s cast us
adrift at the same time."

"Would it give you much satisfaction if I were to find good employment
for your friend?"

"Indeed it would--the highest possible satisfaction," exclaimed Charlie,
with the first symptom of enthusiasm in his tone and look.

"What can your friend Shank Leather do?" asked the old man brusquely.

"Oh! many things. He's capital at figures, thoroughly understands
book-keeping, and--and is a hard-working fellow, whatever he puts his
hand to."

"Is he steady?"

Charlie was silent for a few moments.

"Well, one cannot be sure," he answered, with some hesitation, "what
meaning you attach to the word `steady.' I--"

"Yes, yes, I see," interrupted Crossley, consulting his watch. "No time
to discuss meanings of words just now. Will you tell your friend to
call on me here the day after to-morrow at six o'clock? You live in
Sealford, I have been told; does he live near you?"

"Yes, within a few minutes' walk."

"Well, tell him to be punctual. Punctuality is the soul of business.
Hope I won't find your friend as independent as you seem to be! You are
quite sure, are you, that I can do nothing for you? I have both money
and influence."

The more determined that our hero became to decline all offers of
assistance from the man who had misconstrued his motives, the more of
urbanity marked his manner, and it was with a smile of ineffable
good-nature on his masculine features that he repeated, "Nothing, thank
you--quite sure. You will have done me the greatest possible service
when you help my friend. Yet--stay. You mentioned money. There is an
institution in which I am much interested, and which you might
appropriately remember just now."

"What is that?"

"The Lifeboat Institution."

"But it was not the Lifeboat Institution that saved _me_. It was the
Rocket apparatus."

"True, but it _might_ have been a lifeboat that saved you. The rockets
are in charge of the Coast-Guard and need no assistance, whereas the
Lifeboat Service depends on voluntary contributions, and the fact that
it did not happen to save Mr Crossley from a grave in the sea does not
affect its claim to the nation's gratitude for the hundreds of lives
saved by its boats every year."

"Admitted, my young friend, your reasoning is just," said the old
gentleman, sitting down at a writing table and taking a cheque-book from
a drawer; "what shall I put down?"

"You know your circumstances best," said Charli