to return; "I think I did not hear ye rightly."

Noll repeated his errand, aided by some impatient explanations which
Ned threw in for the skipper's benefit.

"Well," said the "Gull's" master, as he concluded, "I be beat! Why,
lad, 'tw'u'd be like throwin' yer silver into the sea to spend it on
them good-fur-nothin', shif'less critters. An' what be the like o'
them to you?"

"Why," said Ned, coming to Noll's relief, "he want's to do them good.
Can't you see through a ladder, Ben? And what we want to know is
whether you will do the business?"

The skipper was silent for a time. What was passing in his mind, the
boys did not suspect, and they feared lest he should refuse. But
presently he got up, saying, with gruffness which was assumed to hide
a sudden tenderness in the old sailor's heart,--

"I ken do't fur ye, lad, I s'pose!--tho' I call ye foolish all the
same. The 'Gull' be engaged fur the next run, but the next arter that
ye shall hev yer boards an' yer carpenter."

"That will be week after next," said Ned. "Hurrah for you, Ben! And I
want to engage a passage home for next week. Come, Noll, let's go back
and let the skipper put out, if he's in such a hurry. A good voyage to
you, Ben!--and don't you forget that I'm to go next week, now!"

"Ay, ay," said Ben, "get along with you!" and over the side went the
boys, and, after a little delay, off went the "Gull" with Noll's
precious savings on board.

"Wait," said Noll, as they left the wharf, "there's Dirk Sharp out
there with his boat, ready to put off. Wait here, Ned, till I've
spoken with him." And Noll ran off across the sand.

Ned sat down on the wharf and watched his friend and the fisherman.
They were sufficiently near for him to note the expressions upon their
faces, and when he saw the blank look of wonder and incredulity that
suddenly came over Dirk's coarse features, he suspected that Noll was
disclosing his project.

"Oh, but Noll _is_ a queer fellow," he said to himself. "How can he
care for these dirty, dull-witted fellows that can't spell their own
names, when he is so smart and such a long, long way above them?"

But Noll, he remembered, had answered this question on the previous
evening; yet Ned could hardly comprehend such motives, and so sat
puzzling his head over it till his friend came back with a pleased and
happy face, to say,--

"I'm ready now. You should have seen Dirk when I told what was going
to be done