ething to the Bureau. But don't start and then give up."

"Colin won't do that," his father said, then added pointedly, "I'll see
to it that he doesn't."

"Very well," said the Commissioner, "that's settled." He rang a bell,
and a messenger appeared at the door. "Ask Dr. Crafts to step here a
minute if he is disengaged. Dr. Crafts," he continued, turning to Major
Dare, "is perhaps one of the most valuable men we have on the Bureau.
Oh, by the way, boy, when do you want to start?"

"Right away, sir, if possible," Colin replied.

"Is that novelty or enthusiasm?"

"Enthusiasm, I think," Major Dare answered, smiling.

In a moment the door opened again, and the Deputy Commissioner came in.

"Dr. Crafts," the Commissioner said, after introductions had been made,
"here's an enthusiastic youngster who wants the Commissionership! Not
right away, perhaps," he added as the newcomer smiled at the boy, "but
perhaps in a couple of decades or so. And he thinks he ought to start
this minute. Have we anything for him to do?"

"I don't know of anything especially," said the Deputy Commissioner
thoughtfully; "it's so late in the season."

"Let him have something to work off his animal spirits," the
Commissioner said; "it's a pity to let so much energy go to waste."

"Very well," the other said genially; "we'll see what we can do. Will
you join us, Major Dare?"

"I think not," the boy's father answered; "I will leave him entirely in
your hands, and he can tell me all about it afterwards. I want just a
word or two more, Commissioner," he added, "and then I must be going."

"What's your name, lad?" asked his new chief, as they walked along the
hall.

"Colin Dare, sir," the boy responded.

"Which is it to be," the official asked with a pleasant smile, "'Colin'
or 'Dare'?"

The boy looked up at him and felt instantly the thorough kindliness and
fine worth of his companion, and answered promptly:

"'Colin,' sir, if you don't mind. That is, at least, to you."

"All right, Colin," was the reply; "I suppose we must see what we can
find for you to do. Tell me," he continued, as they entered his office,
"how you came to think of entering the Fisheries Bureau?"

Thus adjured, Colin told briefly how his father had tried to interest
him first in lumbering and then in engineering, but that neither had
appealed to him. Then he told of his whaling adventures and of the few
days he had spent on the Pribilof Islands, recounting the Japa