riends, he was startled, as they walked down the High Street at Cowes,
to see coming toward him a man whom he believed he had met somewhere
before. The individual did not appear to be taking very particular
notice of anything just at the moment, seeming indeed to be sunk deep in
thought; but when he was about ten yards from Jack's party he suddenly
looked up and found the young man's eyes fixed enquiringly upon him.
For an instant he stopped dead, and an expression of mingled annoyance
and fear flashed into his eyes; then he turned quickly and sprang, as if
affrighted, into the door of a shop opposite which he had paused. But
in that instant Jack remembered him; he was "Mr Mackintosh, of
Inveraray!"

"Now what, in the name of fortune, is that chap doing down here?"
wondered Singleton. "Is it accident and coincidence only, or has he
discovered something, and come down here to watch my doings and those of
the yacht? That is a very difficult question to answer, for one meets
all sorts of people at Cowes during August; yet that fellow does not
look as though he knew enough about yachts to have been attracted here
by the racing. And he was evidently desirous of avoiding recognition by
me, or why did he bolt into that shop as he did? I am prepared to swear
that he did not want to buy anything; he had not the remotest intention
of entering the place until he saw me. Of course that may have been
because of the scare I gave him that night at the Cecil--or, on the
other hand, it may have been because he did not wish me to know that he
was anywhere near me. Anyhow, it does not matter, for my doings down
here have been absolutely innocent, and such as to disarm even the
suspicion of a suspicious Spanish spy; and in any case he cannot very
well follow me wherever I go. Perhaps before the month is out his
suspicions--if he has any--will be laid at rest, since I am just now
doing absolutely nothing to foster or strengthen them, and he will come
to the conclusion that there is no need to watch me. But I am very glad
that the idea occurred to me of never running the boat at a higher speed
than fourteen knots while we have been down here; there is nothing to be
gained by giving away her real speed, and--who knows?--a little harmless
deception in that matter may one day stand us in good stead."

Thenceforward, whenever Jack had occasion to go ashore, he always kept a
particularly smart lookout for "Mr Mackintosh"; but he saw him