d Miss Bording. "I read something
like that in the papers, myself. Just to think of it! Every bit of
steel in that collection has been used by you in your trade. What a
strange affectation you military men have in calling your profession a
trade! But, Captain Leadbury, tell me of your cousin, who disappeared
two days after your arrival, and why you shaved your moustache which
the papers described you as having."

"A moustache is a bother," said Leadbury. "As to my cousin, why,
overcome by disappointment, he took to drink. He disappeared from his
lodgings on Rush Street two days after my arrival, at the close of a
twenty-four hours' debauch. It was found he had shipped as a sailor on
the Ingar Gulbrandson, lumber hooker for Marinette, and the
Gulbrandson was found sunk up by Death's Door, at the entrance to
Green Bay, her masts sticking above water. Her crew had utterly
disappeared. That was three months ago and neither hide nor hair of
any of them has been seen since. Poor Anderson Walkley is dead! Were
he alive, I would be glad to assist him. But he was a rover, never
long in one place--a few months here, a few months there--and now he
is at rest and I believe he is glad, I believe he is glad."

The second course consisted of turkey, and Clarissa was astounded, as
she deposited the dishes of the course, to see Asbury Fuller swiftly
enter the door upon all-fours and with extreme celerity and cat-like
lightness, flit across the room and esconce himself behind a huge
armchair upholstered in velvet, and her astonishment increased and was
tinged with no small degree of terror, as she observed the chair,
noiselessly and almost imperceptibly, progress across the floor,
propelled by some hidden force, until it reached a station behind the
master of the house. Captain Leadbury began to carve the turkey and
Clarissa was astonished more than ever to hear, in the Captain's
voice, though she was sure his lips were shut,

"Would you like a close shave, Miss Bording?"

The sound of the carving-knife dropping upon the platter as Leadbury
started in some sudden spasm of pain, was drowned by the silvery
laughter of Miss Bording, saying,

"Oh, don't make fun of the profession of your poor cousin, Captain,"
and the look of disquiet upon Leadbury's face was quickly relieved and
he joined heartily and almost boisterously in the merriment. A moment
later, Clarissa was alarmed to find him bending upon herself a look in
which suspicion,