lied Robert, glad to
earn a quarter so easily. "Is Squire Gilfilian in that room?"

"Yes; but he's busy."

"I have a letter for him."

"Put it on the table, and he will find it when he comes out; on his
writing desk there."

Little Bobtail tossed the letter on the desk, and left the office,
thinking only of the quarter he had just made, and how he should invest
it to the best advantage in provisioning the old boat with which he
intended to go a fishing that day. A sheet of gingerbread and a "hunk of
cheese," as he expressed it, seemed to suit the emergencies of the
occasion; and after purchasing these articles, he walked down the road
leading to the Portland steamboat wharf. He had gone but a short
distance before he overtook Captain Chinks, who was reading the letter
he just received as he walked along the plank sidewalk.

Captain Chinks, who was, possibly, a distant relative of him of the
horse-marines, though his name had become corrupted, was a man of
doubtful reputation. The officials of the custom-house kept a sharp eye
upon him, and endeavored to connect him with certain irregular
transactions, whereby sundry cases of brandy and sundry boxes of cigars
had come into Camden without paying tribute to the majesty of the
custom-house. The goods were seized, and duly confiscated; but there was
a link wanting in the chain of testimony which connected Captain Chinks
with the affair. Robert supposed he had been consulting Squire Gilfilian
about the matter; and the youth judged from the angry look of the
captain that the lawyer had not been able to afford him any
satisfaction.

Captain Chinks read his letter, and made his way down to the steamboat
wharf. As Bobtail ran his old boat by the end of the pier, he saw the
man of doubtful reputation go on board of the steamer, and noticed him
on her deck when she started.

That afternoon Robert sold a good mess of fish at the market, and went
home to the cottage, which was on the road leading to the steamboat
wharf. Ezekiel was not there, but his mother was. As the tippler could
not obtain the liquor for a spree, he had become sober. He went to work
the next day, and a temporary peace was patched up. He offered no
violence to the boy while he was sober, but this was only for a brief
period. In a few days he obtained another jug of rum, and Robert and his
mother were obliged to abandon the house to him.

On this afternoon Robert went to the post-office as usual. He had n