ve taken it himself. He was very angry with you for
winning, wasn't he?"

"Terribly. For once I thought he might be dangerous and kept out of
his way until the thing had worn off a little."

"Just like him," said Elsa in that tone of bitter hatred that Code had
heard her use before when speaking of Burns. "He must have gone aboard
the _May_ and taken it, because you prized it so much. A fine
revenge!"

"Yes, but we don't do those things in Freekirk Head, Elsa. You know
that. We don't steal from one another's trawl-lines, and we don't
prowl about other men's schooners. I can't understand his doing a
thing like that."

"Perhaps not, but if not, explain how he got it."

"You're right," Code admitted after a moment's thought; "that's the
only way."

They were silent for a while, pondering over this new development and
trying to discover where it might lead. Under sharp commands the crew
brought the schooner about on the starboard tack, for the wind was on
the bow, and set a staysail between the fore and main masts. The
splendid ship seemed to skim over the surface of the sea, touching
only the tops of the waves.

"No, it's no good!" broke out Code suddenly. "Much as I hate Nat
Burns, I don't believe he would come aboard my schooner just for the
purpose of stealing a silver-plated mirror. That isn't like him. He's
too clever to do anything like that. And, besides, what kind of a
revenge would that be for having lost the race?"

"Well, what can you suggest? How else did he get it?" Elsa was frankly
sceptical and clung to her own theory.

"He might have come aboard for something else, mightn't he, and picked
up the mirror just incidentally?"

"He might have, yes, but what else would bring him there?"

Code sat rigid for a few minutes. He had such a thought that he
scarcely dared consider it himself.

"It's all clear to me now," he said in a low, hoarse voice. "Nat came
aboard to damage the schooner so that he would be sure to win the
second race."

"Code!" The cry was one of involuntary horror as Elsa remembered the
tragedy of the _May_. Hate Nate though she might, this was an awful
charge to lay at his door.

"Then he killed his own father, if what you say is true!" she added
breathlessly. "Oh, the poor wretch! The poor wretch!"

"Yes, that solves it," went on Code, who had hardly heard her. "That
solves the entries that Michael Burns made in his ship's log before
he went to St. John on his last business