planned to leave mother and me--I haven't any brothers or
sisters--at home, while he came down to Boston and settled the claims.
Then he was going to pick out a home here and send for us to come to
him. Although he had made the money in Canada, he had always felt
homesick for his own country.

"Then the question came up," continued Ross, "of how he was to get the
money down here. Of course, the safer way would have been to take it to
some Canadian bank and get a draft on Boston. But I've told you of the
bitter feeling he had toward all banks, and he'd counted so long on
turning over that identical gold to his creditors that he couldn't give
it up.

"We were a long distance from any large city, and the only way to travel
by sea was to take some sailing vessel that stopped once in a while at a
town near by. There was a good deal of smuggling going on just then
between Canada and this country, and as there was a big profit in it,
almost all the coastwise sailing vessels took a hand in it now and then.
Sometimes it would be opium that had been landed on the Pacific coast
and brought over to Quebec. Then, too, there were French laces and silks
and wines.

"Of course it was illegal, but lots of people couldn't see much harm in
it. You know how it is with people that come over from Europe to New
York. A vast number of them try to get things in without paying duty and
they think it's rather smart to get the best of Uncle Sam. Many who are
honorable in every other way seem to lose that feeling when it comes to
smuggling.

"Of course it's wrong, as everything is wrong that breaks the law,
whether we think the law is just or not. But I'm just saying this to
explain why father was willing to trust himself and his gold on board a
smuggler."

The boys bent forward eagerly.

"For that's what he did," continued Ross. "There was a schooner, named
the _Ranger_, that often stopped at the river town near where we
lived. The captain was a man, Ramsay by name, whom father knew and
trusted. His boat did a good deal of legitimate trading, but sandwiched
in with that was quite a lot of smuggling off and on. Still, aside from
that, Captain Ramsay had the reputation of being a strictly honest man,
and he and father had been on friendly terms for years.

"When the time came, father went on board with all his baggage,
including the chest of gold. Of course he did not take any one in the
secret of what the chest contained. He figured on get