in his garden. Next
morning he was down betimes, and standing on the tiptoe both of
expectation and of his boots, he peeped over the edge of the tub, when
lo! there, on the bottom of the butt sat the cat looking up at him with
tears in her eyes, for she was too heavily anchored to climb out."

But I broke in, "Where was the water?"

"Well, you see," said Alec, "being her only means of escape, _she had
swallowed it_, as your priest did the wine, which accounted for her
swollen condition. So now, Mr. Thirteen Pints, I think we are about
quits."

We were; Alec scored a point.

[Illustration: Decorative scroll]

[Illustration: Decorative chapter heading]

CHAPTER XVII.

THE WILL AGAIN--SEARCHING FOR A CLUE TO THE PAPER--BARBE ROUGE'S
WILL--A PROBABLE CLUE--HOPES AND DOUBTS--PERPLEXED--A MEMORABLE
TRAWL BY MOONLIGHT--A REAL CLUE AT LAST--THE PLACE OF THE SKULL
FOUND.

As soon as I was able I went out walking each day, and so rapid was my
convalescence that in ten days I was quite myself again. Alec had during
my enforced idleness been extra busy, and had made both house and garden
look very trim. He had not been able to go far away, for fear I might
want him, and thus had spent his time near home.

From joking in the first instance we had now become quite familiar with
our new appellations; thus I was Crusoe, and Alec was Monday, that being
the day on which I saved him. For the sake of being as near like the
hero of Juan Fernandez as possible, I should have liked to call him
Friday; in fact, Good Friday, but as he came on the wrong day, Monday
had to be his name.

As I write these pages, I can, in fancy, hear his voice shouting to me
on the island,

"Crusoe! Crusoe! where are you? Rob--in--son Cru--soe, ahoy!"

Being August, the fruit was ripe and very plentiful; in fact, it seemed
a sin to see it hang on the bushes and trees till it dropped upon the
ground, simply to serve the purpose of manure. To obviate this we made a
whole copper full of jam, and in making it we got into a pretty pickle,
both of us being up to our elbows in stickiness, but the jam _was_
prime!

Whatever I did, or wherever I went, the paper I had found in the old
leathern cup always haunted me. Moreover, when it did not haunt _me_, I
haunted _it_; for I took it to various parts of the island, and taking
my stand in a certain place, would represent the spot shewn by the skull
in the drawing. Then Monday would