" He hesitated, then added, as though
thinking aloud, "It is as much as my head is worth."

"How much is your head worth?" asked Pak Chung Chang in a thin, small
voice.

"A not remarkable head," said Yi Chin Ho. "An absurdly unremarkable
head; but, such is my great foolishness, I value it at nothing less than
one hundred thousand strings of cash."

"So be it," said Pak Chung Chang, rising to his feet.

"I shall need horses to carry the treasure," said Yi Chin Ho, "and men
to guard it well as I journey through the mountains. There are robbers
abroad in the land."

"There are robbers abroad in the land," said Pak Chung Chang,
sadly. "But it shall be as you wish, so long as my ancient and
very-much-to-be-respected ancestor's nose abide in its appointed place."

"Say nothing to any man of this occurrence," said Yi Chin Ho, "else will
other and more loyal servants than I be sent to strike off your father's
nose."

And so Yi Chin Ho departed on his way through the mountains, blithe
of heart and gay of song as he listened to the jingling bells of his
treasure-laden ponies.

There is little more to tell. Yi Chin Ho prospered through the years. By
his efforts the jailer attained at length to the directorship of all the
prisons of Cho-sen; the Governor ultimately betook himself to the Sacred
City to be Prime Minister to the King, while Yi Chin Ho became the
King's boon companion and sat at table with him to the end of a round,
fat life. But Pak Chung Chang fell into a melancholy, and ever after he
shook his head sadly, with tears in his eyes, whenever he regarded the
expensive nose of his ancient and very-much-to-be-respected ancestor.

THE "FRANCIS SPAIGHT"

(A TRUE TALE RETOLD)

The Francis Spaight was running before it solely under a mizzentopsail,
when the thing happened. It was not due to carelessness so much as
to the lack of discipline of the crew and to the fact that they were
indifferent seamen at best. The man at the wheel in particular, a
Limerick man, had had no experience with salt water beyond that of
rafting timber on the Shannon between the Quebec vessels and the shore.
He was afraid of the huge seas that rose out of the murk astern and
bore down upon him, and he was more given to cowering away from their
threatened impact than he was to meeting their blows with the wheel and
checking the ship's rush to broach to.

It was three in the morning when his unseamanlike conduct precipitated
the cat