e, for
instance--"

"You'd better try it," said Dick grimly.

"It's a very good idea o' yours, Sam," said the cook. "I'll join it."

"You'd better come in, Dick," said Sam.

"Not me," said Dick; "it's five pounds I'm after."

"We shall beworkin' agin you, you know, me an' the cook an' the boy,"
said Sam anxiously.

"Ho!" said Henry, "don't think I'm takin' a 'and, cos I'm not."

"Werry good, then," said Sam, "the--the----what d'ye call it, Dick?"

"Syndikit," said Dick.

"The syndikit is me and the cook, then," said Sam. "Give us your 'and,
cook."

In this informal way the "Captain Gething Search Company" was founded,
and the syndicate, thinking that they had a good thing, began to hold
aloof from their fellows, and to confer darkly in remote corners. They
expended a shilling on a popular detective story entitled, "On the
Trail," and an element of adventure was imported into their lives which
brightened them considerably.

The following day the skipper spent hard at work with the cargo,
bustling about with feverish energy as the afternoon wore on and left
him to imagine his rival tete-a-tete with Annis. After tea a reaction
set in, and, bit by bit the mate, by means of timely sympathy, learnt
all that there was to know. Henry, without a display of anything,
except, perhaps, silence, learnt it too.

"It's in your favor that it's your own craft," said the mate; "you can
go where you like. If you find the father, she might chuck the other
feller."

"That isn't my object in finding him," said the skipper. "I just want to
find him to oblige her."

He set off the following afternoon followed by the stealthy glances of
the crew, who had heard something from Henry, and, first getting his
beard trimmed at a barber's, walked along to call on Mrs. Gething. She
was in, and pleased to see him, and hearing that his crew were also
searching, supplied him with another photograph of the missing captain.

"Miss Gething well?" inquired the skipper as, after accepting an
invitation to a cup of tea, he noticed that she only laid for two.

"Oh, yes; she's gone to London," said Mrs. Gething. "She's got friends
there, you know."

"Mr. Glover," said the skipper to himself with dismal intuition. "I met
a friend here the day before yesterday," he said aloud.

"Oh, yes--Mr. Glover," said the old lady; "a man in a very good
position. He's very nice, isn't he?"

"Splendid," murmured the skipper vaguely.

"He would do anyth