r time to go out."

"Possibly; but we choose to do it. If you don't want to let your boat,
say so, and have done with it. We'll find another."

"Oh, as far as thet's consarned, ef you kin run her I don't mind ef you
go out any old time. But I'd like ter see ef you kin, afore we go any
further."

"Where is she?"

"Right out there. I'll row you out to her. Come on down this ladder;
easy, now. You're pretty old for this sort of work."

But, despite the old man's apparent decrepitude, he stepped down the
steep and rather rickety ladder, at the foot of which lay a dory, with
the agility of a youth. His companion declared that he would remain on
the dock.

Guessing that he didn't want to leave the bag, of which he seemed so
careful, Lem hailed him.

"Come on and bring your grip, ef ye scared o' leavin' it," he said.

But the other shook his head, and Lem pulled out toward his launch with
only the old man as passenger. The launch was a black, rakish-looking
craft, and once on board the old man expressed approval of the powerful,
two-cylindered engine with which she was equipped.

"Say, you do know suthin' about ingines, don't yer?" admired Lem, after
a few sharp questions had shown him that the queer old man really knew
what he was talking about.

A muttered grunt was the only reply. The old man was spinning the
fly-wheel over, after making a few adjustments of the gasoline and spark
supply. A moment later the motor was sputtering and coughing, and the
launch was struggling at her moorings.

Lem cast off and ran the craft about the harbor for a while. At the
conclusion of the test he was satisfied that the old man actually did
understand the workings of gasoline motors. Returning to the wharf, it
only remained for a bargain to be struck, and this was speedily done.
But Lem still held out for something more.

"Seein' as I don't know you an' you're takin' ther boat out alone, I
ought ter hev a deposit or suthin'," he declared, his eyes narrowing.

"What's your boat worth?" demanded the old man.

"Wa'al, I paid a thousand fer her," rejoined Lem, who had only doubled
the actual sum the launch cost him.

"Here you are."

The old man reached into a recess of his black coat and produced a roll
of currency, which Lem later declared to his cronies would have "choked
a horse." Rapidly peeling off several bills of large denomination, he
paid the exorbitant deposit, plus the price agreed upon for the hire of
the boat