Humph!" said the captain, with a disappointed look. "However, it can't
be helped; but I see my way _now_ to get you out o' this fix. You know,
I suppose, that they're buildin' a lighthouse on the Bell Rock just now;
well, the workmen go off to it for a month at a time, I believe, if not
longer, and don't come ashore, and it's such a dangerous place, and
troublesome to get to, that nobody almost ever goes out to it from this
place, except those who have to do with it. Now, lad, you'll go down to
the workyard the first thing in the mornin', before daylight, and engage
to go off to work at the Bell Rock. You'll keep all snug and quiet, and
nobody'll be a bit the wiser. You'll be earnin' good wages, and in the
meantime I'll set about gettin' things in trim to put you all square."

"But I see many difficulties ahead," objected Ruby.

"Of course ye do," retorted the captain. "Did ye ever hear or see
anything on this earth that hadn't rocks ahead o' some sort? It's our
business to steer past 'em, lad, not to 'bout ship and steer away. But
state yer difficulties."

"Well, in the first place, I'm not a stonemason or a carpenter, and I
suppose masons and carpenters are the men most wanted there."

"Not at all, blacksmiths are wanted there," said the captain, "and I
know that you were trained to that work as a boy."

"True, I can do somewhat with the hammer, but mayhap they won't engage
me."

"But they _will_ engage you, lad, for they are hard up for an assistant
blacksmith just now, and I happen to be hand-and-glove with some o' the
chief men of the yard, who'll be happy to take anyone recommended by
me."

"Well, uncle, but suppose I do go off to the rock, what chance have you
of making things appear better than they are at present?"

"I'll explain that, lad. In the first place, Major Stewart is a
gentleman, out-and-out, and will listen to the truth. He swears that
the robbery took place at one o'clock in the mornin', for he looked at
his watch and at the clock of the house, and heard it ring in the town,
just as the thieves cleared off over the wall. Now, if I can get your
old skipper to take a run here on his return from the West Indies, he'll
swear that you was sailin' out to the North Sea _before twelve_, and
that'll prove that you _couldn't_ have had nothin' to do with it, d'ye
see?"

"It sounds well," said Ruby dubiously, "but do you think the lawyers
will see things in the light you do?"

"Hang the l