d out on the whiting grounds. What was she
called? The _Queen of Sheba_--cutter-rigged-quite a new boat.
It was said afterwards that the owner, Mr. Blake, designed her himself.
She used often to drop anchor off Penleven. Know her? Why of course
I'd know her; 'specially considerin' what happened.

"'What was that?' A very sad case; it made a lot of talk at the time.
One day--it was the third of September, '86--Mr. and Mrs. Blake and the
son, they anchored off the haven and came up here to tea. I supposed at
the time they'd left their paid hand, Robertson, on board; but it turned
out he was left home at Port William that day, barkin' a small mainsail
that Mr. Blake had bought o' purpose for the fishin'. Well, Mrs. Blake
she ordered tea, and while my missus was layin' the cloth young Mr.
Blake he picks up that very book, sir, that was lyin' on the sideboard,
and begins readin' it and laffin'. My wife, she goes out of the room
for to cut the bread-and-butter, and when she comes back there was the
two gentlemen by the window studyin' the book with their backs to the
room, and Mrs. Blake lyin' back in the chair I'm now sittin' on, an' her
face turned to the wall--so. The young Mr. Blake he turns round and
says, 'This here's a very amusin' book, Mrs. Job. Would you mind my
borrowing it for a day or two to copy out some of the poetry?
I'll bring it back next time we put into Penleven.' Of course my wife
says, 'No, she didn't mind.' Then the elder Mr. Blake he says,
'I see you had a visitor here yesterday--a Mr. MacGuire. Is he in the
house?' My wife said, 'No; the gentleman had left his traps, but he'd
started that morning to walk to Port William to spend the day.'
Nothing more passed. They had their tea, and paid for it, and went off
to their yacht. I saw that book in the young man's hand as he went down
the passage.

"Well, sir, it was just dusking in as they weighed and stood up towards
Port William, the wind blowing pretty steady from the south'ard.
At about ten minutes to seven o'clock it blew up in a sudden little
squall--nothing to mention; the fishing-boats just noticed it, and that
was all. But it was reckoned that squall capsized the _Queen of Sheba_.
She never reached Port William, and no man ever clapped eyes on her
after twenty minutes past six, when Dick Crego declares he saw her off
the Blowth, half-way towards home, and going steady under all canvas.
The affair caused a lot of stir, here and at