e if he had
simply declined to tell the truth, or had distorted it even a little.
Bobtail was, therefore, very grateful to him for doing what it was
plainly his duty to do. Still our hero could not help wondering, as
hundreds of others wondered, whether or not the captain really smuggled
goods into the state. Perhaps he would not have thought much the worse
of him if he had known that such was the fact; for, as we have before
stated, Bobtail's views of smuggling were not very definite. He had
never considered the subject enough to have any fixed opinions.

Captain Chinks was a thriving, driving, enterprising man, who did any
kind of business which promised an adequate remuneration. He went a
fishing, he traded horses, traded boats, traded vehicles. He had been in
the salmon business, importing it from the provinces, and sending it to
Boston; he had been in the pogy oil business; he had been in the
staging business; he had been in the hotel business in a small way. He
owned a farm, and was a mechanic besides. He sometimes built a boat
during the winter season, and ran it during the summer, or sold it, if
an opportunity presented. If there was a camp-meeting, he carried
passengers in his craft to and from the grounds. He was, or had been, in
all these occupations. They were visible and tangible; and some people
insisted that he was engaged in other occupations which were not so
visible and tangible.

Little Bobtail left Captain Chinks in the lawyer's office, and walked
down the shore road to the cottage. He went in and found Ezekiel drunk
on the bed. He did not disturb him, but went up stairs to see if the
boxes he had removed from the Skylark were still securely hidden from
the observation of any one who might visit the upper part of the house.
He adjusted the rubbish which covered them, and then left the cottage.
Monkey was paddling about the harbor in the old dory, which he had
borrowed at the head of the bay. The moment his grateful friend saw him,
he pulled to the rocks where he stood, and they went on board of the
yacht together. Little Bobtail looked her over again, and began to
wonder that no one appeared to claim her. He could not help asking if
any one would ever appear to claim her. Whoever did so would have to
account for the presence of those cases of brandy in her cabin. If the
owner had any regard for his reputation, he might choose rather to
sacrifice the boat and her cargo, than to subject himself to the