even seas in my day, and man and
boy seen many queer things; but if this don't beat cock fightin', I'm
an inky Senegambian!"

The captain's voice had risen to a perfect roar as he uttered the last
words, and a sort of jack-of-all-trades about the wharf, whose name was
Hi Higgins, came shuffling up, asking what was the trouble.

"Trouble," roared the hermit of Topsail Island. "Trouble enough fer
all hands and some left over fer the cat! Say, shipmate, yer hangs
about this here L wharf a lot. Did yer see any piratical humans
monkeyin' around my boat last night?"

"Why, what d'yer mean, cap'n," sniffled Hi Higgins. "I seen yer tie up
here, and there yer boat is now. What d'yer mean by pira-pirawell,
them parties yer mentioned? Yer mean some one took it?"

"Took it--yes, yer hornswoggled longshore lubber!" bellowed the
captain. "I thought yer was hired as a sort uv watchman on this wharf.
A find watchman yer are!"

"Well, yer see, cap'n," returned Hi Higgins, really alarmed at the
captain's truculent tone, "I ain't here much after nine at night or
before five in the morning."

"Well, was my boat here at five this mornin'?" demanded the captain.

"Sure it was," rejoined Hi Higgins, with a sniffle; "the fust boat I
seen."

"Rob, my boy, I'm goin' crazy in my old age!" gasped the captain. "I'm
as certain as I can be that the boat wasn't here when I came down to
the wharf last midnight, but the pre-pon-der-ance of evidence is
against me."

The captain shook his head gravely as he spoke. It was evident that he
was sorely puzzled and half inclined to doubt the evidence of his own
senses.

"Douse my toplights," he kept muttering, "if this don't beat a flying
Dutchman on wheels and with whiskers!"

"I certainly don't believe that your eyes deceived you, captain," put
in Rob, in the midst of the captain's rumbling outbursts. "It looks to
me as if somebody really did borrow your boat last night, and that the
decoy note supposed to be from me had something to do with it."

"By the great horn spoon, yer've got it, my boy!" roared the captain.
"And now yer come ter speak uv it, my mind misgives me that all ain 't
right at the island. I didn't tell yer, but I left a tidy sum uv money
in that old iron safe off the Sarah Jane, the last ship I commanded,
and all this what's puzzled us so may be part uv some thievish scheme.

"I'm going ter hurry over ter the island and make certain sure," he
went on the next minute