ive you, listened at that pipe-hole time
and again, and took messages straight to Hanson. But you'll not blame
him when you hear my story. Let's go into the back parlor. By the way,
did you find your breastpin?"

His mother said in reply, that she had neither seen nor heard of it
since the day it was stolen.

"Well I've got it safe and sound," continued Marcy; and then he settled
back in his chair and repeated, almost word for word, the story sailor
Jack had told him the night before he left for the blockading fleet. He
told how Julius had taken the pin in the first place, how the overseer
had worked upon his fears to compel him to give it up, and how he had
used the power which the possession of the stolen pin enabled him to
exercise over the timid black boy. Then he described how sailor Jack and
his "Enchanted Goblet" appeared upon the scene; and from that he glided
into the history of Jack's acquaintance with Aleck Webster, and the
interviews he had held with him at the post-office. But there were two
things he did not touch upon--the meeting with Captain Beardsley at
Crooked Inlet, and sailor Jack's fears that the Confederate authorities
might interest themselves in the matter if they learned, through any of
her "secret enemies," that Mrs. Gray kept money concealed in the house.
His mother was profoundly astonished, and when Marcy finished his story
she did not know whether to be glad or frightened. The boy thought, from
the expression of her countenance, that he had added to her fears.

"You don't act as if you were pleased a bit," said he dolefully. "Are
you not glad to know that I can stay at home now? Beardsley has got to
quit business, and of course he can't make any more excuses to take me
away from you. He never did need a pilot, the old rascal. When he reads
the warning letter that is waiting for him in Newbern, he'll fill away
for home without the loss of a moment."

"Of course I am glad that you will not be obliged to go to sea any
more," said Mrs. Gray. "But I don't want those Union men to destroy
Captain Beardsley's property. When you see this man Webster I hope you
will say as much to him."

"If it's all the same to you, mother, I'll wait and see how Beardsley
conducts himself," answered Marcy, who did not like the idea of trying
to protect a man who had done all he could to annoy his mother. "If he
lets us alone, we'll let him alone; but if he bothers us, he had better
look out. When he finds out