them myself?"

"Very perplexing; what shall I do?" said Ruby.

"Clear out," cried the captain emphatically.

"What! fly like a real criminal, just as I have returned home? Never.
What say _you_, Minnie?"

"Stand your trial, Ruby. They cannot--they dare not--condemn the
innocent."

"And you, mother?"

"I'm sure I don't know what to say," replied Mrs. Brand, with a look
of deep anxiety, as she passed her fingers through her son's hair,
and kissed his brow. "I have seen the innocent condemned and the
guilty go free more than once in my life."

"Nevertheless, mother, I will give myself up, and take my chance. To
fly would be to give them reason to believe me guilty."

"Give yourself up!" exclaimed the captain, "you'll do nothing of the
sort. Come, lad, remember I'm an old man, and an uncle. I've got a
plan in my head, which I think will keep you out of harm's way for a
time. You see my old chronometer is but a poor one,--the worse of the
wear, like its master,--and I've never been able to make out the
exact time that we went aboard the _Termagant_ the night you went
away. Now, can _you_ tell me what o'clock it was?"

"I can."

'"Xactly?"

"Yes, exactly, for it happened that I was a little later than I
promised, and the skipper pointed to his watch, as I came up the
side, and jocularly shook his head at me. It was exactly eleven P.M."

"Sure and sartin o' that?" enquired the captain, earnestly.

"Quite, and his watch must have been right, for the town-clock rung
the hour at the same time."

"Is that skipper alive?"

"Yes."

"Would he swear to that?"

"I think he would."

"D'ye know where he is?"

"I do. He's on a voyage to the West Indies, and won't be home for
two months, I believe."

"Humph!" said the captain, with a disappointed look. "However, it
can't be helped; but I see my way now to get you out o' this fix. You
know, I suppose, that they're buildin' a lighthouse on the Bell Rock
just now; well, the workmen go off to it for a month at a time, I
believe, if not longer, and don't come ashore, and it's such a
dangerous place, and troublesome to get to, that nobody almost ever
goes out to it from this place, except those who have to do with it.
Now, lad, you'll go down to the workyard the first thing in the
mornin', before daylight, and engage to go off to work at the Bell
Rock. You'll keep all snug and quiet, and nobody'll be a bit the
wiser. You'll be earnin' good wages, and in the meantime