e round, shocked eyes. "Oh, I
never! At least, I didn't mean anything naughty, skipper dear."

Monk snorted, and grumbled over his food throughout the remainder of
the meal; but later, coming upon a group composed of Liane Delorme,
Lanyard and Phinuit, in the saloon, he paused, looked this way and that
to make sure none of the stewards was within eavesdropping distance,
and graciously unbent a little.

"I'm making the best time we can while we can see at all," he
volunteered. "No telling when this misbegotten fog will close in and
force us to slow down to half-speed or less--in crowded waters, too!"

"And very sensible, I'm sure," Phinuit agreed heartily. "Whatever
happens, we musn't be late for our date with Friend Boss, must we?"

"We'll keep it," Monk promised grimly, "if we have to feel every inch
of our way in with the lead. I don't mind telling you, this fog may
save our skins at that. Wireless has been picking up chatter all
morning between a regular school of revenue cutters patrolling this
coast on the lookout for just such idiots as we are. So we'll carry on
and trust to luck till we make Monk Harbour or break our fool necks."

Liane Delorme gave a start of dismay.

"There is danger, then?"

"Only if we run afoul of a cutter, Liane." Monk tried to speak
reassuringly. "And that's not likely in this weather. As for the fog,
it's a dirty nuisance to any navigator but, as I said, may quite
possibly prove our salvation. I know these waters like a book, I've
sailed them ever since I was old enough to tell a tiller from a
mainsheet. I can smell my way in, if it comes to that, through the
blindest fog the Atlantic ever brewed."

"Then you do things with your nostrils, too?" Phinuit enquired
innocently. "I've often wondered if all the intellect was located in
the eyebrows."

Monk glared, growled, and hastily sought the air of the deck. Liane
Delorme eyed Phinuit with amused reproach.

"Really, my young friend!"

"I can't help it, mademoiselle," Phinuit asserted sulkily. "Too much is
enough. I've watched him making faces with the top of his head so long
I dream of geometrical diagrams laid out in eyebrows--and wake up
screaming. And they call this a pleasure craft!"

With an aggrieved air he sucked at his pipe for a few minutes.
"Besides," he added suddenly, "somebody's got to be comic relief, and I
don't notice anybody else in a sweat to be the Life and Soul of the
ship."

He favoured Lanyard with a mo