ng me, as Bobbie Burns used to
say whin he lay down beside the road late at night on his way home."

His posture was so comfortable that his head soon bowed and he drifted
into the land of dreams. His first essay was not so successful as he
hoped it would be, for by and by the nodding head tipped too far forward,
and he sprawled on his face. His first confused fancy was that he had
been lying in his trundle bed at Tipperary with his cousin Garry Murphy.

"Arrah, now, what do ye maan by kicking me out on the floor, ye spalpeen?
Whin I git me eyes open I'll taich ye better manners," he called,
climbing carefully to his feet. After a brief spell he recalled the
situation. His first fear was that the Captain and second mate had
returned and witnessed his tumble, but looking around, he saw nothing of
them. The mooring line lay looped around the base of the spruce and the
launch was motionless.

Soon after, two persons came stealing their way among the trees, feeling
each step like a couple of Indian scouts entering a hostile camp. They
were Kit Woodford, leader of the post office burglars, and his young
companion Graff Miller. You remember they acted as lookouts, while the
third was busy inside. They had fled like the cowards they were on the
first sign of danger, had managed to find each other and then set out to
flee in their launch. What had become of "Nox" they did not know or care.
He must do as they had done--save himself or go unsaved.

A shock of astonishment came to the miscreants when they reached the
place where the _Water Witch_ was moored the night before, only to
discover that it had vanished. To the alarmed ruffians there was but the
one explanation: the men who had interfered with the work at the post
office had learned of the launch and run off with it.

"This is a rum go!" was the disgusted exclamation of Woodford. "I thought
we should have an easy thing of it, but we've got to turn back inland. We
shouldn't have any trouble, though it looks to me as if we shall have to
part company."

The younger man was not favorably impressed at first, but a moment's
reflection convinced him that this was one of the situations in which the
proverb, "In union there is strength," did not hold good. Two persons
trying together to make their way out of the neighborhood without drawing
suspicion would be in more danger than one. So he said:

"All right; I will go down stream."

He moved away from his companion, who he