er."

"No, we wouldn't, Joe."

"Mebbe you'd run her on the rocks."

"Nonsense!--just as if we don't know where the rocks are. Know 'em
nearly as well as you do."

Daygo chuckled.

"Oh, come, Joe, don't be disagreeable. We'll take plenty of care of it,
and pay you what you like."

"Your fathers tell you to come to me?"

"No."

"Thought not. Nay, my lads, I won't lend you my boat, and there's an
end on it. I'm not going to have your two fathers coming to ask me why
I sent you both to the bottom."

"Such stuff!" cried Vince angrily. "Just as if we could come to harm on
a day like this."

"Ah! you don't know, lad; I do. Never can tell when a squall's coming
off the land."

"Well, I do call it disagreeable," said Vince. "Will you take us out?"

"Nay, not to-day."

"Oh, very well. Never mind, but I shan't forget it. Did think you'd
have done that, Joe. Come on, Mike; let's go and get some lines and
fish off the rocks."

"Ay, that's the best game for boys like you," said the old man; and,
stooping down, he picked up the boulder and began to knock again at the
wooden peg without taking any notice of his visitors.

"Come on, Vince," said Mike; and they walked back up the cliff, climbing
slowly, but as soon as they were out of the old man's sight starting off
quickly to gain a clump of rocks, which they placed between them and the
way down. Here they began to climb carefully till they had reached a
spot from whence they could look down upon the little winding channel
leading from the tunnel to Daygo's natural dock.

They could see the old man, too, moving about far below, evidently
fetching something to hang upon the great peg he had finished driving
in; and, after disappearing for a few minutes, he came into sight again,
and they saw him hang the something up--but what, at that distance, they
could not make out.

At the end of a few minutes the old man went down to his boat, stayed
with it another five minutes or so, and then stood looking about him.

"It's no go, Cinder," said Mike, in a disappointed tone; "we shan't get
off to-day, and perhaps it's best. We oughtn't to take his boat."

"Why not? It's only like borrowing anything of a neighbour. He was
sour to-day, or else he'd have lent it."

"But suppose he finds out?"

"Well, then he'll only laugh. You'll see: he'll be off directly."

Mike shook his head as they lay there upon their breasts, with their
heads hidden behind tufts of