l take the real plasters," he said, huskily; "big ones as you've
got. I--I want to pay for some vessel property!" He reflected that
the few hundreds that the loss of the ancient _Dobson_ called for
lifted this statement out of the cheap level of prevarication.

When he hurried out of the bank with various thick packets stowed
about his person, he headed a straight course for the police-station.

In the marshal's office he found Colonel Gideon Ward, voiceless,
frantic, trembling--licking at the point of a stubby lead-pencil
that had been shoved into his grasp, and trying to compose his soul
sufficiently to write out some of the information about himself, with
which he was bursting.

"There ain't no call for this man to write out the story of his life,"
declared Cap'n Sproul, with an authority in his tones and
positiveness in his manner that did not fail to impress the marshal.
"He is my brother-in-law, he is Colonel Gideon Ward, of Smyrna, a
man with more'n a hundred thousand dollars, and any one that accuses
him of bein' a thief is a liar, and I stand here to prove it."

And to think there was no one present except the Colonel to appreciate
the cryptic humor of that remark!

The Cap'n avoided the demoniacal gaze that Ward bent on him and
disregarded the workings of that speechless mouth. Sproul shoved his
hand deep into his trousers pocket and pulled out a roll of bills
on which the teller's tape had not been broken. At this sight the
Colonel staggered to his feet.

"Here!" cried the Cap'n, shoving money into the hand of the officer
who had made the arrest. "There's something to pay for your muddy
clothes. Now you'd better go out and find the man that started all
this touse about a leadin' citizen. I'll sue this city as a relative
of his if you don't let him go this minute."

And they let him go, with an apology that Colonel Ward treated with
perfectly insulting contempt.

Cap'n Sproul faced him on the street outside the prison, standing
prudently at guard, for he perfectly realized that just at that
moment Colonel Gideon Ward had all the attributes of a lunatic.

"You can see it bulgin' all over me," said the Cap'n, "all tied up
in bundles. I don't say my way was the best way to get it. But I've
got it. I suppose I might have gone to law to get it, but that ain't
my way. Of course you can go to law to get it back; but for reasons
that you know just as well as I, I'd advise you not to--and that advice
don't c