ughing. "Of all things!"

"Yes, and he always wanted it. I remember when father first gave it to
me and I was working out little problems in astronomy, Nat used to
take the thing and handle it and admire it. You see the back and edges
are silver-plated and it is really quite valuable. He tried to get his
father interested, but, so far as I know, never succeeded.

"It was a strange thing, but that simple mirror appealed to Nat
tremendously, and you know how that would act on a man of his nature.
He is and always has been utterly selfish, and if there was any object
he wanted and could not have it increased his desire."

"But how did he get it, I wonder?" asked the girl, taking the object
and heliographing the bright sun's rays from the polished surface.
"When did you have it last?"

Code knitted his brows and thought back carefully. He had an
instinctive feeling that perhaps in this mirror lay the key to the
whole situation, just as often in life the most unexpected and trivial
things or events are pregnant with great moment.

"I had it," he said slowly, thinking hard; "let me see: the last time
I remember it was the day after my first race with Nat. In the desk
that stood in the cabin of the old _May_ I kept the log, my sextant,
and a lot of other things of that kind. In a lower drawer was this
mirror, and the reason I saw it was this:

"When I had made fast to my moorings in the harbor I immediately went
below to make the entry in the log about the race--naturally I
couldn't leave that undone. I remember I looked in the top drawer for
the book, but didn't find it. So then I looked in the other drawers
and, in doing so, opened the one containing the mirror.

"I distinctly remember seeing it, for the lamp was lighted and the
glass flashed a blinding glare into my eyes. You see we raced in about
the worst winter weather there was and the lamp had to be lighted very
early.

"The log-book wasn't there, and I found it somewhere or other later,
but that hasn't anything to do with the case. I never saw the mirror
after that--in fact, never looked for it. I took for granted it had
gone down with the _May_, along with all my other things, except the
log-book, which I saved and use now aboard the _Lass_."

"And you didn't take it out or give it to anybody?"

"No. I am positive of that. I didn't touch it after seeing it that
once."

"Then it is very plain, Code, that if Nat Burns came into possession
of it he must ha