e say
to goin' fishin', seein' as we've gut a couple of hours on our
hands?"

"Fishing?" gasped Wilson.

"Fishin'," answered the other, calmly. "I know a feller down by the
wharf who'll take us cheap. Might's well fish as anything else.
Prob'ly won't git none. Never do. I'll jus' drop in below here and git
some bait an' things."

A dozen blocks or so below, he left Wilson on the sidewalk and
vanished into a store whose windows were cluttered with ship's junk.
Anchor-chains, tarpaulin, marlinspikes, ropes, and odd bits of iron
were scattered in a confusion of fish nets. Stubbs emerged with a
black leather bag so heavy that he was forced to ask Wilson to help
him lift it to his shoulders.

"Going to fish with cast-iron worms?" asked Wilson.

"Maybe so. Maybe so."

He carried the bag lightly once it was in place and forged a path
straight ahead with the same indifference to pedestrians he had shown
towards teams, apparently deaf to the angry protestations of those who
unwisely tried their weight against the heavy bag. Suddenly he turned
to the right and clambered down a flight of stairs to a float where a
man was bending over a large dory.

"Engaged for to-day?" he demanded of the young fellow who was occupied
in bailing out the craft. The man glanced up at Stubbs and then turned
his attention to Wilson.

"My friend," went on Stubbs, "I want to get a little fishin' 'fore
dark. Will you 'commodate me?"

"Get in, then," growled the owner.

He helped Stubbs lower the bag into the stern, with the question,

"Any more to your party?"

"This is all," answered Stubbs.

In five minutes Wilson found himself in the prow being rowed out among
the very shipping at which a few hours before he had stared with such
resentment. What a jackstraw world this had proved itself to him in
this last week! It seemed that on the whole he had had very little to
do with his own life, that he was being juggled by some unknown hand.
And yet he seemed, too, to be moving definitely towards some unknown
goal. And this ultimate towards which his life was trending was
inseparably bound up with that of the girl. His heart gave a bound as
they swung out into the channel. He felt himself to be close on the
heels of Jo. It mattered little what lay in between. The incidents of
life counted for nothing so long as they helped him to move step by
step to her side. He had come to his own again,--come into the
knowledge of the strength within him,