he's likely to be in a
seaport town, and if you'll be on the look-out I'll take it as a favor."

"I'll do that, o' course," said the mate. "What's he been doing?"

"Nothing that I know of," said the skipper; "but he's been missing some
five years, and I promised I'd do my best to find him."

"Friends are anxious, I s'pose?" said the mate.

"Yes," said the other.

"I always find," continued the mate, "that women are more anxious in
these sort o' cases than men."

"More tender-hearted," said the skipper.

"It ain't a bad sort o' face, now I come to look at it," said the
baffled mate, regarding it closely. "Seems to me I've seen somebody very
much like it--a girl, I think--but I can't say where."

"Bearded lady at a fair, I should think," said the skipper bluffly.

Conversation was interrupted by the appearance of Henry, who, seeing the
photograph in the mate's hand, at once began putting the butter away. A
glance told him that the mate was holding it upside down, and conscience
told him that this was for his benefit. He therefore rigidly averted his
gaze while clearing the table, and in a small mental ledger, which he
kept with scrupulous care for items such as these, made a debit entry in
the mate's account.

"Boy," said the skipper suddenly.

"Sir," said Henry.

"You're a fairly sharp youngster, I think," said the skipper. "Take hold
o' that photo there."

Henry's face suffused with a great joy. He looked derisively at the mate
and took the photograph from him, listening intently to much the same
instructions as had been previously given to the mate. "And you can take
it for'ard," concluded the skipper, "and let the men see it."

"The men?" said Henry in astonishment.

"Yes, the men; don't I speak plain?" retorted the skipper.

"Very plain, sir," said the boy; "but they'll only make a muddle of it,
sir. Fancy fat Sam and the cook and Dick!"

"Do as you're told!" said the other irascibly.

"O' course, sir," said Henry, "but they'll only worry me with a lot o'
questions as to who 'e is an' wot you want 'im for."

"You take it for'ard," said the skipper, "and tell them there's a couple
of sovereigns for the first man that finds him."

The youth took the photograph, and after another careful scrutiny, with
the object of getting a start in the race for wealth, took it forward.
Fat Sam, it seemed, had seen the very man only two days before at
Poplar; the cook knew his features as well as he knew those