the stalk. . . . Well, there he
was comin' across the stubble--at a fine pace, too, with his coat 'pon
his arm--when as I guess he spied me down in the road below and stopped
short, danderin' about an' pretendin' to poke up weeds with his stick.
'Some new-fashioned farmin',' thought I; 'weedin' stubble, and in August
month too! I wonder who taught the Widow that trick'--for I won't be
sure I reckernised your friend, not slap-off. But Cap'n Hunken it was:
for to make certain I called and had a drink o' cider with Farmer
Middlecoat, t'other side of the hill, an' _he'd_ seen your friend
frequent these last few weeks. . . . There now, you don't seem pleased
about it!--an' yet 'twould be a very good match for him, if it came
off."

Cai's head was whirling. He steadied himself to say, "You seem to take
a lot of interest, Mr Philp, in other people's affairs."

"Heaps," said Mr Philp. "I couldn' live without it."

CHAPTER X.

REGATTA NIGHT.

It must be admitted, though with sorrow, that on the Committee Ship that
day Captain Cai did not shine. He bungled two "flying starts" by
nervously playing with his stop-watch and throwing it out of gear; he
fired off winning guns for several hopelessly belated competitors; he
made at least three mistakes in distributing the prize-money (and nobody
who has not committed the indiscretion of paying out a first prize to a
crew which has actually come in third can conceive the difficulty of
enforcing its surrender); finally, he provoked something like a free
fight on deck by inadvertently crediting two boats each with the other's
time on a close handicap. It was the more vexatious, because he had in
committee meetings taken so many duties upon himself, virtually
cashiering many old hands, whose enforced idleness left them upon the
ship with a run of the drinks, and whose resentment (as the day wore on)
made itself felt in galling comments while, with no offer to help, they
stood by and watched each painful development. The worst moment arrived
when Captain Cai, who had replaced the old treasurer by a new and
pushing man, and had, further, carried a resolution that prizes for all
the major events should be paid by cheque, discovered his _protege_ to
be too tipsy to sign his name. This truly terrible emergency Captain
Cai met by boldly subscribing his own name to the cheques. They would
be drawn, of course, upon his private account, and he trusted the
Committee to recoup him