oks members of the crew dived into openings between the
small piles of cargo stuff and tried to become invisible. When the
pirates clambered aboard the Silver Star they seemed to be boarding a
deserted vessel. They worked quickly and thoroughly. Piece by piece
they threw the cargo of the Silver Sides into the motor-boat until
they uncovered the three members of the crew, who leaped from their
hiding-place like startled rabbits and loped wildly to places of
greater safety. Half a dozen revolver shots followed them. The pirates
then leisurely reembarked, fired a parting salute, and glided away.

The next morning Greasy appeared at work with his pocket full of
Sultana raisins, and offered some to Mr. Gubb.

"Thank you," said Mr. Gubb; "raisins are one of my foremost
fondnesses. Nice ones like these are hard to find obtainable."

"You're right they are," said Greasy. "Me lady-friend give me these
last night. She's the girl that knows good raisins, ain't she?"

Evidently she was, but Philo Gubb had taken occasion to discover,
before he went to work that morning, whether the Silver Sides had been
pirated again, and he had learned that a half-dozen boxes of Sultana
raisins had formed part of the cargo of the Silver Sides. He looked at
Greasy severely.

"Your lady-friend is considerably generous in giving things, ain't
she?" he said, trying to hide the guile of his questions in an
indifferent tone. "You ain't cared to mention her name to me as yet
to this time."

"Ain't I?" said Greasy carelessly. "Well, I ain't ashamed of her. Her
name is Maggie Tiffkins. She's some girl!"

"You spend most of your evenings with or about her, I presume to
suppose?" asked Mr. Gubb carelessly.

"You bet!" said Greasy. "Me and her is going to get married before
long, we are. Yep. And I'll be right glad to have a home to sleep in,
instead of a barn."

"A barn?" queried Philo Gubb.

"I been sleepin' in a barn," said Greasy. "I thought youse knowed it.
I been doin' a piece or two of scene paintin' for them Kalmucks, and I
sort of hired a barn to do it in, and so long as I had to have the
barn I just slept in it. Keeps me up late," he said, yawning, "seein'
my lady-friend till midnight and then paintin' scenery till I don't
know when."

"I presume you ain't spent much time on your motor-boat of late
times," said Mr. Gubb.

"Ain't had no time," said Greasy briefly.

Detective Gubb, as he pasted paper on the walls of the Himmeldinger
h