to Don
as he was busy with pencil and book, keeping account of the deliveries,
and said in a loud voice,--

"What did your uncle have for breakfast, Mas' Don?"

"Coffee--ham--I hardly know, Jem."

"Ho! Thought p'r'aps it had been cayenne pepper."

"Nonsense!"

"Ah, you may say that, but see how he is going it. 'Tarn't my fault
that the dock men work so badly, and 'tarn't my fault that Mike isn't
here, and--"

"Don't stand talking to Wimble, Lindon," said a voice sharply, and Uncle
Josiah came up to the pair. "No, don't go away, Wimble. Did Bannock
say he should stay away to-day?"

"Not to me, uncle."

"Nor to me, sir."

"It's very strange, just as we are so busy too. He has not drawn any
money."

"P'r'aps press-gang's got him, sir," suggested Jem.

"Humph! Hardly likely!" said Uncle Josiah; and he went on and entered
the office, to come out at the end of a few minutes and beckon to Don.

"Lindon," he said, as the lad joined him, "I left nine guineas and a
half in the little mahogany bowl in my desk yesterday. Whom have you
paid?"

"Paid? No one, sir."

"But eight guineas are gone--missing."

"Eight guineas? Missing, sir?"

"Yes, do you know anything about them?"

"No, sir. I--that is--yes, I remember now: I picked up a guinea on the
floor, and meant to give it to you. Here it is: I forgot all about it."

Don took a piece of gold from his flap waistcoat pocket, and handed it
to his uncle, who looked at him so curiously that the boy grew confused.

"Picked this up on the floor, Lindon?" said Uncle Josiah.

"Yes, sir. It had rolled down by my desk."

"It is very strange," said Uncle Josiah, thoughtfully. "Well, that
leaves seven missing. You had better look round and see if you can find
them."

Don felt uncomfortable, he hardly knew why; but it seemed to him that
his uncle looked at him doubtingly, and this brought a feeling of hot
indignation into the boy's brain.

He turned quickly, however, entered the office, and with his uncle
looking on, searched all over the floor.

"Well?"

"There's nothing here, sir. Of course not," cried Don eagerly; "Mrs
Wimble sweeps up every morning, and if there had been she would have
found it."

Uncle Josiah lifted off his cocked hat, and put it on again wrong way
first.

"This is a very unpleasant affair, Lindon," he said. "I can afford to
lose seven guineas, or seven hundred if it came to that, but I can't
afford to lose confidence i