sailed all the Seven
Seas. He had rounded the Horn a dozen times; had scudded with reefed
topsails in the "roaring forties"; had lost two fingers of his left
hand in a fight with Malay pirates; had battled with waterspouts,
tornadoes and typhoons; had harpooned whales in the Arctic; had lost a
ship by fire, and been shipwrecked twice; and from these combats with
men and nature he had emerged as tough and hardy as a pine knot.

The profits of a notable whaling expedition from which he had returned
with the tanks filled to bursting, barrels crowded on the deck, and the
very scuppers running oil, together with a tidy little inheritance that
fell to him about the same time, had enabled him to buy the chandlery
shop from its former proprietor and settle down to spend the rest of
his life ashore and yet in sight and scent of salt water.

How he had gained the name of "Tyke," by which everybody called him,
nobody knew. He himself never volunteered to tell, and in all his
bills and accounts used only the initial "T." Some of his employees
favored Tyrus, others Titus. One in a wild flight of fancy suggested
Ticonderoga. But the mystery remained unsolved, and, after all, as the
checks that bore the scrawl, "T. Grimshaw," were promptly honored at
the bank, it did not matter.

He was not what could be called an enterprising business man and there
were many houses in his line that made a more pretentious appearance,
carried a larger stock, and had a much more extensive trade. But he
lived frugally, discounted his bills, and had such a broad acquaintance
among seafaring men that each year's end showed a neat profit on his
books.

His store force was modest, being only three in number. Allen Drew was
a sort of general manager, and Tyke was growing more and more into the
habit of leaving the conduct of the business to him. Winters was the
junior clerk. He had come direct from high school and was now in his
second year of service. Then there was Sam, the colored porter and man
of all work, whose last name was as much a mystery as Grimshaw's first.

Drew took up some papers that had been laid on his desk during his
absence, and tried to fix his mind upon them. He was dimly aware that
somebody had entered the store door, had spoken to Winters, and that
the junior clerk had shown the visitor into Grimshaw's private office.

But Allen Drew's thoughts were too far afield to be caught by this
incident, or to become easily co