moment he had written that his
schooner's name "was painted in showy gilt letters upon her garboard
streak."

"What's the garboard streak, Condy?" Blix had asked, when he had read
the chapter to her.

"That's where they paint her name," he declared promptly. "I don't
know exactly, but I like the sound of it."

But the next day, when he was reading this same chapter to Captain
Jack, the latter suddenly interrupted with an exclamation as of acute
physical anguish.

"What's that? Read that last over again," he demanded.

"'When they had come within a few boat's lengths,'" read Condy, "'they
were able to read the schooner's name, painted in showy gilt letters
upon her garboard streak.'"

"My God!" gasped the Captain, clasping his head. Then, with a shout:
"Garboard streak! garboard streak? Don't you know that the garboard
streak is the last plank next the keel? You mean counter, not garboard
streak. That regularly graveled me, that did!"

They stayed to dinner with the couple that afternoon, and for half an
hour afterward K. D. B. told them of the wonders of the caves of
Elephantis. One would have believed that she had actually been at the
place. But when she changed the subject to the science of
fortification, Blix could no longer restrain herself.

"But it is really wonderful that you should know all these things!
Where did you find time to study so much?"

"One must have an education," returned K. D. B. primly.

But Condy had caught sight of a half-filled book-shelf against the
opposite wall, and had been suddenly smitten with an inspiration. On a
leaf of his notebook he wrote: "Try her on the G's and H's," and found
means to show it furtively to Blix. But Blix was puzzled, and at the
earliest opportunity Condy himself said to the retired costume reader:

"Speaking of fortifications, Mrs. Hoskins, Gibraltar now--that's a
wonderful rock, isn't it?"

"Rock!" she queried. "I thought it was an island."

"Oh, no; it's a fortress. They have a castle there--a castle,
something like--well, like the old Schloss at Heidelberg. Did you ever
hear about or read about Heidelberg University?"

But K. D. B. was all abroad now. Gibraltar and Heidelberg were unknown
subjects to her, as were also inoculation, Japan, and Kosciusko. Above
the G's she was sound; below that point her ignorance was benighted.

"But what is it, Condy?" demanded Blix, as soon as they were alone.

"I've the idea," he answered, chuck