w the captain threw
his money around very loosely, and I didn't think any one would ask him
if he gave me the money. If any one did, he wouldn't answer."

"But he did answer, and said he gave you the money."

"He told me he would say so, when I went to see him a fortnight ago."

"Why did you go to see him?"

Laud glanced at Donald with a faint smile on his haggard face.

"Don John told me Captain Shivernock had a secret he wanted to keep."

"I told you so!" exclaimed Donald.

"You did; but you thought I knew the secret," answered Laud. "You told
me the captain had given me the money not to tell that I had seen him
near Saturday Cove on the morning after the Hasbrook affair."

"I remember now," said Donald. "Captain Shivernock gave me sixty
dollars, and then gave me the Juno, for which I understood that I was
not to say I had seen him that day. I refused to sell the boat to Laud
till he told me where he got the money. When he told me the captain had
given it to him, and would not say what for, I concluded his case was
just the same as my own. After I left the captain, he stood over to the
Northport shore, and Laud went over there soon after. I was sure that
they met."

"We didn't meet; and I did not see Captain Shivernock that day," Laud
explained.

"I supposed he had; I spoke to Laud just as though he had, and he didn't
deny that he had seen him."

"Of course I didn't. Don John made my story good, and I was willing to
stick to it."

"But you did not stick to it," added the nabob. "You said you had paid
no money to Don John."

"I will tell you how that was. When I got the secret out of Don John, I
went to the captain with it. He asked me if I wanted to black-mail him.
I told him no. Then I spoke to him about the tin trunk you had lost, and
said one of the bills had been traced to me. I made up a story to show
where I got the bill; but the man that gave it to me had gone, and I
didn't even know his name. He had some bills just like that mended one;
and when I told him what my trouble was, he promised to say that he had
given me the bill; and then he laughed as I never saw a man laugh
before."

"What was he laughing at?" asked the sheriff.

"He went off early the next morning, and I suppose he was laughing to
think what a joke he was playing upon me, for he was not to be in town
when wanted to get me out of trouble."

"He did say he let you have the use of the Juno for taking care of her,
and that he g