ed.

Ralph picked it up, intending to lay it on the table, when a certain
familiarity in the handwriting struck him as peculiar and he started to
read the contents.

"My dear Cousin:--" it began; but after getting thus far the boy threw
the sheet down upon the table.

"Why should I be reading the captain's letters?" thought he, and a
flush of shame crept momentarily to his forehead. "And yet--it doesn't
seem to be the one I gave him."

He remembered that Shard had mentioned an intention to write Gary by
mail.

As Ralph hesitated, a desire strengthened within him to read further,
despite the monitions of conscience. A vague idea that the strange and
contradictory behavior of Gary might be explained was perhaps at the
bottom of the lad's mental persistence.

He hesitated until his fingers burned, then made a sudden grasp at the
letter.

CHAPTER XXI.

At Close Quarters.

Without giving himself time to think, Ralph now read as follows:

My Dear Cousin:

If he does not get lost on his way you will be apt to see an awkward
country boy in Savannah in a day or two, who is quite anxious to go to
sea. I have recommended him to apply to you, and you will do me a
great favor, not only to take him, but to see that he never comes back.
Mind you--no violence. I know your devilish temper. But you can
either wear him out with hard work, or leave him in Africa, or get rid
of him in some way which may gratify the hatred which I and mine have
felt for his whole generation for years, and yet avoid difficulty with
the law. We have enough to contend with as it is, in our Cuban venture.

Frankly now, if you wish any more cash advances from me, you must see
to this lad, and contrive to make something out of this cargo of live
stock. Shipping wild niggers is growing riskier every year, especially
as Cuba and Brazil (our only markets left) threaten to free their
slaves.

Look sharp, dodge all warships, and attend to that brat of a boy. I
have soft soaped him by giving him a letter to you which you will
interpret by this.

Your Cousin,
Theodore Shard.

Ralph's first hot impulse was to go up and make known to Gary that he
now saw through the eccentricities of the latter's behavior, and that
Shard's treachery was also known. A second thought convinced him that
such a course in the captain's present mood, would most likely, only
precipitate some act of violence of which he would be the victim.

Ralph now s