skipper; besides, she
had now two scores against me, as well as excellent reason to think me a
sharp young man.

Presently, after half an hour's absence, the captain came back with the
satchel, evidently very pleased with himself. He seemed to find pleasure
in the sight of my pretended distress. "Why," he said, with a grin;
"you've not eaten your orange."

"No, sir," I said, "I'm not very hungry just after breakfast."

"Why, then," he answered, "you must keep it for your dinner. Look how
nice I've mended your strap for you."

"Thank you very much, sir," I said. "But thought that you were going to
do it here. You were going to teach me how to do it."

"Well, it's done now, isn't it?" he replied. "It's done pretty good,
too. I'll teach you how to sew some other time. I suppose they don't
learn you that, where you go to school?"

"No, sir," I said, "they don't."

"Ah," he said, picking up the book. "You're a great one for your book, I
see. There's very good reading in a book like that."

"Yes," I said, looking at the mended strap. "There is. How very neatly
you've mended the strap, sir. Thank you very much."

He looked at me with a look which said, very plainly, "You've got a fine
nerve, my lad, to pretend in that way."

I could see from his manner during the next few minutes that he wished
to keep me from examining the satchel flap. No doubt he thought that I
was on tenter-hooks all the time, to look to see if the precious letters
had been disturbed. At last, in a very easy way, after slinging the
strap round my shoulder, I pulled out my handkerchief, intending to put
it into the satchel as into an extra pocket.

"I'm going up on deck, sir," I said. "May I take the book with me?"

As he said that I might, I swiftly opened the satchel, to pop the book
in. I could feel that he watched my face mighty narrowly all the time.
No doubt I looked guilty enough to convince him of his cleverness. I had
no more than a second's peep at the flap, but that was quite enough to
show me that it had been tampered with. I had finished off my work that
morning with an even neatness. The bold Captain Barlow had left two ends
of thread sticking out from the place where he had ended his stitch.
Besides, my thread had been soaped, to make it work more easily. The
thread in the flap now was plainly not soaped; it was fibrous to the
touch, not sleeked down, as mine had been.

When I went on deck, I found the ship driving fast down Ch