le. Then from back in
the shadow somewhere a voice said sneeringly:

"What ax you got to grind, Pete?"

A laugh went round, for it was common talk that, since the death of
Jasper Schofield, Pete had expressed his admiration for Ma Schofield
in more than one way.

"I got this ax to grind, Andrew," replied Ellinwood calmly, "that I'm
signed on as mate in the _Charming Lass_, an' I believe the boy is as
straight and as good a sailor as anybody on the island." This was
news to the crowd, and the men digested it a minute in silence.

"How many men ye got sailin' with ye?" asked one who had not spoken
before.

"Five outside the skipper an' me," was the reply, "an' I cal'late
we'll fill her up in a day or so. Seven men can sail her like a witch,
but they won't fill her hold very quick. She'll take fifteen hundred
quintal easy, or I judge her wrong."

A prolonged whistle from outside interrupted the discussion, and one
man going to the door announced that it had stopped raining. All hands
got up and prepared to go back to work. Only Bijonah Tanner remained
to buy some groceries from Boughton.

"Steamer's early to-day," said the storekeeper, glancing at his watch.
"She's bringin' me a lot of salt from St. John's, and I guess I can
get it into the shed to-night."

Having satisfied Tanner, he went out of the store the back way and
left the captain alone filling his pipe. A short blast of the whistle
told him that the steamer was tied up, and idly he lingered to see who
had come to the island.

The passengers, to reach the King's Road, were obliged to go past the
corner of the general store, and Bijonah stood on the low, wooden
veranda, watching them.

Some two dozen had gone when his eye was attracted by a pale, thin
youth in a light-gray suit and Panama hat. He thought nothing of him
at first except to remark his clothes, but as he came within short
vision Tanner gave a grunt of astonishment and bit through the reed
stem of his corn-cob pipe.

He recognized the youth as the one he had seen in St. John's and had
referred to as the secretary to the president of the Marine Insurance
Company.

Instantly the old man's mind flashed back to what he had heard only a
week before, which he had told Code. He stood looking after the
stranger as though spell-bound, his slow mind groping vainly for some
explanation of his presence in Freekirk Head.

He felt instinctively that it must be in connection with the case of
Code Sc