rder and smart seamanship.

The _Reindeer_ came up slowly in the gathering twilight and went to anchor
a biscuit-toss away. French Pete followed suit with the _Dazzler_, and then
went in the skiff to pay them a visit. The two lads stretched themselves
out on top the cabin and awaited his return.

"Do you like the life?" Joe broke silence.

The other turned on his elbow. "Well--I do, and then again I don't. The
fresh air, and the salt water, and all that, and the freedom--that 's all
right; but I don't like the--the--" He paused a moment, as though his
tongue had failed in its duty, and then blurted out: "the stealing."

"Then why don't you quit it?" Joe liked the lad more than he dared confess
to himself, and he felt a sudden missionary zeal come upon him.

"I will just as soon as I can turn my hand to something else."

"But why not now?"

_Now is the accepted time_ was ringing in Joe's ears, and if the other
wished to leave, it seemed a pity that he did not, and at once.

"Where can I go? What can I do? There 's nobody in all the world to lend
me a hand, just as there never has been. I tried it once, and learned my
lesson too well to do it again in a hurry."

"Well, when I get out of this I 'm going home. Guess my father was right,
after all. And I don't see, maybe--what 's the matter with you going with
me?" He said this last without thinking, impulsively, and 'Frisco Kid
knew it.

"You don't know what you 're talking about," he answered. "Fancy me going
off with you! What 'd your father say? and--and the rest? How would he
think of me? And what 'd he do?"

Joe felt sick at heart. He realized that in the spirit of the moment
he had given an invitation which, on sober thought, he knew would be
impossible to carry out. He tried to imagine his father receiving in
his own house a stranger like 'Frisco Kid--no, that was not to be
thought of. Then, forgetting his own plight, he fell to racking his
brains for some other method by which 'Frisco Kid could get away from
his present surroundings.

"He might turn me over to the police," the other went on, "and send me to
a refuge. I 'd die first, before I 'd let that happen to me. And besides,
Joe, I 'm not of your kind, and you know it. Why, I 'd be like a fish out
of water, what with all the things I did n't know. Nope; I guess I 'll
have to wait a little before I strike out. But there 's only one thing
for you to do, and that 's to go straight home. First chance I