u can do what you like, o' course."

"I shan't sleep a wink," declared Cai, still pacing. "How on earth
Benny--" He halted of a sudden. "You don't suppose Benny himself--"

"Ch't! a man of his age. . . . No, I'll tell you how it happened, as I
allow: and, if so, Benny's not altogether to blame. First you goes to
him, and wants a letter written. You give him no names, but he learns
enough to guess how the wind sits . . . am I right, so far?"

Cai nodded.

"So he writes the letter and off you goes with it. Later on, in _I_
drops with pretty much the same request. I remember, now, the old
fellow behaved rather funny: asked me something about bein' the 'first
person,' and then wanted to know if I didn' wish the letter written for
a friend. I wasn't what you might call at my ease with the job, and
so--as the time was gettin' on for dinner, too--I let it go at that."

"You did? . . . But so did I!"

"Hey?"

"I let Benny think he was writin' it for a friend o' mine. Far as I
remember, he suggested it. . . . Yes, he certainly did," said Cai with
an effort of memory.

"It don't matter," said 'Bias after a few seconds' reflection. "He took
it for granted that one of us was tellin' lies: and likely enough he's
chucklin' now at the thought of our faces when the thing came to be
cleared up. Come to consider, there was no vice about the trick,
'specially as he wouldn' take any money from me."

"Nor from me," Cai dropped into his chair and reached for the
tobacco-jar. "Well," he sighed, "the man's done for both of us, that's
all!"

"Not a bit," said 'Bias sturdily. "We'll walk up early to-morrow, and
explain. Ten to one it'll put her in the best o' tempers, havin' such a
laugh against us both."

PART II.

"He can't have known!" said Mrs Bosenna early next morning, sitting in a
high-backed chair beside the kitchen-table. Her face was slightly
flushed, and the toe of her right shoe kept an impatient tap-tap on the
flagged floor. "He can't possibly have known."

"We'll hope not," said Dinah. "It's thoughtless, though--put it at the
best: and any way it don't speak too well for his past."

"He may have _bought_ it, you know," urged Mrs Bosenna; "late in life."

"Well, he's no chicken," allowed Dinah; "since you put it like that."

"I wasn't referring to Captain Hunken, you silly woman. I meant _it_."

"Eh?" said Dinah. "Oh!--_him?_"

"'Him' if you like," Mrs Bosenna mused. "It can't possibly b