d old as she is, that steamship might be my
child, the way I watch over her."

"The _Saltypool!_ Why, she's the most scand'lous case as has gone out
of harbour these three months!"

"Eh?"

"I saw her with my own eyes alongside No. 3 jetty, the evenin' before
she sailed. A calm night it was too; and she with her Plimsoll well
under and a whole line o' trucks waitin' to be shot into her. She went
out before daybreak, if you remember, and God knows how low she was by
that time."

Mr Rogers's jaw dropped.

"The idiots!" he muttered. "When I told 'em--" He broke off.
"I say, you're not pullin' my leg?"

"Saw her with my own eyes, I tell you," 'Bias assured him, wondering a
little; for the old sinner's dismay was clearly honest.

"Then all I say is, you can call Fancy and tell her to fetch me a Bible,
if there's one in the house, an' I'll swear to you I never knew it, an'
I never seen it. What's more, I'll sack the captain, an' I'll sack the
mate. What's more, I'll cable dismissal out to Philadelphy.
What's more--"

"There, there!" interposed 'Bias. "You didn' know, and enough said!
I don't want any man thrown out of employ. 'Tis the system I'm out to
spoil."

"Skippers are a trouble-without-end in these days," Mr Rogers muttered
on, staring gloomily at the fire in the grate; "specially to a man
crippled like me. . . . You spend years sarchin' for a fool, an' you no
sooner get the treasure, as you think--one you can trust for a plain
ord'nary fool in all weathers--than he turns out a _dam_ fool!"

On his way from the ship-chandler's 'Bias ran against Mr Philp, who
paused in the roadway and eyed him, chewing a piece of news and
chuckling.

"That friend o' yours is a wonnur!" preluded Mr Philp.

"Meanin' Caius Hocken?"

"Who else? . . . He's goin' a great pace in these days; but you won't
tell me he has flown out o' _that_ range? Yes, 'tis Cap'n Hocken I
mean; our Mayor, as you may call him; and there's some as looks to see a
silver cradle yet in his mayoralty."

"What's the latest?" 'Bias could not help putting the question, yet
despised himself for it.

"He's President of the Stevedores' Regatta this year."

"Get along with your news--I heard it ten days ago."

"So you did, for I told you myself. But he's giving a silver cup for
the fourteen-foot race."

"And I heard that, too."

"Ay: but what you don't know, maybe, is that he's been up to Rilla Farm
tryin' to persuade Mrs Bosenna to atte