hen ye've got him. He's goin' to
Cove this afternoon, I believe, an'll be here before startin', so I'm
towld, so I'm waitin' for him."

As he spoke Haco entered, and Dan delivered a letter to him.

"Who from?" inquired the skipper sternly.

"Mr Stuart, _alias_ the guv'nor," replied Dan with extreme affability;
"an' as no answer is required, I'll take my leave with your highness's
permission."

Haco deigned no reply, but turned to Gildart and held out his hand.

"You've not gone to stay at Cove yet, I see," said Gildart.

"Not yet, lad, but I go to-night at nine o'clock. You see Mrs Gaff is
a-goin' to visit a relation for a week, an' wants me to take care o' the
house, the boodwar, as she calls it, though why she calls it by that
name is more than I can tell. However I'll be here for a week yet, as
the `Coffin' wants a few repairs, (I wonder if it ever didn't want
repairs), an' I may as well be there as in the Home, though I'm bound to
say the Home is as good a lodgin' as ever I was in at home or abroad,
and cheap too, an' they looks arter you so well. The only thing I an't
sure of is whether the repairs is to be done here or in Athenbury."

"The letter from Mr Stuart may bear on that point," suggested Gildart.

"True," replied the skipper, opening the letter.

"Ha! sure enough the repairs _is_ to be done there, so I'll have to cut
my visit to Cove short by four days."

"But you'll sleep there to-night, I suppose?" asked Gildart, with more
anxiety than the subject seemed to warrant.

"Ay, no doubt o' that, for Mrs G and Tottie left this mornin', trustin'
to my comin' down in the evenin'; but I can't get before nine o'clock."

"Well, good-day to you," said Gildart; "I hope you'll enjoy yourself at
Cove."

The middy hastened away from the Sailors' Home with the air of a man who
had business on hand. Turning the corner of a street he came upon a
brass band, the tones of which were rendering all the bilious people
within hearing almost unable to support existence. There was one
irascible old gentleman, (a lawyer), under whose window it was braying,
who sat at his desk with a finger in each ear trying to make sense out
of a legal document. This was a difficult task at any time, for the
legal document was compounded chiefly of nonsense, with the smallest
possible modicum of sense scattered through it. In the circumstances
the thing was impossible, so the lawyer rose and stamped about the
floor, and wishe