m, it all seemed to be some
sort of hideous unreality.

"It's a big responsibility," proceeded Captain Downs, mumbling his words
and talking half to himself in his uncertainty. "I've been trying to get
some light on it from another--from a man who ought to understand more
about it than what I do. It's too much of a problem for a man to wrassle
with all alone."

He turned his back on them, gazed at the stateroom door, tipped his cap
awry, and scratched his head more vigorously than he had in his past
ponderings.

"Say, you in there! Mate!" he called, clumsily preserving Mayo's
incognito. "I'm in a pinch. Say what you really think!"

There was no word from the stateroom.

"You're an unprejudiced party," insisted the skipper. "You have good
judgment. Now what?"

"Who is that, in there?" demanded Bradish.

"Why should this person, whoever he is, have any-thing to say about my
affairs?" asked the girl.

"Because I'm asking him to say!" yelped the skipper, showing anger. "I'm
running this! Don't try to tell me my own business!" He walked toward
the door. "Speak up, mate!"

"It's an insult to me--asking strangers about my private affairs!" The
protest of the girl was a furious outburst.

"I resent it, captain! Most bitterly resent it," stated Bradish.

The old skipper walked back toward them. "Resent it as much as you
condemned like, sir! You're here asking favors of me. I want to do what
is right for all concerned. You ought to be married--I admit that. But
what sort of a position does it leave me in? Are you going to tell me
this girl's name?"

"I'm Alma Marston!" She volleyed the name at him with hysterical
violence, but he did not seem to be impressed. "I am Julius Marston's
daughter!"

The skipper looked her up and down.

"Now you will be so good as to proceed about your duty!" she commanded,
haughtily.

"Well, you can't expect me to show any special neighborly kindness to
the Wall Street gouger who kept me tied up without a charter two months
last spring with his steamboat combinations and his dicker deals!"

"How are we to take that, sir?" asked Bradish.

The girl was staring with frank wonder at this hard-shelled mariner whom
she had not been able to impress by her name or her manner.

"Just as you want to."

"I demand an explanation."

"Well, I'll give it to you, seeing that I'm perfectly willing to. Take
it one way, and I'm willing to wallop Julius Marston by handing him
the kind of a son-