sir."

"George, I'm not going to do anything but what is perfectly all right,
you understand. You'll not get into any trouble over it. But what you
don't see you can't tell, no matter if questions are asked later on.
Here, take this!" He crowded two silver dollars into Mayo's hands and
gave him a push. "You trot forward and stay there about five minutes,
that's the boy! It's all right. It's a little of my own private
business. Go ahead!"

Mayo went. He reflected that it was none of his affair what a passenger
did aboard the vessel. It was precious little interest he took in the
craft, anyway, except as a temporary refuge. He turned away and put the
money in his pocket, the darkness hiding his smile.

He did not look toward the wharf. He strolled on past the forward house,
where the engineer was stoking his boiler, getting up steam for the
schooner's windlass engine. When he patrolled aft again, after
a conscientious wait, he found the passenger leaning against the
coachhouse door, smoking a cigarette. The electric light showed his
face, and it wore a look of peculiar satisfaction.

Just then some one fumbled inside the coach-house door at the stranger's
back, and when the latter stepped away the first mate appeared, yawning.

"I'm the passenger--Mr. Bradish," the young man explained, promptly. "I
just made myself at home, put my stuff in a stateroom, and locked the
door and took the key. Is that all right?"

"May be just as well to lock it while we're at dock and stevedores are
aboard," agreed the mate.

"How soon do we pull out of here?"

The mate yawned again and peered up into the sky, where the first gray
of the summer dawn was showing over the cranes of the coal-pockets.
"In about a half-hour, I should say. Just as soon as the tug can use
daylight to put us into the stream."

The roar of the coal in the main-hatch chute had ceased. The schooner
was loaded.

"Go strike eight bells, Jeff, and turn in!" ordered the mate, speaking
to Mayo.

"Well, I'll stay outside, here, and watch the sun rise," said Bradish.
"It will be a new experience."

"It's an almighty dirty place for loafing till we get into the stream
and clean ship, sir. I should think taking an excursion on a coal-lugger
would be another new experience!" There was just a hint of grim sarcasm
in his tone.

"The doctor ordered me to get out and away where I wouldn't hear of
business or see business, and a friend of mine told me there were ple