nish captain fired a
pistol at me down off Santa Catharina. He was so nigh that the powder
went under the skin and it'll never come out again. ---- his eyes--he
had better have fired the pistol into his own head that morning. But
never mind that. I reckon I'm changed, ain't I, Hi?"

He took his pipe out of his mouth and looked inquiringly at Hiram, who
nodded.

Levi laughed. "Devil doubt it," said he, "but whether I'm changed or no,
I'll take my affidavy that you are the same old half-witted Hi that
you used to be. I remember dad used to say that you hadn't no more than
enough wits to keep you out of the rain. And, talking of dad, Hi, I
hearn tell he's been dead now these nine years gone. D'ye know what I've
come home for?"

Hiram shook his head.

"I've come for that five hundred pounds that dad left me when he died,
for I hearn tell of that, too."

Hiram sat quite still for a second or two and then he said, "I put that
money out to venture and lost it all."

Levi's face fell and he took his pipe out of his mouth, regarding Hiram
sharply and keenly. "What d'ye mean?" said he presently.

"I thought you was dead--and I put--seven hundred pounds--into Nancy
Lee--and Blueskin burned her--off Currituck."

"Burned her off Currituck!" repeated Levi. Then suddenly a light seemed
to break upon his comprehension. "Burned by Blueskin!" he repeated,
and thereupon flung himself back in his chair and burst into a short,
boisterous fit of laughter. "Well, by the Holy Eternal, Hi, if that
isn't a piece of your tarnal luck. Burned by Blueskin, was it?" He
paused for a moment, as though turning it over in his mind. Then he
laughed again. "All the same," said he presently, "d'ye see, I can't
suffer for Blueskin's doings. The money was willed to me, fair and true,
and you have got to pay it, Hiram White, burn or sink, Blueskin or no
Blueskin." Again he puffed for a moment or two in reflective silence.
"All the same, Hi," said he, once more resuming the thread of talk, "I
don't reckon to be too hard on you. You be only half-witted, anyway, and
I sha'n't be too hard on you. I give you a month to raise that money,
and while you're doing it I'll jest hang around here. I've been in
trouble, Hi, d'ye see. I'm under a cloud and so I want to keep here, as
quiet as may be. I'll tell ye how it came about: I had a set-to with a
land pirate in Philadelphia, and somebody got hurt. That's the reason
I'm here now, and don't you say anything abo