he remembered how, a dozen years ago, while they were playing
together in the cabin of the old May, she had pretended she was
captain and owned the whole boat, so that Code would have to obey her
orders.

As he looked he caught the almost obliterated marks of a pencil
beneath Nellie's name, and, looking closer, discovered "Nat Burns" in
boyish letters.

For a moment he scowled blackly at the audacious words, and then,
laughing at his foolishness, threw the book from him. Then slowly the
scowl returned, and he asked himself seriously why Nat hated him so.

That there had always been an instinctive dislike between them as
boys, everybody in Freekirk Head knew, and several vicious fights to a
finish had emphasized it.

But since coming to manhood's estate Code had left behind him much of
the rancor and intolerance of his early youth, and had considered Nat
Burns merely as a disagreeable person to be left heartily alone.

But Burns had evidently not arrived at this mature point of
self-education. In fact, Burns was a good example of a youth brought
up without those powers of self-control that are absolutely necessary
to any one who expects to take a reasonable position in society even
as simple as that of Freekirk Head.

Code remembered that Nat and his father had always been inseparable
companions, and that it was due to this father more than any one else
that the boy had been spoiled and indulged in every way.

Michael Burns had risen to a position of considerable power in the
humble life of the island. From a successful trawler he had become a
successful fish-packer and shipper. Then he had felt a desire to
spread his affluent wings, gone in for politics, and been appointed
the squire or justice of the peace.

In this position he was commissioned by the Marine Insurance Company
of St. John's as its agent and inspector on Grande Mignon Island. In
his less successful days he had been a boat-builder in Gloucester and
Bath, and knew much of ship construction.

For more than half a year now Code had been unable to think of Michael
Burns or the old _May Schofield_ without a shudder of horror. But now
that Nat was suddenly hot on the trail of revenge, he knew he must
look at matters squarely and prepare to meet any trap which might be
laid for him.

It seemed evident that the first aim in Nat's mind was the hounding of
the man who had been the cause of his father's death; for that death
had occurred at a most oppor