re, with the money in his pocket.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE FIRST REGATTA.

Donald was not disposed to doubt the truth of Laud Cavendish's story,
for the circumstances were precisely the same as those under which he
had received the boat and the money from Captain Shivernock. If he had
had no experience with the eccentric shipmaster himself, he would have
doubted the whole explanation, and refused to take the money. He
recalled the events of Saturday. The last he saw of Laud, on that day,
was when he ran his boat over towards the Northport shore, whither the
captain had gone before him. He had lost sight of both their boats at a
time when it seemed very probable that they would meet. After what Laud
had just said to him, and with the money he had paid him in his pocket,
he was confident they had met. The strange man had purchased the silence
of Laud, as he had his own, and at about the same price.

Donald realized that Captain Shivernock had thrown away about seven
hundred dollars that morning, and, as he thought of it, he was amazed at
his conduct; but the captain did not mind paying a thousand dollars any
time to gratify the merest whim. The young man tried again to fathom the
motive of his eccentric but liberal patron in thus throwing away such
large sums, unnecessarily large, to accomplish his object. The
Lincolnville outrage was the only possible solution; but if he were the
ruffian, he would not have been on Long Island when he had a fair wind
to run home, and Sykes and his wife both agreed that he had left the
house on the morning that Donald had seen him. It was not possible,
therefore, that the captain was guilty of the outrage. Laud had paid him
seven fifty dollar bills, and he had over four hundred dollars in his
pocket. He did not know what to do with it, and feeling that he had come
honestly by it, he was vexed at the necessity of concealing it from his
mother; but he was determined to pay it out, as occasion required, for
stock and hardware for the yacht he was building. When he went to his
chamber, he concealed three hundred and fifty dollars of the money in a
secret place in the pine bureau in which his clothes were kept.

The next morning Kennedy appeared with the man he was authorized to
employ, and the chips flew briskly in the shop all that day. At noon
Donald went to the wharf where he had bought his stock, and paid the
bill for it. The lumber dealer commended his promptness, and offered to
g