on it--he knows Harry Brooks."

"Knows _me_, ma'am?" I cried out, as all the company turned and
stared at me.

"He says so, and that he recognized you as you were sculling up the
creek."

"Knows _me_?" I echoed. "But who on earth can he be, then? Not--not
the man Aaron Glass, surely?"

"I was wondering," said Miss Belcher.

"But--but Aaron Glass wasn't a bit like this man, as you make him
out; a thin, foxy-looking fellow, with sandy hair and a face full of
wrinkles, about the middling height, with sloping shoulders--"

"Then he can't be Aaron Glass. But whoever he is, he knows you--
that's the important point--and pretty certainly connects you with
the treasure. He didn't seem to have met Goodfellow before.
Well, now, if he lives alone here--which, I admit, is not likely--we
ought to be more than a match for him. If, on the other hand, he has
men at his call--and I ask your particular attention here, Captain--
it was surely no folly at all, but the plainest common sense, to
admit him on board. He will go off and report that our ship's
company consists of two middle-aged maiden ladies (I occupied myself
with tatting a chair-cover while he conversed); a boy; Mr. Goodfellow
(whatever he may have made of Goodfellow); and two gentlemen ashore
to whose mental and physical powers I was careful to do some
injustice. You will pardon me, Captain, but I laid more than
warrantable stress on your lameness; and us for you, Jack, I depicted
you as a mere country booby"--here Mr. Rogers bowed amiably--"and
added by way of confirmation that I had known you from childhood.
He will go back and report all this, with the certain consequence
that he and his confederates will mistake us for a crew of
crack-brained eccentrics."

When she had done, the Captain stood considering for a moment,
rubbing his chin.

"Yes," he admitted slowly, "there seems reason in that, ma'am;
reason and method. But 'tis a kind of reason and method outside all
my experience, and you must excuse me if I get the grip of it slowly.
I should like a good look at the man before saying more."

"As to that," answered Miss Belcher, "you won't have long to wait
for it. He has invited us all ashore to-morrow, for a picnic.
He charged me to say--if he did not happen to run against you as he
was returning the cockboat--that he would be at the creek-head
punctually at nine-thirty to await us."

Two hours later Captain Branscome sent word for me to attend