where he could go and go quick. No smart Alec gets the best of me,
even if he has got a month's contract. You run that launch and put me on
the fishin' grounds. I pay you for that and bringin' me back again. And
I furnish my own extras and you can furnish yours. I don't want any of
your Yankee bargainin'. See?'

"I saw. There wa'n't no real reason why I couldn't take the job. 'Twas
well along into September; the hotel was closed for the season; and
about all I had on my hands just then was time.

"'All right,' says I, 'it's a deal. If you'll guarantee to have your
launch ready, I--'

"'That's my business,' he says. 'It'll be ready. If it ain't you'll get
your pay just the same. To-morrer mornin' at eight o'clock. And don't
you forget and be late. Gid-dap, you blackguard!' says he to the horse.

"'Hold on, just a minute,' I hollers, runnin' after him. 'I don't want
to be curious nor nosey, you understand, but seems 's if it might help
me to be on time if I knew where your launch was goin' to be and what
your name was.'

"He pulled up then. 'Humph!' he says, 'if you don't know my name and
more about my private affairs than I do myself, you're the only one in
this county that don't. My name's Williams, and I live in what you folks
call the Lathrop place over here toward Trumet. The launch is at my
landin' down in front of the house.'

"He drove off then and I walked along thinkin'. I knew who he was
now, of course. There was consider'ble talk when the Lathrop place was
rented, and I gathered that the feller who hired it answered to the hail
of Williams and was a retired banker, sufferin' from an enlarged income
and the diseases that go along with it. He lived alone up there in the
big house, except for a cranky housekeeper and two or three servants.
This was afore he got married, Sim; his wife's tamed him a little. Then
the yarns about his temper and language would have filled a log book.

"But all this was way to one side of the mark-buoy, so fur as I was
concerned. I'd cruised with cranks afore and I thought I could stand
this one--ten dollars' worth of him, anyhow. Bluster and big talk may
scare some folks, but to me they're like Aunt Hepsy Parker's false
teeth, the further off you be from 'em the more real they look. So the
next mornin' I was up bright and early and on my way over to the Lathrop
landin'.

"The launch was there, made fast alongside the little wharf. Nice,
slick-lookin' craft she was, too, all