nded the
transference of Willie's "idee" to Zenas Henry's boat. Parts had
failed to fit, and much wearisome toil had been demanded before the
device was actually in place. At last, however, all was ready, and
Abbie Brewster, a party to the conspiracy, had on a sunny morning urged
her reluctant spouse and the three captains to make a trip out to the
Bar for clams. They were none too keen about the proposed expedition,
for the weather was warm and their course lay through shallow waters
which after the recent storm were turbid with seaweed. Nevertheless,
ignoring their unwillingness, Abbie declared she must have the clams,
and was not her word law?

Therefore, without enthusiasm, the four fishermen had set forth with
their buckets and their clam forks, and it was now a full three hours
since the motor-boat that carried them had disappeared around the point
of sand jutting into the sparkling waters of the bay.

Bob and Willie, secreted in the workshop, had breathlessly watched the
_Sea Gull_ thread her way through the channel and make the curving
shelter of the dunes, and ever since the old inventor had sat alert on
an overturned nail keg, his binoculars in one hand and his great silver
watch in the other, counting the moments until the little craft should
return from its momentous cruise. The vigil had been long and tedious,
with only the ticking of the mammoth timepiece and the far-off rumble
of the surf to break the stillness.

Presently Celestina came from the kitchen into the shop.

"I'm bringin' you a dish of hot doughnuts," she said, a kindly sympathy
in her face. "Oughtn't them men to be comin' pretty soon now?"

For the hundredth time Willie raised the glasses and scanned the
shimmering golden waters.

"We should sight 'em before long," he nodded.

"You don't see nothin' of 'em?"

"Not yet."

There was an anxious frown on his forehead.

"Why don't you eat somethin'?" suggested she. "It might take your mind
off worryin'."

"I ain't worryin', Tiny," was the confident reply. "The boat's all
right."

"S'pose it should be snagged or somethin' outside the bay?" she
ventured. "I wish to goodness they'd come back. Look, here's Delight
an' Abbie comin' through the grove. Likely they've been gettin'
uneasy, too."

Sure enough, moving among the low pines that shaded the slope between
the Spence and Brewster houses they saw the two women.

Abbie was stouter now than when she had come as a bride t