ed treasure on
Cod Lead Nubble. September the fifteen to seventeen. Thought up plot
to use Bodge to get even with Ward. September the twenty-three.
Raised crew in Smyrna for cruise to Cod Lead, crew consistin' of men
to be depended on for what was wanted--"

"Not includin' sailin' a vessel," sneered the Cap'n, squinting
forward with deep disfavor to where the members of the Smyrna Ancient
and Honorable Firemen's Association were contentedly fishing over
the side of the sluggish _Dobson_. "Here, leave hands off'm that
tops'l downhaul!" he yelled, detecting Ludelphus Murray slashing at
it with his jack-knife. "My Gawd, if he ain't cut it off!" he groaned.

Murray, the Smyrna blacksmith, growled back something about not
seeing what good the rope did, anyway.

Cap'n Sproul turned his back on the dim gleam of open sea framed by
distant headlands.

"I'm ashamed to look the Atlantic Ocean in the face, with that bunch
of barn-yarders aboard," he complained.

"Shipped crew," went on Hiram, who had not paused in his reading.
"Took along my elephant to h'ist dirt. Found Cod Lead Nubble. Began
h'istin' dirt. Dug hole twenty feet deep. Me and L. Murray made fake
treasure-chist cover out of rotten planks. Planted treasure-chist
cover. Let E. Bodge and G. Ward discover same, and made believe we
didn't know of it. Sold out E. Bodge and all chances to G. Ward for
fifteen thousand and left them to dig, promisin' to send off packet
for them. Sailed with crew and elephant to cash check before G. Ward
can get ashore to stop payment. Plot complicated, but it worked, and
has helped to pass away time."

"That ain't no kind of a ship's log," objected the Cap'n, who had
listened to the reading with an air too sullen for a man who had
profited as much by the plot. "There ain't no mention of wind nor
weather nor compass nor--"

"You can put 'em all in if you want to," broke in Hiram. "I don't
bother with things I don't know anything about. What I claim is,
here's a log, brief and to the point, and covers all details of plot.
And I'm proud of it. That's because it's my own plot."

The Cap'n, propping the wheel with his knee, pulled out his wallet,
and again took a long survey of Colonel Ward's check. "For myself,
I ain't so proud of it," he said, despondently. "It seems sort of
like stealin' money."

"It's a good deal like it," assented Hiram, readily. "But he stole
from you first." He took up the old spy-glass and levelled it across
t