xhaustion forces us to
pause for a moment, we run our eyes over printed matter of some
kind--newspapers, magazines, or books--and never give a single hour
from one year's end to another to meditation."

"What do you intend to meditate about, J. J.? That German philosopher
of yours, I suppose."

"I haven't settled that yet," said Meldon. "If there's any affair of
yours, either practical, or an intellectual difficulty, which you want
to have carefully thought out, now is your time. I'll devote myself to
it with pleasure."

"Thanks," said the Major, "but there isn't."

"Are you quite sure? A chance like this doesn't occur every day."

"Quite sure; thanks."

"In that case I shall first of all meditate on Simpkins, Miss King, and
the judge. Say an hour and a half for them. Then I shall consider the
subject of my little daughter's education. Now that the various
professions are opening their doors to women, it's most important to
have a reasoned out scheme of education for a girl, and you can't get
at it too soon. These two subjects, I think, will make a tolerably
complete programme for the morning. If you ring a bell outside the
door at one o'clock, I shall row in to luncheon. I shall be pretty
hungry by that time, I expect, in spite of the biscuits."

Meldon carried out his plan successfully for the first part of the
morning. He arranged the biscuits, his tobacco pouch, and a box of
matches in convenient places; laid down a life-buoy as a pillow, and
stretched himself at full length on the deck. After a time he shut his
eyes, so that no insistent vision of the _Spindrift's_ rigging should
interrupt the working of his thought. At half-past eleven he was
hailed from the shore. He raised himself slightly, and, leaning on his
elbow, looked over the gunwale of the yacht. Major Kent stood on the
beach.

"Anything wrong?" shouted Meldon.

"No. Nothing, except that Doyle is up at the house wanting to see you,
and he seems to be in an uncommonly bad temper."

"I'm not going to drag myself all the way up to the house to gratify
some whim of Doyle's. If he thinks he has a grievance, let him come
down to the shore and I'll pacify him."

"Very well," said the Major. "I'll bring him. You row ashore and be
ready when he comes."

"I shall do nothing of the sort. I can shout at him from here. He
can't possibly have any business of a confidential kind. He merely
wants to be soothed down about some trifle