strength."

"Did you smell the rum on him?" returned Bailey. "On that t'other chap,
I mean? Didn't he look like a reg'lar no-account to you? And say, Ase,
didn't he remind you of somebody you'd seen somewheres--kind of, in a
way?"

They walked home in a dazed state, asking unanswerable questions and
making profitless guesses. But Asaph's final remark seemed to sum up the
situation.

"There's trouble comin' of this, Bailey," he declared. "And it's trouble
for Cy Whittaker, I'm afraid. Poor old Cy! Well, WE'LL stand by him,
anyhow. I don't believe he'll sleep much to-night. Didn't look as though
he would, did he? Who IS that feller?"

If he had seen Captain Cy, at two o'clock the next morning, sitting
by Bos'n's bedside and gazing hopelessly at the child, he would have
realized that, if his former predictions were wiped off the slate and he
could be judged by the one concerning the captain's sleepless night, he
might thereafter pose as a true prophet.

CHAPTER XI

A BARGAIN OFF

"Mornin', Georgianna," said Captain Cy to his housekeeper as the latter
unlocked the back door of the Whittaker house next morning. "I'm a
little ahead of you this time."

Miss Taylor, being Bayport born and bred, was an early riser. She lodged
with her sister, in Bassett's Hollow, a good half mile from the Cy
Whittaker place, but she was always on hand at the latter establishment
by six each morning, except Sundays. Now she glanced quickly at the
clock. The time was ten minutes to six.

"Land sakes!" she exclaimed. "I should say you was! What in the world
got you up so early? Ain't sick, are you?"

"No," replied the captain wearily. "I ain't sick. I didn't sleep very
well last night, that's all."

Georgianna looked sharply at him. His face was haggard and his eyes had
dark circles under them.

"Humph!" she grunted. "No, I guess you didn't. Looks to me as if you'd
been up all night." Then she added an anxious query: "'Tain't Bos'n--she
ain't sick, I hope?"

"No. She's all right. I say, Georgianna, you put on an extry plate this
mornin'. Got company for breakfast."

The housekeeper was surprised.

"For breakfast?" she repeated. "Land of goodness! who's comin' for
breakfast? I never heard of company droppin' in for breakfast. That's
one meal folks generally get to home. Who is it? Mr. Tidditt? Has Ketury
turned him out door because he's too bad an example for her husband?"

"No, 'tain't Ase. It's a--a friend of mine. Well