w anyone to get ahead of me without paying for my own
stupidity. Do you go to Sunday School, and church, and missionary
meetings?" asked the captain, with a sneer.

"I do, sir."

"I thought so. You are a sick monkey. You don't let your tongue tell a
lie."

"No, sir; I don't mean to tell a lie, if I can help it, and I generally
can."

"You walk in the strait and narrow way which leads to the meeting-house.
I don't. All right! Broad is the way! But one thing is certain, Don
John, you haven't seen me to-day."

"But I have," persisted Donald.

"I say you have not; don't contradict me, if you want to take that head
of yours home with you. Nobody will ask whether you have seen me or not;
so that if a lie is likely to choke you, keep still with your tongue."

"I am not to say that I have seen you on the island?" queried Donald.

"You are not," replied the captain, with an echoing expletive.

"Why not, sir?"

"None of your business! Do as you are told, and spend the money I gave
you for gingerbread and fast horses."

"But when my mother sees this money she will want to know where I got
it."

"If you tell her or anybody else, I'll hammer your head till it isn't
thicker than a piece of sheet-iron. Don't let her see the money. Hire a
fast horse, and go to ride next Sunday."

"I don't go to ride on Sunday."

"I suppose not. Give it to the missionaries to buy red flannel shirts
for little niggers in the West Indies, if you like. I don't care what
you do with it."

"You don't wish anybody to know you have been on the island this
morning--is that the idea, Captain Shivernock?" asked Donald, not a
little alarmed at the position in which his companion was placing him.

"That's the idea, Don John."

"I don't see why--"

"You are not to see why," interrupted the captain, fiercely. "That's my
business, not yours. Will you do as I tell you?"

"If there is any trouble--"

"There isn't any trouble. Do you think I've killed somebody?--No. Do you
think I've robbed somebody?--No. Do you think I've set somebody's house
on fire?--No. Do you think I've stolen somebody's chickens?--No. Nothing
of the sort. I want to know whether you can keep your tongue still. Let
us see. There's the Juno."

"Somebody will see your boat, and know that you have been here--"

"That's my business, not yours. Don't bother your head with what don't
concern you," growled the passenger.

The Juno was afloat, but she could not have been so man