if his oars were pulling through stiff clay.
No net on all the coast had ever had such a full haul before. Bascom and
the Captain exulted in it, even while their faces grew scarlet.

"We can'd take in anoder one," the Captain declared; "de net can'd stan'
de strain." And closing together as much as the mass between them would
permit, they pulled ashore and rolled the melons out in a line upon the
beach. The tide was going out so fast that each haul made a separate
rank farther and farther out from the high drift-mark in the grass.

It was glorious hard work, and before it was finished the sun had turned
the water violet, then red, then gold and blue, and yet no one had come
to take a share in the salvage, and no one had come to claim the melons.
"I tell you," said Bascom, as he wheeled the last barrow-load up from
the beach--"I tell you they's mascots, and they's come right in from the
deep sea. Do you reckon they's too many of 'em for usses to eat?"

The Captain straightened himself, and measured the heap of cracked
melons, which he had left out as he piled the good ones symmetrically
under one of the live-oaks. "Yo' boy," he said, "if yo' jus' made way
wid de busted ones I'd be paintin' a black ring roun' de mas' of de
little _Mystery_ 'fo' sunset, an' w'ad would I do 'boud pickin' de figs
faw de cannin' factory?"

"O-h-h," groaned Bascom, "I'd forgot about the figs. Can't they wait
till we take these melons off in the _Mystery_ and sell 'em?"

"De melons can wait, ya-as, now we got dem all safe," said the Captain.
"De cracked ones will not keep noway, an' de good ones will las' bettah
dan de figs. An' w'ad is mo' to de point, dere is de ownah of de melons
to consult."

"But he isn't here," Bascom said, "an' we don't know where he is. They
didn't bring his address with 'em when they come in on the tide."

"I reckon I know his address," the Captain answered, "an' maybe yo'
would, also, if yo' let yo'se'f t'ink 'boud id. De big tide washed dem
off de landin' up de bayou. Lazare was a-tellin' me yestahday dat he an'
de boss ad de big fahm had a quahl boud de price o' melons, an' Lazare,
who was to have take dem in de _Alphonsine_, he go off mad, an' de
melons dey stay in a pile on de landin', an' I was t'inkin' boud goin'
up to see de boss me aftah de figs was pick'. I reckon now de bes' way
is faw me to go ad once while yo' pick de figs."

"But we ought to start right now while the tide is goin' out," objected
B