ely. Gabe Bearse asked
Babbie about it, and Phin here he--"

"Eh?" The captain turned to face his old enemy. "So you've been
talkin', have you?" he asked.

Mr. Babbitt leaned forward. "I ain't begun my talkin' yet, Sam
Hunniwell," he snarled. "When I do you'll--"

He stopped. Grover had touched him on the shoulder.

"Sshh!" said the Major quietly. To the absolute amazement of
Captain Sam, Phineas subsided. His face was blazing red and he
seemed to be boiling inside, but he did not say another word. Jed
seized the opportunity to continue.

"I--I just want to get this all plain, Sam," he put in, hastily.
"I just want it so all hands'll understand it, that's all. You
went over to Sylvester Sage's in Wapatomac and he paid you four
hundred dollars. When you got back home here fourteen hundred of
it was missin'. No, no, I don't mean that. I mean you couldn't
find fourteen hundred--I mean--"

The captain's patience was, as he himself often said, moored with a
short cable. The cable parted now.

"Gracious king!" he snapped. "Jed, if that yarn you're tryin' to
spin was wound in a ball and a kitten was playin' with it you
couldn't be worse snarled up. What he's tryin' to tell you," he
explained, turning to Grover, "is that the other day, when I was
over to Wapatomac, old Sylvester Sage over there paid me fourteen
hundred dollars in cash and when I got back here all I could find
was a thousand. That's what you're tryin' to say, ain't it?"
turning to Jed once more.

"Yes--yes, that's it, Sam. That's it."

"Course it's it. But what do you want me to say it for? And what
are you runnin' around with all that money in your hands for?
That's what I want to know."

Jed swallowed hard. "Well, Sam," he stammered, "that--that's what
I was goin' to tell you. You see--you see, that's the four hundred
you lost. I--I found it."

Major Grover looked surprised. Phineas Babbitt looked more
surprised. But, oddly enough, it was Captain Sam Hunniwell who
appeared to be most surprised by his friend's statement. The
captain seemed absolutely dumbfounded.

"You--you WHAT?" he cried.

Jed smoothed the bills in his hand. "I found it, Sam," he
repeated. "Here 'tis--here."

He extended the bundle of banknotes. The captain made no move to
take them. Jed held them a little nearer.

"You--you'd better take it, Sam," he urged. "It might get lost
again, you know."

Still Captain Sam made no move. He looked