tside the shanty. Out we bolted
and there was Sam Davis, just steppin' ashore from his power boat.
Williams's housekeeper had strained a p'int and had shaded her orders by
a couple of days.

"Williams and Sam started for home right off. I followed in the Shootin'
Star, havin' borrered gasoline enough for the run. I reached the dock
ha'f an hour after they did, and there was Fatty waitin' for me.

"'Berry,' says he, 'I've got a word or two to say to you. I ain't
kickin' at your givin' me tit for tat, or tryin' to. Turn about's fair
play, if you can call the turn. But it's against my principles to allow
anybody to beat me on a business deal. Do you suppose,' he says, 'that
I'd have paid your robber's prices without a word if I hadn't had
somethin' up my sleeve? Why, man,' says he, 'I gave you my CHECKS, not
cash. And I've just telephoned to the Wellmouth Bank to stop payment
on those checks. They're no earthly use to you; see? There's one or two
things about high finance that you don't know even yet. Ho, ho!'

"And he rocked back and forth on his heels and laughed.

"I held up my hand. 'Wait a jiffy, Mr. Williams,' says I. 'I guess these
checks are all right. When we fust landed on Woodchuck, I judged by the
looks of the shanty that Baker hadn't left it for good. I cal'lated
he'd be back. And sure enough he come back, in his catboat, on Thursday
evenin', after you'd turned in. Them checks was payable to "Bearer,"
you remember, so I give 'em to him. He was to cash 'em in the fust thing
Friday mornin', and I guess you'll find he's done it.'"

"Well, I swan to MAN!" interrupted the astonished and delighted Phinney.
"So you had him after all! And I was scart you'd lost every cent."

Captain Sol chuckled. "Yes," he went on, "I had him, and his eyes and
mouth opened together.

"'WHAT?' he bellers. 'Do you mean to say that a boat stopped at that
dummed island and DIDN'T TAKE US OFF?'

"'Oh,' says I, 'Darius didn't feel called on to take you off, not after
I told him who you was. You see, Mr. Williams,' I says, 'Darius Baker
was my partner in that wheat speculation I was tellin' you about.'"

The Captain drew a long breath and re-lit his cigar, which had gone out.
His friend pounded the settee ecstatically.

"There!" he cried. "I knew the name 'Darius Baker' wa'n't so strange to
me. When was you and him in partners, Sol?"

"Oh, 'way back in the old days, afore I went to sea at all, and afore
mother died. You wouldn't