just time to tell you that we have made a
discovery which will surprise you. Let me detail it to you
circumstantially. Uncle Ogilvy and I were walking on the pier a few
days ago, when we overheard a conversation between two sailors, who
did not see that we were approaching. We would not have stopped to
listen, but the words we heard arrested our attention, so----O what
a pity! there, Big Swankie has come for our letters. Is it not
strange that _he_ should be the man to take them off? I meant to have
given you such an account of it, especially a description of the
case. They won't wait. Come ashore as soon as you can, dearest Ruby."

The letter broke off here abruptly. It was evident that the writer
had been obliged to close it abruptly, for she had forgotten to sign
her name.

"'A description of the case'; _what_ case?" muttered Ruby in
vexation. "O Minnie, Minnie, in your anxiety to go into details you
have omitted to give me the barest outline. Well, well, darling, I'll
just take the will for the deed, but I _wish_ you had----"

Here Ruby ceased to mutter, for Captain Ogilvy's letter suddenly
occurred to his mind. Opening it hastily, he read as follows:--

"DEAR NEFFY,--I never was much of a hand at spellin', an' I'm not
rightly sure o' that word, howsever, it reads all square, so ittle
do. If I had been the inventer o' writin' I'd have had signs for a
lot o' words. Just think how much better it would ha' bin to have
put a regular [Square] like that instead o' writin' s-q-u-a-r-e. Then
_round_ would have bin far better O, like that. An' crooked thus
~~~~~; see how significant an' suggestive, if I may say so; no
humbug--all fair an' above-board, as the pirate said, when he ran up
the black flag to the peak.

"But avast speckillatin' (shiver my timbers! but that last was a
pen-splitter), that's not what I sat down to write about. My object
in takin' up the pen, neffy, is two-fold,

'Double, double, toil an' trouble',

as Macbeath said,--if it wasn't Hamlet.

"We want you to come home for a day or two, if you can git leave,
lad, about this strange affair. Minnie said she was goin' to give you
a full, true, and partikler account of it, so it's of no use my goin'
over the same course. There's that blackguard Swankie come for the
letters. Ha! it makes me chuckle. No time for more------"

This letter also concluded abruptly, and without a signature.

"There's a pretty kettle o' fish!" exclaime