e one across?"

"Sells matches, does she?"

"No,"--he knew his friend's persistence, and faced about to make a clean
breast. "I was callin' there to-day. There's the leases to be fixed
up, you see--" He paused.

Captain Tobias assented with a slow nod. "Premises all satisfactory?"

"_And_ shipshape. That's one load off my mind, anyway," sighed Captain
Cai. "You're bound to like 'em--that is, if you like Troy at all.
There's hot and cold water laid on, so's you can have a bath at a
moment's notice."

"I don't _see_ myself, exactly," said Captain Tobias. "But never mind."

"Well, as I was sayin', I called there to-day--to break the ice, so to
speak--"

"You didn't mention ice; or, if you did, I missed hearin' it."

"'Tis a way of speakin'. Well, the widow pressed me to stay to dinner,
and there was a suckin' pig; and afterwards--"

"Hold hard." Captain Tobias removed the pipe from his mouth and stared
earnestly at his friend. "Say that agen," he commanded.

"There was roast suckin' pig, I tell you. It melted in y'r mouth.
Well, after dinner she left me alone with pipes an' tobacco; an' 'twas
then, I suppose, that in my forgetful way I must have slipped the box
into my pocket."

"'Twasn' very nice treatment, was it?--after the length she'd gone to put
herself out."

"But 'twas absence o' mind, you understand."

"I seem to remember," mused Captain Tobias, "there was a Lord
Somebody-or-other suffered from the same complaint. I read about it in
the papers, an' only wish I'd cut it out. Any little valu'bles lyin'
about he'd slip into his pocket. But I never heard of your bein'
afflicted in that way."

"Of course I'm not!" Captain Cai protested warmly.

"Then I don't see what excuse you'll put up. . . . But wait till we get
all this cargo stowed. Ahoy, there!" Captain Tobias called up the
porters, and after consultation it was decided to convert the
goods-shed into a cloak-room for housing the bulk of his luggage, but to
send on his sea-chest and the birdcage by wheelbarrow to his lodgings.

"What's the address?" he asked, turning to Captain Cai.

"Ship Inn."

"What?" Captain Tobias paused in the act of picking up the nine-gallon
jar. "Drinks on the premises?"

"Lashin's."

"What a world o' fuss that arrangement do save! Here!--" to the porter
who stood checking the articles deposited--"this goes into hold wi' the
rest. Contents, rum, an' don't you forget it, my son; leastways, pr'a