!" exclaimed Mat, when he
discovered her.

"What yacht?"

"The Starry Flag!"

She had been standing off and on between Sandy Hook and Coney Island
for twenty-four hours, on the lookout for the Caribbee.

CHAPTER XXII.

THE TRAVELLER WHO LOST HIS WAY.

The steward of the yacht watched the house of Mr. Fairfield all night;
but no one entered or left it. Levi took his turn the next day again;
and, when he proposed to employ a fresh hand for the second night,
Augustus insisted upon serving, himself. He had slept enough during the
day, and he wanted the satisfaction of capturing Dock, if he presented
himself.

This time he was in luck, as he declared, for about one o'clock at
night, when the town was as still as though it contained not a single
living inhabitant, the villain came to obtain his money, probably not
doubting that by this time it had been paid to his agent.

The steward had stationed himself in such a position that no one could
approach the house unseen by him. Just after the clock on one of the
churches had struck one, he heard footsteps on the road, and presently
a man stopped in front of the miser's house. Contrary to the usual
custom of rogues and villains, he went up to the front door, and
knocked vigorously. The heart of the watcher leaped with expectation,
and he crept like a cat on the grass till he had obtained a position
behind a lilac bush, near the front door. The first summons of the
unseasonable visitor did not procure a response from within, and the
man knocked again.

Though the vigilant sentinel did not recognize his cowardly enemy, he
had no doubt it was he. The form was about the height of Dock, but
appeared to be better dressed than when he had seen the ruffian. Who
else should go to the house of the miser at that unseemly hour?

"Who's there?" called Mr. Fairfield, with his impatient whine, as he
threw open one of the windows of his chamber.

"I've got lost, and I want some one to show me the way to Gloucester,"
replied the visitor, in a tone so different from the voice of Dock that
Augustus did not recognize it, and began to fear that the villain was
not within his reach, as he had confidently believed.

"Got lost--have you? Well, take the right hand road out by the
school-'us," added the miser, not so sourly as most people would have
spoken when roused from their sleep to direct a night traveller.

"There are two or three roads there, and I can't afford to go much