which delays me
here, at one stroke. The old simple methods are the best."

As Mr. and Mrs. Breckenridge Endicott were entering their cab to drive
to the wharf, Mrs. Maxon, the landlady, came hurriedly with the
scandal that Mr. Algernon Tibbs had been found in his room in the
stupor of intoxication.

"Why, he might have been robbed while in that condition," said Mrs.
Maxon.

"He will not be robbed while under your roof," said Mr. Endicott
gallantly. "He is safe from robbing now. He will not, he cannot, I may
say, be robbed now."

The sun was touching the western horizon as the steamer glided out of
the river's mouth. The wind lay dead upon the water, and for a space
the pair sat in the tender light of declining day indulging in the
pleasures of conversation, but at length Mr. Endicott led his wife to
their stateroom.

"On this auspicious day, I wish to make you a gift," and he handed her
a thousand dollars in bills. "My presence is now required on the lower
deck for a time. Be patient during my absence," whereupon he embraced
her with an ardor he had never shown before and there was in his voice
a strange ring of regret and longing such as Almira had never listened
to. It thrilled her very soul and bestowing upon him a shower of
passionate kisses and an embrace of the utmost affection, their
parting took on almost the agony of a parting for years.

"Where the devil is that coal passer Mullanphy, I gave a job to?" said
the engineer on the lower deck. "Is he aboard?"

"His dunnage is in his bunk, but nobody ain't seen him," replied one
of the crew.

"Who the devil is that geezer in a Prince Albert and a plug hat that
just went in back there, and what the devil is he up to?" said the
engineer again, as a black-clothed figure passed toward the stern.

A few moments later, a sturdy man in a jumper and overalls, his face
smeared with grime, peered cautiously around a bulkhead, and seeing
nobody, stepped quickly to the side of the vessel, bearing a limp and
spineless figure in a black frock and silk hat. With a dextrous
movement, he cast the thing forth, and as it went flopping through the
air and slapped the water, from somewhere arose the voice of Mr.
Breckenridge Endicott crying, "Help! help! help!"

Mrs. Endicott, full of dole at the absence of her spouse and oppressed
with a nameless disquiet, had paced the upper deck impatiently, and at
this moment stood just above where her beloved went leaping to his
doo