ode dropped
the subject.

"How did your father happen to have this for me?" he asked, after a
pause.

"Well, you know, you surprised everybody by leaving the Head before
the rest of the fleet. Elsa had it in mind to give you this packet,
she _says_, before you left. But when you went so suddenly she asked
father to give it to you. She said she expected the _Rosan_ would
catch the _Lass_ on the Banks. At least, this is the yarn dad told
me."

"She seems to know considerable about the Banks and the ways of
fishermen," he said, with an unconscious ring of enthusiasm in his
tone.

"Yes; you'd think she pulled her own dory instead of being the richest
woman in New Brunswick."

Code looked at his old sweetheart in amazement. He had never seen her
so disagreeable. His eye fell upon her left hand.

For a moment his mind did not register an impression. Then all of a
sudden it flashed upon him that her ring was gone.

"Oh, _that_ explains everything!" he said to himself. "She has either
lost it or quarreled with Nat, and it's no wonder she is unhappy."

Nellie was saying to herself: "The letter must have been very personal
or he would have told me about it. He never acted like this before.
There _is_ something between them."

Suddenly astern of them sounded the flap of sails, rattle of blocks,
and shouted orders. They turned in time to see a schooner come up
into the wind all standing.

She was clothed in canvas from head to foot, with a balloon-jib and
staysail added, and made her position less than a hundred yards away.

Schofield gazed at the schooner curiously. Then he leaned forward, his
eyes alight. There were certain points about her that were familiar.
With a fisherman's skill he had catalogued her every point. He looked
at the trail-board along her bows, and where the name should have been
there was a blank, painted-out space.

It was the mystery schooner!

Once more all the fears that had assailed Code's mind at her first
appearance returned. He was certain that there was mischief in this.
But he sat quiet as the vessel drifted down upon the anchored
_Rosan_.

As he looked her over his eyes were drawn aloft to a series of wires
strung between her topmasts. Other wires ran down the foremast to a
little cubby just aft of it.

"By the great squid, they've got wireless!" he said. "This beats me!"

At fifty yards the familiar man with the enormous megaphone made his
appearance.

"Ahoy there!" he roar