le the cook, Mr. Merriwell, if you expect to get anything to
eat!"

"I was just going to remark that I admired his taste. He is a man of
most excellent judgment!"

"How is your taste, Mr. Hodge?" Inza calmly queried. "Do you think you
can eat fish?"

"I could eat a whale. I'll gobble up this fish-basket pretty soon if you
don't hurry and serve something."

"Very well. Fish-baskets on toast. There are fish in a box back there.
And there are crackers in this box. And over there I found some pretty
nice canned goods."

Merriwell smiled. Inza's manner was like a break of sunshine.

"Your talk makes me simply ravenous."

That they were ravenous they showed when they fell to on the supper
which Inza prepared as best she could from the materials available.
There were many things that might have been improved. They might have
gone out on the deck, for one thing, but the wet fog had come down
again, with a chill that went to the bones--a chill that was simply
horrible to Frank and Bart in the damp condition in which their clothing
still remained.

The fishermen did not seem to mind the fog, however, but walked the deck
and smoked, garbed in oilskins and sou'westers. They talked, too, by
signaling to each other with their hands. Merry, Hodge, and Inza sat up
until a late hour, going over and over again all the points of the day's
experience, with the many conjectures and unanswerable questions which
grew out of it.

The fact that the sloop belonged in Sea Cove, the village near which,
according to the newspaper report, Barney Mulloy was killed, was a
matter of intense interest, even though the fishermen could in no wise
enlighten them on the subject of Barney's murder. Frank continued to
hope that a breeze would spring up, and that he could induce the
Slocums, by a liberal money offer, to set him and his friends ashore at
the nearest point without delay. In the event of a refusal, the
temptation to take the vessel in himself would have been strong, but he
knew that such a course would hardly do in these modern days. It smacked
too much of piracy. Money was the lever he hoped to use, and when the
breeze came he intended to make the lever sufficiently strong to move
even these placid souls.

But the breeze did not come. The fog seemed to grow thicker and damper.
At length weariness overcame the whole party. Then Inza was left in full
possession of the cuddy, while Hodge and Frank crept into a narrow
sleeping-place for