ing Bos'n above his head. "Your
Uncle Cy's weathered the Horn and is bound for clear water now. Three
cheers for our side! Won't we give him a reception when we get him back
here!"

"Won't we?" crowed Asaph. "Well, I just guess we will! You ought to hear
Angie and the rest of 'em chant hymns of glory about him. A body'd think
they always knew he was the salt of the earth. Maybe I don't rub it in a
little, hey? Oh, no, maybe not!"

"And Heman!" chimed in Mr. Bangs. "And Heman! Would you ever believe
HE'D change so all of a sudden? Bully old Whit! I can mention his name
now without Ketury's landin' onto me like a snowslide. Whee! I say,
wh-e-e-e!"

He continued to say it; and Georgianna and Asaph said what amounted to
the same thing. A change had come over our Bayport social atmosphere,
a marvelous change. And at Simmons's and--more wonderful still--at
Tad Simpson's barber' shop, plans were being made and perfected for
proceedings in which Cyrus Whittaker was to play the most prominent
part.

Meanwhile the convalescence went on at a rapid rate. As soon as he was
permitted to talk, Captain Cy began to question his lawyer. How
about the appeal? Had Atkins done anything further? The answers were
satisfactory. The case had been dropped: the Honorable Heman had
announced its withdrawal. He had said that he had changed his mind and
should not continue to espouse the Thomas cause. In fact, he seemed to
have whirled completely about on his pedestal and, like a compass, now
pointed only in one direction--toward his "boyhood friend" and present
neighbor, Cyrus Whittaker.

"It's perfectly astounding," commented Peabody. "What in the world,
captain, did you do to him while you were in Washington?"

"Oh! nothin' much," was the rather disinterested answer. "Him and me
had a talk, and he saw the error of his ways, I cal'late. How's Bos'n
to-day? Did you give her my love when you 'phoned?"

"So far as the case is concerned," went on the lawyer, "I think
we should have won that, anyway. It's a curious thing. Thomas has
disappeared. How he got word, or who he got it from, _I_ don't know; but
he must have, and he's gone somewhere, no one knows where. And yet I'm
not certain that we were on the right trail. It seemed certain a week
ago, but now--"

The captain had not been listening. He was thinking. Thomas had gone,
had he! Good! Heman was living up to his promises. And Bos'n, God bless
her, was free from that danger.

"Have yo