be robbed."

Charley was now all eagerness to retrieve himself and find that man
with the iron-gray hair and beard. Out he went, with his eyes open;
but though he trudged everywhere, while the ship got under way and
steamed, with a cheer, out past the _Panama_ and to sea again, he found
no passenger who looked anything like the one wanted. And he didn't
see him at the table. Neither, so his father and Mr. Grigsby reported,
on coming up after dining, separately, did they.

However, while most of the first-cabin and second-cabin passengers were
loafing about, that evening, enjoying the long twilight, who should
saunter to the Adams party but the long-nosed man himself. He
certainly had nerve!

"How are you?" he accosted, very pleasantly. "I saw you gentlemen
ashore. How'd you make out? Hot place, wasn't it!"

"We made out very well, sir," answered Mr. Adams, shortly. "But while
we were gone our cabin was robbed. How do you account for that?"

"Meaning, I suppose, that you think I can account for it."

"Anybody who would tamper with boats would tamper with a cabin, we
reckon," growled Mr. Grigsby.

"You seem bound to be personal," retorted the long-nosed man. "That
little controversy on the _Georgia_ came out in your favor, but you
can't rile _me_. I want to let by-gones be by-gones. I'm a peaceable
man. You've beat me, and I'm willing to say so. Who robbed your
cabin? What'd you lose? Speak up."

"We lost some small papers, entrusted to this boy, here. I have
witnesses to prove that they were in my possession, so they won't be of
use to anybody else," informed Charley's father, "and the safest thing
for the present holder to do is to return them."

"That's the captain's cabin. Tell the captain," urged the long-nosed
man.

"No," growled Mr. Grigsby; "we thought we'd tell _you_."

"Meaning, I suppose, that I did it," returned the long-nosed man.
"You're overshooting. You saw me ashore."

"Yes, we saw _you_," replied Mr. Grigsby.

"Meaning, I suppose," resumed the long-nosed man, "that if I didn't do
it some of my friends did. You saw them ashore, too, didn't you?"

"Saw one of them, perhaps," admitted Mr. Adams.

"Well, you prove that the other was on this ship--you find anybody who
can swear he saw the other on this ship, and then you've the right to
question him," challenged the long-nosed man. "But he couldn't enter
your cabin when he wasn't here, could he? Or I, or anyone else,
e