varnish and gilt gorgeousness. I'd
liked her better if she'd carried a sail, for it's my experience that
canvas is a handy thing to have aboard in case of need; but she looked
seaworthy enough and built for speed.

"While I was standin' on the pier lookin' down at her I heard footsteps
and brisk remarks from behind the bushes on the bank, and here comes
Williams, puffin' and blowin', followed by a sulky-lookin' hired man
totin' a deckload of sweaters and ileskins, with a lunch basket on top.
Williams himself wan't carryin' anything but his temper, but he hadn't
forgot none of that.

"'Hello, Berry,' says he to me. 'You are on time, ain't you. Blessed if
it ain't a comfort to find somebody who'll do what I tell 'em. Now you,'
he says to the servant, 'put them things aboard and clear out as quick
as you've a mind to. You and I are through; understand? Don't let me
find you hangin' around the place when I get back. Cast off, Sol.'

"The man dumped the dunnage into the launch, pretty average ugly, and me
and the boss climbed aboard. I cast off.

"'Mr. Williams,' says the man, kind of pleadin', 'ain't you goin' to pay
me the rest of my month's wages?'

"Williams told him he wa'n't, and added trimmin's to make it emphatic.

"I started the engine and we moved out at a good clip. All at once that
hired man runs to the end of the wharf and calls after us.

"'All right for you, you fat-head!' he yells. 'You'll be sorry for what
you done to me.'

"I cal'late the boss would have liked to go back and lick him, but I
was hired to go a-fishin', not to watch a one-sided prize fight, and I
thought 'twas high time we started.

"The name of that launch was the Shootin' Star, and she certainly
lived up to it. 'Twas one of them slick, greasy days, with no sea worth
mentionin' and we biled along fine. We had to, because the cod ledge is
a good many mile away, 'round Sandy P'int out to sea, and, judgin' by
what I'd seen of Fatty so fur, I wa'n't hankerin' to spend more time
with him than was necessary. More'n that, there was fog signs showin'.

"'When was you figgerin' on gettin' back, Mr. Williams?' I asked him.

"'When I've caught as many fish as I want to,' he says. 'I told that
housekeeper of mine that I'd be back when I got good and ready; it might
be to-night and it might be ten days from now. "If I ain't back in a
week you can hunt me up," I told her; "but not before. And that goes."
I've got HER trained all right. She know