"Yes, sir."

"I didn't think this of you, Bobtail. This morning I got you out of a bad sc.r.a.pe. If I hadn't done so, you would have been taken up for stealing that letter, which contained five hundred dollars. Now, you go back on me the same day," added the captain, more gently.

"I don't go back on you, sir. If you own this boat, I'll tell you all I know about her."

"I don't say that I own her."

"I know you don't say so; and for that reason I can't say anything more about her. You only told the truth about the letter."

"But I might have held my tongue, and I'm sorry now I didn't."

After this speech, Little Bobtail had no doubt that Captain c.h.i.n.ks was a bad man, and he felt the necessity of extreme caution in dealing with him.

"I don't see how you could keep still when Squire Gilfilian asked you the question," added Bobtail, in his simplicity.

"If I had done by you as you are doing by me when I ask you a question, I should have kept still, as you do."

"But I don't want to get any one into a sc.r.a.pe," pleaded the skipper.

"What do you mean by that? I only ask you to tell the truth, as I did for you this morning," said the captain, in a coaxing tone.

"Squire Gilfilian owned that letter, and he had a right to ask about it.

If you say you own this boat, I shall feel that I am perfectly safe in answering your questions."

"Perfectly safe! Then of course there was a cargo in her," added the visitor.

"I don't say there was. Have you lost a cargo, Captain c.h.i.n.ks?"

The captain mused. To say that he had lost a cargo would be to acknowledge that he was a smuggler, and he could not trust the secret to a boy like Little Bobtail, who had the reputation of being an honest and truthful boy. If called upon to give evidence, the boy would tell the whole truth. He would rather lose both the cargo and the boat than be convicted of smuggling.

"If there was no cargo in her, you would say so, Bobtail; so I have no doubt there was a cargo in her," continued Captain Clunks, after a silence of a few moments. "I take it for granted there was some sort of goods in her."

"What makes you think so, sir?"

"I have a notion of my own on that subject. If I'm not greatly mistaken, I saw this boat down to Bar Harbor. My idea is, that she went out to sea somewhere, and took a lot of goods from some fishing vessel, and tried to run them up to Camden, or some other port. I don't say it is so, but it might be. Very likely some of those custom-house officers got wind of the affair, and were on the lookout for the boat. Very likely the men in charge of her abandoned her, and cleared out to save themselves."

"I wonder if they went over to Camden in the Islesboro' packet this morning," suggested Bobtail, innocently.

"What do you mean, you young villain!" cried Captain c.h.i.n.ks, springing forward over the table, and seizing the skipper by the throat. "Do you mean to say I'm one of them?"

"Let me alone!" yelled Bobtail, struggling to shake off the hard gripe of the visitor.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Our hero had a hard fist, if it was a small one, and he used it vigorously upon the head and face of his a.s.sailant. He pounded so hard that the captain, holding him at a disadvantage across the table and centre-board, was compelled to release his hold.

"I am not to be trifled with," gasped Captain c.h.i.n.ks, panting from his exertions, and smarting from the heavy blows which Bobtail had inflicted upon his face.

"Nor I, either!" yelled the skipper, seizing a spare tiller which lay on the transom. "If you put your finger on me again, I'll break your head!"

"What's the row?" shouted Monkey, rushing down into the cabin, his round eyes distended to their utmost.

"I don't let anybody take me by the throat," replied Bobtail, shaking his head, and adjusting his shirt collar at the same time.

"It's all right now, Monkey, go and catch your fish," added Captain c.h.i.n.ks, mildly, feeling that his wrath had got the better of him, and induced him to commit an imprudent act.

"It won't be all right if you put your hand on me again," said Bobtail, still holding the spare tiller in his hand.

"You knew that I came over in the Islesboro' packet this morning."

"I wasn't thinking of you when I spoke," muttered Bobtail, who for the first time saw the force of the suggestion he had made.

"I was only supposing a case," said the captain.

"What? when you caught me by the throat? I don't want you to suppose any more cases, then."

"I won't, Bobtail. Perhaps the men had run the boat ash.o.r.e, and were looking for a place to hide the goods, when the wind blew her off, and sent her adrift."

"Perhaps it was so; I don't know," answered the skipper, coldly.

"If she had a cargo in her, what have you done with it?"

"I didn't say she had any cargo, and I'm not going to say anything more about it till the owner claims the boat. That's the end of it."

Little Bobtail rose from the transom, and walked towards the companion-way. Captain c.h.i.n.ks looked very savage. He was evidently in a dilemma, from which he could not extricate himself.

"One minute more, my lad," called the captain. "I may possibly come across the person who lost this boat."

"If you do, send him to me, and he shall have his boat, and--and--everything that belongs to her," replied Bobtail, who was still full of wrath towards his late a.s.sailant.

"But, you see, if she had any smuggled goods on board of her--"

"I didn't say she had."

"You won't understand me! I say _if_ she had. Now, perhaps I can make a trade with the owner for you."

"I don't want you to make any trade for me. Send him to me, and he shall have his boat. That's all."

"But he will be afraid to expose himself. Now, suppose he should offer to let you keep the boat, if you would give up the goods, if you found any goods in her. If I should happen to find him, or to hear of him, shall I tell him you will make this sort of a trade with him?"

"No! Tell him he can have his boat and everything that belongs to her.

I've learned more about smugglers to-day than I ever knew before, and I wouldn't touch one with a ten-foot pole; and I wouldn't make a trade with him to cheat the government. I don't want to talk any more about it. I've got a sore throat now."

Having thus delivered himself, Bobtail went on deck, and ordered the crew to help him get up the anchor. In a few minutes the Skylark was headed towards the town. Captain c.h.i.n.ks remained in the cabin, full of wrath and disappointment.