making a hurried change of raiment. During this process he
talked continuously.

"Jim," he said, "I ain't been to the theater but once since I landed in
New York. Then I went to see a play named 'The Heart of a Sailor.' Ha!
ha! that was a great show! Ever take it in, did you?"

"No. I never did."

"Well, you'd ought to. It's a wonder of it's kind. I learned more
things about life-savin' and 'longshore life from that drayma than you'd
believe was possible. You'd have got some p'ints for your Cap'n Jim yarn
from that play; you sartin would! Yes, indeed! Way I happened to go to
it was on account of seein' a poster on a fence over nigh where that
Moriarty tribe lived. The poster pictured a bark ashore, on her beam
ends, in a sea like those off the Horn. On the beach was a whole parcel
of life-savers firin' off rockets and blue lights. Keepin' the Fourth of
July, I judged they was, for I couldn't see any other reason. The bark
wa'n't more'n a hundred foot from 'em, and if all hands on board didn't
know they was in trouble by that time, then they deserved to drown.
Anyhow, they wa'n't likely to appreciate the celebration. Ho! ho! Well,
when I run afoul of that poster I felt I hadn't ought to let anything
like that get away; so I hunted up the theater--it wa'n't but a little
ways off--and got a front seat for that very afternoon."

"Was it up to the advertising?" asked Pearson.

"_Was_ it? Hi hum! I wish you'd been there. More 'special I wished some
of the folks from home had been there, for the whole business was
supposed to happen on the Cape, and they'd have realized how ignorant we
are about the place we live in. The hero was a strappin' six-footer,
sort of a combination fisherman and parson, seemed so. He wore ileskins
in fair weather and went around preachin' or defyin' folks that provoked
him and makin' love to the daughter of a long-haired old relic that
called himself an inventor.... Oh, consarn it!"

"What's the matter?"

"Dropped my collar button, as usual. Collar buttons are one of the Old
Harry's pet traps. I'll bet their responsible for 'most as many lapses
from grace as tangled fishlines. Where.... Ow!... All right; I found it
with my bare foot, and edge up, of course."

A series of grunts and short-breathed exclamations followed, indicating
that the sufferer was struggling with a tight collar.

"Go on," commanded Pearson. "Tell me some more about the play."

"Hey? Oh, the play. Where was I?"

"You