omething of his uneasiness.

"I didn't ship for no hostler, Cap'n, an' I guess I'll make a poor fist
at it, but I'll do my best," he said.

"Guess we'll manage him between us, Lank," cheerfully responded the
Captain. "I ain't got much use for horses myself; but as I said,
Stashia, she's down on boats."

"Kinder sot in her idees, ain't she, Cap'n?" insinuated Lank.

"Well, kinder," the Captain admitted.

Lank permitted himself to chuckle guardedly. Captain Bastabol Bean, as
an innumerable number of sailor-men had learned, was a person who
generally had his own way. Intuitively the Captain understood that Lank
had guessed of his surrender. A grim smile was barely suggested by the
wrinkles about his mouth and eyes.

"Lank," he said, "the Widow Buckett an' me had some little argument over
this horse business an'--an'--I give in. She told me flat she wouldn't
come to the P'int if I tried to fetch her by water in the dory. Well, I
want Stashia mighty bad; for she's a fine woman, Lank, a mighty fine
woman, as you'll say when you know her. So I promised to bring her home
by land and with a horse. I'm bound to do it, too. But by time!" Here
the Captain suddenly slapped his knee. "I've just been struck with a
notion. Lank, I'm going to see what you think of it."

For an hour Captain and mate sat in the sun, smoked their pipes and
talked earnestly. Then they separated. Lank began a close study of
Barnacles's complicated rigging. The Captain tramped off toward the
village.

Late in the afternoon the Captain returned riding in a sidebar buggy
with a man. Behind the buggy they towed a skeleton lumber wagon--four
wheels connected by an extension pole. The man drove away in the sidebar
leaving the Captain and the lumber wagon.

Barnacles, who had been moored to a kedge-anchor, watched the next day's
proceedings with interest. He saw the Captain and Lank drag up from the
beach the twenty-foot dory and hoist it up between the wheels. Through
the forward part of the keelson they bored a hole for the king-bolt.
With nut-bolts they fastened the stern to the rear axle, adding some
very seamanlike lashings to stay the boat in place. As finishing touches
they painted the upper strakes of the dory white, giving to the lower
part and to the running-gear of the cart a coat of sea-green.

Barnacles was experienced, but a vehicle such as this amphibious product
of Sculpin Point he had never before seen. With ears pointed and
nostrils pa