is thing."

"I don't know what to do," mourned the young man. "I'm all in a whirl.
I'm no coward, Captain Wass. I'm willing to face the music. But I'm so
helpless."

"Stay outside jail till the fog lifts a bit in this case," adjured his
mentor. "Are you going to lie down and stick up your legs to have 'em
tied, like a calf bound for market? Here are a few things you can do if
you duck out of sight for a little while. I'll go ahead and--"

Suddenly he checked himself. He was facing the window, which commanded
a considerable section of street. He wasted no further breath on good
advice.

"I know those men coming down there," he cried. "They're bailiffs. I saw
them around the court-house. They're after you, Mayo! You run! Get
away! There must be a back door here. Scoot!" He pulled the unresisting
scapegoat out of his chair and hustled him to the rear of the office.

A young man may have the best intentions. He may resolve to be a martyr,
to bow to the law's majesty. But at that moment Mayo was receiving
imperious command from the shipmaster whose orders he had obeyed for so
long that obedience was second nature. And panic seized him! Men were at
hand to arrest him. There was no time to reason the thing out. Flight is
the first impulse of innocence persecuted. Manly resolve melted. He ran.

"I'll stay behind and bluff 'em off! I'll say you're just out for a
minute, that I'm waiting here for you," cried Captain Wass. "That will
give you a start. Try the docks. You may find one of the boys who will
help."

Mayo escaped into a yard, dodged down an alley, planning his movements
as he hurried, having a mariner's quickness of thought in an emergency.

He made directly for the pier where steam-vessels took water. A huge
ocean-going tug was just getting ready to leave her berth under the
water-hose. Her gruff whistle-call had ordered hawsers cast off. Mayo's
'longcoast acquaintance was fairly extensive. This was a coal-barge tug,
and he waved quick greeting to the familiar face in her pilot-house and
leaped aboard. He climbed the forward ladder nimbly.

"I reckon you'll have to make it hello and good-by in one breath, mate,"
advised the skipper. "I'm off to take a light tow down-coast. Norfolk
next stop."

"Let her go--sooner the better," gasped the fugitive. "I'll explain why
as soon as you are out of the dock."

"You don't say that you want to take the trip?"

"I've got to take it."

The skipper cocked an eyebrow