, who insisted on being called
"Captain," got into a skiff and rowed toward the land.

Madge sprang to her feet and ran down to the edge of the water. She
wished to attract Mike's attention before he went aboard his own shanty
boat. To think with her was to act. She realized that she must speak
to the man before his wife could tell him the nature of their errand.
If Mike Muldoon learned their real design, he might shut himself inside
his shanty and refuse to talk to them.

[Illustration: The girls ran down to the water's edge.]

Mike rowed toward his callers, who were anxiously waiting for him. As
his boat scraped the shore his wife shrieked at him, "Come here fust,
Mike! Don't you be goin' talkin' to the likes of them before I tells
you somethin'."

She was too late. Captain Mike had already turned to Madge. He
supposed the girls had come to engage his sailboat.

Captain Madge decided to try diplomacy. She did not wish to make the
sailor angry. She hoped she might persuade him to do what they wished.

"We have not come to rent your sailboat today, Captain Mike," she
announced cheerfully, "we are coming for that another time. What we
wish now is to ask you what has become of your pretty daughter? We
have crossed all the way over to the island to make her a call. And
now we can't find her. We wish to make friends with her, if you don't
mind."

"Moll can't make friends with nobody," Mike answered suspiciously, his
skin turning a mottled red under its coat of tan. "I told you Moll was
foolish."

"Yes, I know," answered Phil unwisely. "That is why we are so sorry
for her."

Mike scowled darkly. "You ain't got no cause to be sorry for the gal.
Who told you she was treated mean? Nobody don't hurt her. But you
can't see her. She is sick."

"Why, your wife told us she had gone away!" exclaimed Phil impetuously.

She could have cried with regret the next moment, for she realized how
foolish she had been.

"So she has gone away," Mike muttered, "and she is sick. I ain't no
liar and my wife ain't neither."

"When will she come back, Captain Mike?" asked Madge in a friendly
tone, hoping the title of "captain" would soften the surly sailor.

"She's not comin' back," the man replied impatiently. "I've got to go
to my dinner, and I ain't goin' to answer no more questions. Don't you
come foolin' around this way any more; my old woman don't like it. I
warn you for your good."

Phil was tired of