
plot that should hold the men of the Brewster household captive long
enough for Willie and himself to attach to Zenas Henry's motor-boat the
new invention.

CHAPTER XX

ONE MORE OF WILLIE'S SHIPS REACHES PORT

Three feverish days passed, days of constant hard work and myriad
trivial annoyances. A train of misadventures had atte