demanded Mr. Speed. "I'm taking
you into the fambly on my own responsibility. You're a captain, you're a
native, and I need good advice. Had I ought to?"

"I'm afraid you'll have to excuse me, sir. The matter seems to be
private, and, furthermore, I don't know what you're talking about."

"She says it's to the milliner so that the milliner will hold the job
open. But I'm suspicioning that it's roundabout to the beau that's in
love with her. That's the style of women. Cap'n Epps shanghaied her to
get her away from that fellow. Now she has got it worked around so that
she is going back. But there's a beau in it instead of a milliner. She
wouldn't be so anxious to get word to a milliner. That's my idee, and I
reckon it's yours, too."

"I really have no ideas on the subject," returned Captain Mayo. "But
if you have promised a young lady to send a telegram for her I would
certainly keep that promise if I were in your place."

The next moment he regretted his rather impetuous advice, for Mr. Speed
slapped the paper against a hard palm and blurted out: "That's all I
wanted! Course and bearings from an a-number-one adviser. New, how'll I
go to work to send this thing?"

"I have been figuring on that matter for the last few minutes, myself,"
acknowledged the captain. "It's about time to have a little action in
this place."

He was obliged to elbow his way through the group of men who surrounded
the telegraph operator. Oakum Otie followed on his heels, resolved to
study at close range the mystery of telegraphing, realizing what he
needed for his own instruction.

"These telegrams are important and they must go at ore, madam," Mayo
informed the flustered young woman.

"I can't send them. I am bothered so much I can't do anything," she
stammered.

"Oh, forget your business, skipper," advised one of the party.

"It is not my business, sir." He laid the packet of messages before the
operator on her little counter and tapped his finger on them. "They must
go," he repeated.

"In their turn," warned the yachtsman, showing that he resented this
intrusion. "And after the party is over!"

"I intended to confine my conversation to this young lady," said Mayo.
He turned and faced them. "But I have been here long enough to see that
you gentlemen are interfering with the business of this office. Perhaps
your messages are not important. Mine are."

The yachtsman was not sober nor was he judicious. "Go back to your job,
young f