.

Two hours before light they were gliding out of the cove in the
_Barracouta_, bound for Medrick Shoal, four miles to the eastward.

"Percy," said Jim as the sloop rolled rhythmically on the long Atlantic
swells, "I want to tell you something. I was awake the other night when
you left camp. I watched you row north and come back; and I saw the
hard fight you had round Brimstone. I'm glad you made a clean breast of
the whole thing, even when you thought nobody knew anything about it. It
showed me you intended to turn over a new leaf and play fair. You'll
find that we'll meet you half-way, and more."

Percy was silent for a moment.

"Glad I didn't know you heard me go out," he remarked. "If I had I might
not have had the courage to come back. Well, I've learned my lesson.
From now on I'll try not to give you fellows any reason to find fault
with me."

Medrick Shoal yielded a good harvest. About eighteen hundred pounds of
hake lay in the pens on the _Barracouta_ when they started for home at
ten o'clock. As they took the last of their gear aboard, a schooner with
auxiliary power, apparently a fisherman, approached from the eastward.

"The _Cassie J._," read Spurling, deciphering the letters on the bow.
"Somehow she looks natural, but I don't remember ever hearing that name
before. Probably from Gloucester. Wonder what she wants of us."

The vessel slowed down and changed her course until she was running
straight toward the _Barracouta_. One of her crew stood in the bow, near
the starboard anchor; another held the wheel; but nobody else was
visible.

"Where are you from, boys?" hailed the lookout, when the stranger was
only a few yards off.

"Tarpaulin Island," answered Spurling.

The man put his hand behind his ear.

"Say that again louder, will you?" he shouted. "I'm a little deaf."

Jim raised his voice.

"I said we were from Tarpaulin Island."

The lookout passed the word back to the helms-man. The latter repeated
it, evidently for the benefit of somebody in the cabin. Then the man at
the wheel took up the conversation, prompted by the low voice of an
unseen speaker below.

"How many fish have you got there?"

"Eighteen hundred of hake."

"What's that?"

Was everybody aboard hard of hearing? Jim raised his voice.

"Eighteen hundred of hake!"

"What'll you take for 'em just as they are? We'll give you fifty cents a
hundred."

"Can't trade with you for any such figure as that."

"Good-by, th