gain, and started off on another tack.
In his anxiety to make his position perfectly clear, he quoted from
Elsie's remarks of the previous evening, and then, thinking perhaps
he had gone too far, tried to smooth these over by more explanations.
Repeating this process several times got him into such a snarl that
he scarcely knew what he was saying. When the agony was over Ralph had
received the impression that Miss Preston had said his visits were a
perfect torture to her, that she objected to being left alone with him,
that she held Captain Jerry responsible for these things, and that the
latter was sorry for something or other, though what it was he, Ralph,
didn't know or care particularly. To the Captain's continued apologies
he muttered absently that it was "all right," and walked slowly away
with his hands in his pockets. Captain Jerry was relieved by this
expression of forgiveness. He felt that the situation wasn't what he
would like to have it, but, at any rate, he had done his duty. This was
a great consolation.

Ralph didn't call that evening or the next. When he did drop in it was
merely to inquire concerning John Baxter's progress, and to chat for a
moment with the captains. His next visit was a week later, and was just
as brief and formal.

If Elsie noticed this sudden change she said nothing. There might have
been some comment by the others, had not a new sensation so occupied
their minds as to shut out everything else. This sensation was caused by
Josiah Bartlett, who ran away one night, with his belongings tied up in
a brown paper parcel, leaving a note saying that he had gone to enlist
in the Navy and wasn't coming back any more.

There were lively times the next morning when the note was found.
Captain Perez was for harnessing up immediately and starting off to find
the lost one, hit or miss. Captain Eri soon showed him the folly of
this proceeding and, instead, hurried to the railway station and sent a
telegram describing the fugitive to the conductor of the Boston
train. It caught the conductor at Sandwich, and the local constable at
Buzzard's Bay caught the boy. Josiah was luxuriously puffing a five-cent
cigar in the smoking car, and it was a crest-fallen and humiliated
prodigal that, accompanied by the a fore-mentioned constable, returned
to Orham that night.

But the stubbornness remained, and the next day Perez sought Captain Eri
in a troubled frame of mind.

"Eri," he said dejectedly, "I don