etween
you and Mr. Waterford over at the creek."

"And you thought I had the worst of it."

"I saw him pitch you out of the boat."

"If you had staid a moment longer in sight, you would have seen me
pitch him out afterwards."

I defined and explained my position, and justified it as well as I was
able. Miss Collingsby had appealed to me for help, and in rendering it,
under the circumstances, I did not feel disposed to let the ownership
of the yacht defeat my good intentions to save her from the wiles of a
villain.

"Do you call Ben Waterford a villain?" he demanded.

"The dictionary does not afford me any better word to express my
opinion of him. I wish he was the only one I knew."

"Do you refer to me?"

I explained myself more fully on this point, and the junior partner of
our house mildly expressed his rage. I suppose his stinging conscience
did not permit him to do so in a more determined manner. I told him
that Mr. Collingsby was in possession of all the facts relating to his
defalcations, both of the money and the notes of the firm. He bit his
lip in silence for a few moments, as if arranging his mental forces for
an assault upon me.

"Phil, you have made another stupid blunder," said he. "As I have told
you plainly before, you are insufferably conceited. You think you know
enough for two men, when you know just half enough for one. That's
what's the matter. You have made a pretty kettle of fish."

"I think you made it yourself."

"Don't be impudent. We must return to Chicago at once."

"That's one of my sentiments exactly," I replied. "Shall we weigh
anchor now?"

"Yes, if you like, though there is no wind. I told you Mr. Collingsby
didn't know anything about the business, and would be alarmed at your
ridiculous statements."

"He knows all about the business now, and, as you say, he is a great
deal alarmed."

"I assure you, Phil, upon my honor, that everything about the business
is all right. You have made another blunder."

"I wish I had."

"You have."

"You drew the balance at the bank, and discounted over thirty thousand
dollars' worth of notes."

"I did; and as a member of the firm, I had a perfect right to do so. I
had a chance to make fifty thousand on one lot of lumber. I was not to
be prevented from doing so by a whim of my partner. He prefers
generally to furnish money, rather than put our business paper on the
market. I gave him the opportunity to do so. He refused, and I rais