being out of flour, come along to buy a
barrel. Half a dozen men soon had him and his boat as well. T' trouble
was where to keep him till they went home in t' fall, which was a full
two months anyhow.

"The crowd what took him got leave from Skipper Fordland to lock Bill
up in t' top storey of t' old Jersey brick store on the Island; and
'em fixed it like sailors so that not even Bill should get away. They
had to share t' expense of feeding and looking after he between 'em,
and though they didn't give he none too much it took quite a bit of
their wages--only a hundred dollars for the whole summer.

"Bill had been there nearly six weeks and all hands were thinking of
going home, when one day he told t' cook who brought up his food that
he was fair dying of doing nothing, and couldn't he give him some
work. Being an old sailor, he set Bill to making bread bags, and for a
few days he made a whole lot, and t' cook took it easy. All he gave
Bill was some canvas, a pocket-knife, and some needles and thread.
Bill, however, saved a lot of canvas out of them bags and made himself
a long rope of it. Then he just worked on, waiting for a real dark
night and an offshore wind, when he let hisself down through t'
window, swam off to t' best fishing bully Captain Fordland had, and
was out of sight before daylight.

"You may bet they was all mad, more especially t' captain, who swore
that t' crowd would have to pay for his good boat. What they said and
did to t' cook be scarcely fit for ears to hear. Anyhow, no one knowed
where Bill had gone, and none of that crowd ever saw him again. He
weren't very dear to memory either.

"T' next place us heard of him was on the West Coast. He brought with
him an Eskimo wife he called Nancy, who was very good at doctoring.
She could make poultices out of herbs and medicines out of t' woods,
and she would charm toothache and warts and such like, and could stop
bleeding by just tying green worsted round your left arm. She had a
haddock's fin-bone that never touched any boat that she used to lend
out for rheumatism. She did a lot o' good, they says, Doctor, and she
made a nice bit of money, too, so that old Bill had an easy time. But
he spent most of t' cash in liquor, and at last she wouldn't work any
more for he and he got beating her. One, day he come rowing down right
into Port Warfield, with she tied up in t' bottom of t' boat, and a
stone tied round her neck as well! It so happened that big