nned. "That's right," he said. "No use for the fo'mast
hand to contradict the skipper."

Mrs. Black stepped forward.

"How do you do, Mrs. Fenholtz?" she said with unction.

"Dear me!" exclaimed Serena. "I--I'm forgetting everything. But you know
Mr. and Mrs. Black, don't you, Mrs. Fenholtz?"

Mrs. Fenholtz turned.

"How do you do, Mrs. Black?" she said. Her tone lacked the enthusiasm of
Annette's.

"Hello, Black," said her husband. "What are you doing here? I thought
you would be at the club, listening to the--what is it?--the cabaret.
Py George, my wife says I shall not go any more! She says it is no place
for a settled man so old as I am. Ho! ho! Yet I tell her the stag dinner
is good for the beer business."

Before B. Phelps could answer, Mrs. Black spoke.

"He wanted to go, Mr. Fenholtz," she declared. "But he felt, as I did,
that our first duty was here. Captain and Mrs. Dott are old friends of
ours. We meet them every year at the Cape; we have a summer home there,
you know."

Fenholtz seemed interested. "That is so," he said. "I forgot. Dott, are
you one of those Cape Cod skippers they tell me about? I am glad of it.
I have got a boat myself down in Narragansett Bay. One of those gruisin'
launches, they call them. But this one is like the women, it will gruise
only where and when it wants to, and not where I want to at all. There
is something the matter with the engine always. I have had egsperts--ah,
those egsperts!--they are egsperts only in getting the money. When they
are there it will go beautifully; but when they have left it will not go
at all. I wish you could see it."

Captain Dan was interested, too.

"Well," he said, "I'd like to, first rate. I've got a boat of my own
back home; that is, I used to have her. She was a twenty-five foot
cat and she had a five-horsepower auxiliary in her. I had consider'ble
experience with that engine. Course, I ain't what you'd call an expert."

"I am glad of that. Now I will explain about this drouble of mine."

He went on to explain. In five minutes he and the captain were head over
heels in spark plugs and batteries and valves and cylinders. Mr.
Black endeavored to help out with quotations from his experience as
a motorist, but his suggestions, not being of a nautical nature, were
ignored for the most part. After a time he lost interest and settled
back in his chair.

Meanwhile the three ladies were engrossed in other matters. Mrs.
Fenholtz asked to b