let go her hold. He then went on his way.

Arriving at the foot of the stairway he looked back. There was the
slender form of the young girl quivering with rage.

"Addio, Dolores!" in the most mournful of voices.

"Scelerato!" was the response, hissed out from the prettiest of lips.

The next morning the Dodge Club left Naples.

[Illustration: The Brave Soldier.]

CHAPTER XVI.

DICK RELATES A FAMILY LEGEND.

"Dick," said the Senator, as they rolled over the road, "spin a yarn
to beguile the time."

Dick looked modest.

The rest added their entreaties.

"Oh, well," said Dick, "since you're so very urgent it would be
unbecoming to refuse. A story? Well, what? I will tell you about my
maternal grandfather.

"My maternal grandfather, then, was once out in Hong Kong, and had
saved up a little money. As the climate did not agree with him he
thought he would come home; and at length an American ship touched
there, on board of which he went, and he saw a man in the galley; so
my grandfather stepped up to him and asked him:

"'Are you the mate?'

"'No. I'm the man that boils the _mate_,' said the other, who was also
an Irishman.

"So he had to go to the cabin, where he found the Captain and mate
writing out clearance papers for the custom-house.

"'Say, captain, will you cross the sea to plow the raging main?' asked
my grandfather.

"'Oh, the ship it is ready and the wind is fair to plow the raging
main!' said the captain. Of course my grandfather at once paid his
fare without asking credit, and the amount was three hundred and
twenty-seven dollars thirty-nine cents.

"Well, they set sail, and after going ever so many thousand miles,
or hundred--I forget which, but it don't matter--a great storm arose,
a typhoon or simoon, perhaps both; and after slowly gathering up its
energies for the space of twenty-nine days, seven hours, and
twenty-three minutes, without counting the seconds, it burst upon
them at exactly forty-two minutes past five, on the sixth day of the
week. Need I say that day was Friday? Now my grandfather saw all the
time how it was going to end; and while the rest were praying and
shrieking he had cut the lashings of the ship's long-boat and stayed
there all the time, having put on board the nautical instruments, two
or three fish-hooks, a gross of lucifer matches, and a sauce-pan. At
last the storm struck the ship, as I have stated, and at the first
crack away went the vessel t