compact, and resumed.

"Talks of nothing else," he said, watching his friend, "and can't sleep
for thinking of it."

"That's bad," said Mr. Tredgold, sympathetically. "Has he tried shutting
his eyes and counting sheep jumping over a stile?"

"No, he ain't," said Mr. Stobell, exploding suddenly, and turning a
threatening glance on the speaker. "And what's more," he added, in more
ordinary tones, "he ain't going to."

"We--we've been thinking of that trip again," interposed Mr. Chalk,
hurriedly. "The more Stobell thinks of it the more he likes it. You
know what you said the last time we were here?"

The captain wrinkled his brows and looked at him inquiringly.

"Told us to go and find the island," Mr. Chalk reminded him. "You said,
'I've shown you a map of the island; now go and find it.'"

"Oh, aye," said the captain, with a laugh, "so I did."

"Stobell was wondering," continued Mr. Chalk, "whether you couldn't give
us just a little bit more of a hint, without breaking your word, of
course."

"I don't see how it could be done," replied the captain, pondering;
"a promise is a promise."

Mr. Chalk's face fell. He moved his chair aside mechanically to make
room for Mr. Tasker, who had entered with a tray and glasses, and sat
staring at the floor. Then he raised his eyes and met a significant
glance from Mr. Stobell.

"I suppose we may have another look at the map?" he said, softly; "just
a glance to freshen our memories."

The captain, who had drawn his chair to the table to preside over the
tray, looked up impatiently.

"No," he said, brusquely.

Mr. Chalk looked hurt. "I'm very sorry," he said, in surprise at the
captain's tone. "You showed it to us the other day, and I didn't
think--"

"The fact is," said the captain, in a more gentle voice--"the fact is, I
can't."

"Can't?" repeated the other.

"It is not very pleasant to keep on refusing friends," said the captain,
making amends for his harshness by pouring a serious overdose of whisky
into Mr. Chalk's glass, "and it's only natural for you to be anxious
about it, so I removed the temptation out of my way."

"Removed the temptation?" repeated Mr. Chalk.

"I burnt the map," said the captain, with a smile.

"Burnt it?" gasped Mr. Chalk. "BURNT it?"

"Burnt it to ashes," said the captain, jovially.

"It's a load off my mind. I ought to have done it before. In fact,
I never ought to have made the map at all."

Mr. Chalk stared at