m right!" exclaimed the captain, with a rough string
of profanity, which cooled the blood of the listener. "He is the biggest
scoundrel in the State of Maine, and I am much obliged to the man who
did it. I would have taken a hand with him at the game, if I had been
there."

[Illustration: THE BILL OF SALE. Page 119.]

This was equivalent to saying that he was not there.

"Do you know this Hasbrook?" asked Donald.

"Do I know him? He swindled me out of a thousand dollars, and I ought to
know him. If the man that flogged him hasn't finished him, I'll pound
him myself when I catch him in the right place," replied the strange
man, violently. "Who did the job, Don John?"

"I don't know, sir. He hasn't been discovered yet."

"If he is discovered, I'll give him five hundred dollars, and pay the
lawyers for keeping him out of jail. I wish I had done it myself; it
would make me feel good."

Donald was entirely satisfied that Captain Shivernock had not done it.
He was pleased, even rejoiced, that his investigation had resulted so
decidedly in the captain's favor, for he would have been very sorry to
feel obliged to disregard the injunction of secrecy which had been
imposed upon him.

"Did you fall in with any one after we parted this morning?" asked
Donald, who desired to know whether the captain had met Laud Cavendish
when the two boats appeared to be approaching each other.

"None of your business!" rudely replied the captain, after gazing a
moment into the face of the young man, as if to fathom his purpose in
asking the question. "Do you think the world won't move on if you don't
wind it up? Mind your own business, and don't question me. I won't have
anybody prying into my affairs."

"Excuse me, sir; I don't wish to pry into your affairs; and with your
permission I will go home now," replied Donald.

"You have my permission to go home," sneered the strange man; and Donald
availed himself of it without another instant's delay.

Certainly Captain Shivernock was a very strange man, and Donald could
not begin to understand why he had given him the Juno and the sixty
dollars in cash. It was plain enough that he had not been near
Hasbrook's house, though it was not quite clear how, if he left home at
four o'clock, he had got aground eight miles from the city at the same
hour; but there was probably some error in Donald's reckoning. The young
man went home, and, on the way, having assured himself, to his own
satisfacti