ot house? Look here, Judah, are
you trying to make a fool of me?"

Mr. Cahoon's countenance--that portion of it above the whisker tidemark,
of course--registered horror at the thought. He had been cook and
steward aboard Captain Kendrick's ships for many voyages and his feeling
for his former skipper was close kin to idolatry.

"Eh?" he gasped. "Me try to make a fool out of _you_, Cap'n Sears? _Me?_
No, no, I got _some_ sense left, I hope."

Kendrick smiled. "Oh, the thing isn't impossible, Judah," he observed
dryly. "It has been done. I have been made a fool of and more than
once.... But there, never mind that. I want to know what you are doin'
at the General Minot place. Come aboard here and tell me about it. You
can leave your horse, can't you? He doesn't look as if he was liable to
run away."

"Run away! Him?" Judah snorted disgust. "Limpin' Moses! He won't run away
for the same reason old Cap'n Eben Gould didn't say his prayers--he's
forgot how. I was out with that horse on the flats last week and the
tide pretty nigh caught us. The water in the main channel was so deep
that it was clean up to the critter's garboard strake, and still, by the
creepin', I couldn't get him out of a walk. I thought there one spell he
might _drift_ away, but I knew dum well he'd never run.... Whoa!
you--you hipponoceros you!" addressing the ancient animal, who was
placidly gnawing at the Macomber hitching post. "'Vast heavin' on that
post! _Look_ at the blasted idiot!" with huge disgust. "To home, by the
creepin', he'll turn up his nose at good hay and then he'll cruise out
here and start to swaller a wood fence. Whoa! Back! Back, or I'll--I'll
bore a hole in you and scuttle you."

The old horse condescended to back for perhaps two feet, a proceeding
which elicited a grunt of grudging approval from Mr. Cahoon. The latter
then settled himself with a thump upon the settee beside Captain
Kendrick.

"How's the spars splicin'?" he inquired, with a jerk of his thumb toward
the captain's legs. "Gettin' so you can navigate with 'em? Stand up
under sail, will they?"

"Not for much of a cruise," replied Sears, using the same nautical
phraseology. "I shan't be able to run under anything but a jury rig for
a good while, I'm afraid. But never mind the spars. I want to know how
you happen to be down here in Bayport, and especially what on earth you
are doin' at the Minot place? Somebody died and left you a million?"

Mr. Cahoon's whiskers w