ight to keep Code longer away
from his vessel.

And Tanner managed the thing with a good eye to the dramatic. When he
reached the rear guard of the fleet he began to work his vessel
gracefully in and out among the sloops and schooners.

Code, seated in his chair on the cabin roof, did not realize what was
going on until the triumphal procession was well under way.

Through the fleet they went--a fleet that was wearing crape for
him--and from every vessel received a volley of cheers.

The _Charming Lass_ greeted him with open arms. Pete Ellinwood swung
him up from the transferring dory with a great bellow of delight, and
he was passed along the line until, battered, joyous, and radiant, he
arrived exhausted by the wheel, where he sat down.

When they all had drunk to the reunion from a rare old bottle, heavily
cobwebbed, Code told his story. Then, while the men dressed down, he
walked about, looking things over and counting the crew on his
fingers.

"Pete!" he called suddenly, and the mate left the fish-pen.

"Where's Arry Duncan?"

"Wal, skipper, I didn't want to tell you fer fear you had enough on
yer mind already, but Arry never come back the same day you was
lost."

"My God! Another one! I wondered how many would get caught that day!"

"An' that ain't all. He had your motor-dory with him--the one you
caught us with out of Castalia."

"How did he have that? I gave orders the motor-dories weren't to be
used."

"Wal, cookee an' the boy--they was the only ones aboard--tell it this
way: Arry he struck a heavy school fust time he lets his dory rodin'
go, an' most of his fish topped forty pound. In an hour his dory was
full, and it was a three-mile pull back.

"When he got in he argued them others into givin' him the motor-dory,
'cause it holds so much more. They helped him swing it over, an'
that's the last they see of him."

"But, if he had an engine, you'd think he could've made it back here
or run foul of somebody or somethin'."

"Yas, you would think so; but he didn't, the more peace to him," was
Ellinwood's reply.

"The poor feller!" said Code. "I'm sorry for his wife. Anything else
happen while I was gone, Pete?"

"Now, let me think!" The mate scratched his head. "Oh, yes! Curse me,
I nearly forgot it! You know that quair schooner that chased us down
one day an' asked the fool questions about you?"

"Yes. I saw that same schooner again yesterday. She asked more fool
questions."

"You did!"