s to notice it at all.
It is like the ticking of a clock, so incessant and regular, that one
has to listen intently for a moment or two before his accustomed ear
will single it out and make it definite. One low, steady, continuous
roar, a little deeper in tone when the wind is easterly, the voice of
the old dog Ocean gnawing with foaming mouth at the bone of the Cape and
growling as he gnaws.

It may be that the young man with the square shoulders and the suit-case
had paused at the turn of the road by the church to listen to this
song of the sea; at any rate he was there, and when Captain Eri steered
Daniel and the cranberry barrels around the corner and into the "main
road," he stepped out and hailed.

"I beg your pardon," he said; "I'm afraid I'm mixed in my directions.
The stage-driver told me the way to the cable station, but I've
forgotten whether he said to turn to the right when I reached here, or
to the left."

Captain Eri took his lantern from the floor of the wagon and held it up.
He had seen the stranger when the latter left the train, but he had not
heard the dialogue with Josiah Bartlett.

"How was you cal'latin' to go to the station?" he asked.

"Why, I intended to walk."

"Did you tell them fellers at the depot that you wanted to walk?"

"Certainly."

"Well, I swan! And they give you the direction?"

"Yes," a little impatiently; "why shouldn't they? So many blocks till I
got to the main street, or road, and so many more, till I got somewhere
else, and then straight on."

"Blocks, hey? That's Joe Bartlett. That boy ought to be mastheaded, and
I've told Perez so more'n once. Well, Mister, I guess maybe you'd better
not try to walk to the cable station to-night. You see, there's one
thing they forgot to tell you. The station's on the outer beach, and
there's a ha'f mile of pretty wet water between here and there."

The young man whistled. "You don't mean it!" he exclaimed.

"I sartin do, unless there's been an almighty drought since I left the
house. I tell you what! If you'll jump in here with me, and don't mind
waitin' till I leave these barrels at the house of the man that owns
'em, I'll drive you down to the shore and maybe find somebody to row you
over. That is," with a chuckle, "if you ain't dead set on walkin'."

The stranger laughed heartily. "I'm not so stubborn as all that," he
said. "It's mighty good of you, all the same."

"Don't say a word," said the Captain. "Give us your satc