vigate the cutter?' I said I was quite sure I
could; and then the conversation dropped; but he kept harking back to
it, time after time, showing that he was still thinking about it."

"Yes," said I, "I can quite believe it; and I can understand, too, his
amazement at your assurance that you--a mere boy--could, if put to it,
navigate the cutter, or any other craft for that matter. There is
probably not one boy in ten thousand of your age, Billy, who could
truthfully claim such ability. But two circumstances have been in your
favour; in the first place you are naturally a sharp, intelligent lad,
with a strong predilection for study; and in the next place there was
little else for you to do on this group but learn, until we started to
build the cutter. Now, Billy, what you have told me relative to Van
Ryn's inquisitiveness and his cross-questioning of you has greatly
interested me, for a reason which I will explain later on; therefore,
while I am not as a rule inquisitive, I will ask you to make a point of
reporting to me the substance of any further conversations which the man
may hold with you, and to take very particular notice of any questions
he may ask you. And now, let us return to the consideration of our
nautical problem."

At the moment it seemed strange that Billy's story should so powerfully
have affected me, but the fact remains that it did. After we had turned
in that night I lay restlessly tossing upon my bed, wondering--wondering
whether Van Ryn's questioning of Billy was the natural result of pure,
unadulterated inquisitiveness, or whether it had a deeper significance.
The conversation appeared to have arisen naturally enough. I could not
detect in the relation of it any indication of a deliberate attempt on
the part of the man to lead up to the subject of Billy's educational
acquirements; what reason, indeed, could he have for doing so, apart
from the lad's more refined mode of speech? The matter that most
powerfully exercised me was the Dutchman's eager curiosity to discover
the full extent of Billy's qualifications as a navigator. Yet, even as
to this, there seemed little enough reason for uneasiness; the man had
given a quite plausible reason for such curiosity, a reason that I could
perfectly understand and appreciate; but I wondered whether it was the
true, the actual reason; or was there another and more sinister one at
the back of his evil mind.

In any case, what, I wondered, could have