ion with the last desperate days of fishing, they rushed to the
bulwarks and challenged the newcomers. They did not see, a mile away,
a schooner without lights gently rising and falling on the oily sea.

"Who is that?" demanded one man, but he received no answer except "A
friend," and the boat continued its stealthy approach. It drew
alongside the ladder in the waist, and the man in the stern-sheets
rose. Kent of the _Lass's_ crew leaned over the side and threw the
light of his lantern upon the man.

"By God," he cried like one who has seen a ghost, "it's the skipper."

CHAPTER XXVII

THE REWARD OF EVIL

The _Nettie B._ was surging north, nearing Cape Breton. Nat Burns sat
moodily on the top of the house and watched the schooner take 'em
green over her bows.

Within the last day a fog with a wind behind it had drifted across the
lead-colored ocean; and now, although the fog was gone, the wind was
still howling and bringing with it a rising sea.

The equinoxes were not far off, and all skippers had a weather eye
out, and paid especial attention to the stoutness of lashings and
patched canvas.

Never had Burns been in a blacker mood, and never had he better
cause.

He was three days from St. Andrew's, and there he had become
acquainted with several facts.

The first was that no Canadian gunboat by the name of _Albatross_ had
called at said port and left any prisoner by the name of Code
Schofield--in fact, such gunboat had not called at all.

Investigation at the admiralty office proved to Nat that the real
_Albatross_ had reported from St. John's, Newfoundland, on the very
day he supposed he had met her. As the waters near St. Andrew's and
St. John's are several hundreds of miles apart, Nat was not long in
forming the opinion that he had been duped.

Fuming with rage, he began to investigate. Gradually he learned the
story (from sailors in wine-shops and general hearsay) of the
mysterious schooner that had twice saved Code Schofield from actual
capture, and had aided him on one or two other occasions.

One man said he had heard of a retired naval officer named Foraker,
who was supposed to be in command. As a matter of fact, there was a
Captain Foraker aboard the schooner who navigated her and instilled
the "run and jump" discipline that had so excited Code's admiration.
Outside of this vague fact, Nat's knowledge was scant.

He was ignorant of who owned the swift vessel. He would never have
conn