im!" whispered the scared Captain.

"Not a bit of it, but he will be dead to the world for ten or fifteen
minutes. We may as well let him rest in peace. What's become of that
dog?" asked the officer, glancing inquiringly around.

Chester pointed toward the house. The brute, with his two inches of tail
aimed skyward, was scooting around the corner of the building as fast as
his bowed legs could carry him. He would not have done so had he been of
true bulldog breed, but being a mongrel, there was a big streak of yellow
in his make-up.

"He's come to the belief that it's a good time to adjourn, as me cousin
said whin someone blowed up the stump on which he was risting his weary
body."

"I think we have had enough foraging along the river," remarked Captain
Alvin, who re-entered the boat and resumed his place at the wheel. "We
dine at Wiscasset."

"I'm not partic'lar as to the place," said Mike, "if only we dine."

Chester flung the loop of rope off the support, and he and the others
stepped aboard the launch, which moved up the river. Standing in front of
the detective, Mike, with his genial grin, offered his hand:

"I asks the privilege of a shake of yours. I apologize for thinking ye
didn't like a shindy as well as the rest of us. I'm sorry for me mistake,
as me uncle said, whin he inthroodoced dad to a party of leddies as a
gintleman. I couldn't have done better mesilf."

The smiling officer cordially accepted the proffer.

"No one can doubt your pluck, Mike, but, to quote your favorite method of
expressing yourself, you showed mighty poor judgment, as the owner of the
bull said when the animal tried to butt a locomotive off the track. That
man would have eaten you up."

"P-raps, but he would have found me hard to digist. Do ye obsarve?"

He pointed to the little landing which they were leaving behind them. All
looked and saw the burly brute of a man slowly rise to a sitting posture,
with his hat off and his frowsy hair in his eyes, as he stared confusedly
after the launch speeding up the river.

"He is recovering quicker than I expected," was the only remark Calvert
made, as he turned his back upon the fellow and gave his attention to
lighting another cigar.

"He has the look of a fellow mixed and confused like, similar to Pat
McGuigan, whin he dived off the dock and his head and shoulders wint
through a lobster pot that he didn't obsarve in time to avoid the same."

"He's coming round all right," said