? Oh, a lot of things," was the provokingly ambiguous retort.

His companion eyed him narrowly.

"I'm--I'm--in a horrible mess, Willie," he suddenly blurted out quite
irrelevently.

"I know it."

Robert Morton gasped, then lapsed into stunned silence.

"Without goin' into any details or discussin' any ladies we know, my
advice would be to make a clean breast of the whole thing," the little
old man announced, avoiding Robert Morton's eyes and blowing a ring of
smoke from his pipe impersonally toward the low ceiling. "Have it out
with Zenas Henry an' set yourself right with the Belleport folks. You
don't want to do nothin' under cover."

"No, I don't," rejoined the younger man quickly. "The reason I didn't
do so in the first place was because Zenas Henry was so upset when he
heard about Madam Lee that we--I thought--"

"He's calmed down now, ain't he?"

"Yes, he seems to have accepted the facts, especially as the Galbraiths
have not been near him and have let the whole matter drop. Of course
that is only a temporary condition, however. Mr. Galbraith has been in
New York attending to important matters ever since Madam Lee's death.
What will be done when he returns I do not know; but he will do
something--you may be sure of that."

"That ain't no special business of yours or mine, is it?" Willie
remarked. "All that concerns you is to let both those men know where
you stand--Zenas Henry first, 'cause he's been like a father to
Delight; an' Mr. Galbraith afterwards, 'cause--" he hesitated for the
fraction of a second, "'cause the Galbraiths are the girl's nearest of
kin an' legally, I s'pose, have a right--"

"Yes," interrupted Robert Morton hastily.

"When you get things all squared up, we'll talk more about it,"
continued Willie. "But 'til you do the affair ain't open an' above
board, an' I don't want nothin' to do with it. The top of the ocean is
good enough for me; I never was much on swimmin' under water."

He broke off abruptly to refill his pipe.

"Now about this motor-boat," he went on crisply, veering to a less
delicate subject. "S'pose you fix it up with Delight to keep Zenas
Henry an' the three captains away from the beach for a couple of days
so'st to give us time to get our invention securely rigged to the _Sea
Gull_. She could find somethin' for 'em to do up at the house for that
long, couldn't she?"

"I guess so."

"If she can't, Abbie can," chuckled Willie, with a grin. "Abbie
B