"Who? Let me see. Oh, yes, some local man."

"You don't know! Look up here. Who designed her!"

"Oh, yes. 'Twas a Gloucester man."

"A Gloucester man? Look up again.
Now--who--de--signed--the--John--nie--Dun--can!"

"Ouch, yes. A ver-y fine and a-ble--and handsome gen-tle-man--a
wonderful man."

"That's a little better. And his name?"

"William Somers--William the Illustrious--William the First--'First in
war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of Gloucestermen'--and if
you let me stand up, I'll do a break-down to show you how glad I am."

"Now you're showing something like appreciation. And now where do you
suppose your friend Clancy is and your skipper?"

"Clancy? Lord knows. Maybe in a circle of admiring friends, singing
whatever is his latest. 'Hove flat down' was the last I heard. If it
was earlier in the day--about three in the morning--it would be pretty
sure to be that."

"What a pity, and he such a fine man otherwise!"

"What's a pity?"

"Why, his getting drunk, as I hear he does very often."

"Gets drunk? Who gets drunk? Clancy? That's news to me. As long as
I've known him I never saw him drunk yet. He gets mellow and
loose--but drunk! Clancy drunk? Why, Nell!"

"Oh, well, all right, he's an apostle of temperance then. But Captain
Blake--where is he?"

"I couldn't say--why?"

"I have a message for him."

"Did you try his boarding-house?"

"Yes. That is, Will did, and he wasn't there, hadn't been there at
all, they said, since the afternoon before."

"That so? Where else did you try? Duncan's office?"

"We did, and no word of him there."

"Try Clancy's boarding-house?"

"Yes, and no word."

"Try--h-m--the Anchorage?"

"Oh, Joe, you don't think he's been loafing there since?"

"No, I don't. And yet after the way he got turned down yesterday, you
know--there's no telling what a man might do."

"Well, Will looked in there, too."

"You fat little fox! Why didn't you say that at first? And no word?"

"No."

"Well, I don't know where he'd be then."

"Nor I, except--did you notice the wind has hauled to the northwest?"

"I did."

"Well. Do you know that old vessel that Mr. Withrow's been trying to
get a crew for--the Flamingo?"

"M-h-h."

"Well, this morning early she went out--on a hand-lining trip to the
east'ard, it is said. And Will says that he thinks--he doesn't know,
mind you, because they won't tell him anything down to Withrow's--but
he thinks that Maurice