l name--is
there. It's a list of those whose addresses are unknown to the college
authorities, men who have dropped out, gone back, disappeared. Nobody
knows what's become of 'em, and by and by nobody cares. That's just what
I am--a lost alumnus! And it's better for me to stay lost!"

With trembling hands he picked up a worm-eaten stick beside the stove.

"I'm like this stick now--only driftwood! Once I was young and sound and
strong as any one of you--just as this wood was once. Now--"

Lifting the stove cover, he flung the stick into the fire; a burst of
sparks shot up.

"That's all it's fit for; and it's all I'm fit for, too! Name ...
character ... friends ... home ... all gone--all gone!"

He took a step toward the door, then halted.

"I've told you this because it may do some one of you some good while
there's time. Don't throw your lives away, as I've thrown away mine!"

The sober, startled faces of his hearers apparently recalled him to
himself.

"Sorry I spoke so freely," he apologized. "Forget it, boys, and forget
me! Everybody else has. Good night!"

He opened the door.

"Won't you stop ashore with us?" invited Spurling. "We can fix you up a
bunk."

"No; I must go aboard. My dog and cats would be lonesome; wouldn't sleep
a wink without me. They're mighty knowing animals."

He went out and closed the door. The boys looked at one another. Lane
was the first to speak.

"What d'you suppose was the matter with him? Must have been something
pretty bad to make him feel that way. But, say! Didn't he make that
violin talk? Never heard anything like it before!"

That night the boys went to bed feeling unusually serious. Percy, in
particular, did not get to sleep until late. The stranger's remarks had
given him much food for thought.

The next morning, before sunrise, the barking of Oliver Cromwell and a
thin, blue smoke curling from the stovepipe of the _Helen_ told that the
lost alumnus was preparing breakfast. Jim and Percy had started off with
their trawls some time before. Stevens volunteered to help their visitor
repair his boom, so Filippo went out with Lane to haul the
lobster-traps.

All the boys were back at noon, when Thorpe, repairs made, waved
farewell and sailed slowly out of the cove, dog and cats manning the
side of the _Helen_, as if for a last salute. Throppy told of his
morning's work.

"Tried to pay me for what I did; but of course I wouldn't take
anything. You might not think i