ote the table with his fist.

"Father's gone down to watch the ship now," said Miss Pilbeam. "Of
course, it's the exact description of the man that assaulted him.
Providential he called it."

"That's the worst of having a fool for a mate," said the skipper,
bitterly. "What business was it of his, I should like to know? What's
it got to do with him whether I turn up or not? What does he want to
interfere for?"

"It's no good blaming him," said Miss Pilbeam, thinking deeply, with her
chin on her finger. "The thing is, what is to be done? Once father gets
his hand on you----"

She shuddered; so did the skipper.

"I might get off with a fine; I didn't hurt him," he remarked.

Miss Pilbeam shook her head. "They're very strict in Woodhatch," she
said.

"I was a fool to touch him at all," said the repentant skipper. "High
spirits, that's what it was. High spirits, and being spoken to as if I
was a child."

"The thing is, how are you to escape?" said the girl. "It's no good
going out of doors with the police and half the people in Woodhatch all
on the look-out for you."

"If I could only get aboard I should be all right," muttered the skipper.
"I could keep down the fo'-c's'le while the mate took the ship out."

Miss Pilbeam sat in deep thought. "It's the getting aboard that's the
trouble," she said, slowly. "You'd have to disguise yourself. It would
have to be a good disguise, too, to pass my father, I can tell you."

Captain Bligh gave a gloomy assent.

"The only thing for you to do, so far as I can see," said the girl,
slowly, "is to make yourself up like a coalie. There are one or two
colliers in the harbor, and if you took off your coat--I could send it on
afterwards--rubbed yourself all over with coal-dust, and shaved off your
moustache, I believe you would escape."

"Shave!" ejaculated the skipper, in choking accents. "Rub--!
Coal-dust!"

"It's your only chance," said Miss Pilbeam.

Captain Bligh leaned back frowning, and from sheer force of habit passed
the ends of his moustache slowly through his fingers. "I think the coal-
dust would be enough," he said at last.

The girl shook her head. "Father particularly noticed your moustache,"
she said.

"Everybody does," said the skipper, with mournful pride. "I won't part
with it."

"Not for my sake?" inquired Miss Pilbeam, eying him mournfully. "Not
after all I've done for you?"

"No," said the other, stoutly.

Miss Pilbeam put h