st long, as it comes from the southward," he added.

"When did you leave Jacksonville, Mr. Cornwood?" I asked, for I thought
I had seen him in the street the day before.

"I came up in the morning boat," he replied. "It is getting to be very
dull in Jacksonville, and I thought I might find something to do here,
for fishing and hunting parties often come to St. Augustine without
stopping at the city."

"We had some thought of trying the fish at Indian River as we went
along; but circumstances do not allow us to stop, and we shall run
direct for Key West. Was there anything new in regard to the robbery of
the bank messenger this morning?"

"I heard nothing. But your friend, Captain Boomsby, is in great
trouble," said Cornwood, smiling, as though the saloon-keeper's
trouble, whatever it was, could not produce a deep impression on his
late employe.

"What is the matter with the captain?" I asked, with interest.

"His son Nick has disappeared."

"Nick disappeared!" I exclaimed, not a little astonished.

"He cannot be found, though his father searched from six o'clock this
morning till the time I left."

"When did his father first miss him?"

"It appears that Nick tended bar till after midnight. The old man was
too full to sit up any longer, and he left Nick to close the bar. The
captain says his son did not sleep in the house last night, and he has
no idea when or where he went."

"Very likely he left in the first train this morning," I suggested,
recalling all that had passed between Nick and me the day before.

"No, he didn't, for his father went to the station, and passed through
the train just before it started. He did not leave by railroad, or come
up the river in the Hampton, or I should have seen him."

"Nick has something like sharpness, and he knew he could not get off on
the morning train. But he could have walked to Baldwin between the time
he closed the bar and nine o'clock, and taken the train there," I
added.

"I don't believe Nick walked twenty miles: he is too lazy to do
anything of the kind," added Cornwood, with a smile of incredulity.
"But he is not a great loss to his father; and he may make his way when
he is thrown on his own resources. There was another piece of news in
Jacksonville this morning."

"What was that?" I inquired.

"But I suppose you know more about this matter than any one in the
city. It was said that Colonel Shepard's yacht, in which he was going
to New Orleans, lef