."

"I'll BET it won't!" snorted the rebel.

Captain Perez fell asleep almost immediately. Captain Jerry, tired out,
did the same, but Captain Eri's eyes did not close. The surf pounded
and grumbled. A rooster, early astir, crowed somewhere in the distance.
Daniel thumped the side of his stall and then subsided for another nap.
The gray morning light brightened the window of the little house.

Then Captain Eri slid silently out of bed, dressed with elaborate
precautions against noise, put on his cap, and tiptoed out of the house.
He walked through the dripping grass, climbed the back fence and
hurried to the hill where John Baxter had fallen. Once there, he looked
carefully around to be sure that no one was watching. Orham, as a rule,
is an early riser, but this morning most of the inhabitants, having been
up for the greater part of the night, were making up lost sleep and the
Captain was absolutely alone.

Assured of this, he turned to the bush underneath which he had hidden
the burned coat, pushed aside the drenched boughs with their fading
leaves and reached down for the tell-tale garment.

And then he made an unpleasant discovery. The coat was gone.

He spent an agitated quarter of an hour hunting through every clump of
bushes in the immediate vicinity, but there was no doubt of it. Someone
had been there before him and had taken the coat away.

CHAPTER VIII

HOUSEKEEPER AND BOOK AGENT

There was a knock on the door of Captain Perez's sleeping apartment.

"Cap'n Hedge," said Mrs. Snow, "Cap'n Hedge! I'm sorry to wake you up,
but it's 'most ten o'clock and--"

"What? Ten o'clock! Godfrey scissors! Of all the lazy--I'll be out in a
jiffy. Perez, turn out there! Turn out, I tell you!"

Captain Eri had fallen asleep in the rocker where he had seated himself
upon his return from the fruitless search for the coat. He had had no
intention of sleeping, but he was tired after his strenuous work at the
fire, and had dropped off in the midst of his worry. He sprang to his
feet, and tried to separate dreams from realities.

"Land of love, Perez!" he ejaculated. "Here you and me have been
sleepin' ha'f the forenoon. We'd ought to be ashamed of ourselves. Let's
git dressed quicker 'n chain lightnin'."

"Dressed?" queried Perez, sitting up in bed. "I should think you was
dressed now, boots and all. What are you talkin' 'bout?"

The Captain glanced down at his clothes and seemed as much surprised as
his frie