ng-desk. The captain tossed his cap and
overcoat into a chair, and seated himself at the desk. He picked up a
quill pen, and began to write as though he intended to scratch a hole
through the paper, making noise enough for a small locomotive. He
finished the writing, and signed his name to it. Then he cast the
contents of a sand-box upon it, returning to it the portion which did
not adhere to the paper. The document looked as though it had been
written with a handspike, or as though the words had been ploughed in,
and a furrow of sand left to form the letters.

"Here!" said the captain, extending the paper to his visitor, with a
jerk, as though he was performing a most ungracious office.

"What is it, sir?" asked Donald, as he took the document.

"Can't you read?" growled the strange man.

Under ordinary circumstances Donald could read--could read writing when
not more than half the letters were merged into straight lines; but it
required all his skill, and not a little of his Scotch-Yankee guessing
ability, to decipher the vagrant, staggering characters which the
captain had impressed with so much force upon the paper. It proved to be
a bill of sale of the Juno, in due form, and for the consideration of
three hundred dollars.

"Surely you cannot mean this, Captain Shivernock?" exclaimed the amazed
young man.

"Can't I? Do you think I'm a lunatic?" stormed the captain.

Donald did think so, but he was not so imprudent as to say it.

"I can't pay you three hundred dollars for the boat," pleaded he.

"Nobody asked you to pay a red cent. The boat is yours. If you don't
want her, sell her to the first man who is fool enough to buy her.
That's all."

"I'm very grateful to you for your kindness, Captain Shivernock; and I
hope--"

"All stuff!" interposed the strange man, savagely. "You are like the
rest of the world, and next week you would be as ready to kick me as any
other man would be, if you dared to do so. You needn't stop any longer
to talk that sort of bosh to me. It will do for Sunday Schools and
prayer meetings."

"But I am really--"

"No matter if you are really. Shut up!"

"I hope I shall be able to do something to serve you."

"Bah!"

"Have you heard the news, Captain Shivernock?" asked Donald, suddenly
changing the topic.

"What news?"

"It's in the _Age_. A man over in Lincolnville, by the name of Hasbrook,
was taken out of his bed last night, and severely beaten."

"Hasbrook! Served hi