heels down hard. I watched the dingey row off--the tide
was out, so there was barely water for her to get clear--and then I went
back home to think. And I thought all the afternoon.

"Two and two made four, anyway I could add it up, but 'twas all
suspicion and no real proof, that was the dickens of it. I couldn't
speak to Phoebe Ann; she wouldn't b'lieve me if I did. I couldn't
telegraph Cap'n Eben at Provincetown to come home that night; I'd have
to tell him the whole thing and I knew his temper, so, for Barbara's
sake, 'twouldn't do. I couldn't be at the shore to stop the launch
leaving. What right had I to stop another man's launch, even--

"No, 'twas up to me, and I thought and thought till after supper-time.
And then I had a plan--a risky chance, but a chance, just the same. I
went up to the store and bought four feet of medium-size rubber hose and
some rubber tape, same as they sell to bicycle fellers in the summer.
'Twas almost dark when I got back in sight of my shanty, and instead of
going to it I jumped that board fence that me and Prince had negotiated
for, hustled along the path past the notice boards, and went down the
bluff on t'other side of Davidson's p'int. And there in the deep hole
by the end of the little pier, out of sight of the house on shore, was
Allie's launch. By what little light there was left I could see the
brass rails shining.

"But I didn't stop to admire 'em. I give one look around. Nobody was
in sight. Then I ran down the pier and jumped aboard. Almost the first
thing I put my hand on was what I was looking for--the bilge-pump. 'Twas
a small affair, that you could lug around in one hand, but mighty handy
for keeping a boat of that kind dry.

"I fitted one end of my hose to the lower end of that pump and wrapped
rubber tape around the j'int till she sucked when I tried her over the
side. Then I turned on the cocks in the gasoline pipes fore and aft, and
noticed that the carbureter feed cup was chock full. Then I was ready
for business.

"I went for'ard, climbing over the little low cabin that was just big
enough for a man to crawl into, till I reached the brass cap in the deck
over the gasoline-tank. Then I unscrewed the cap, run my hose down into
the tank, and commenced to pump good fourteen-cents-a-gallon gasoline
overboard to beat the cars. 'Twas a thirty-gallon tank, and full up. I
begun to think I'd never get her empty, but I did, finally. I pumped
her dry. Then I screwed the