"No indeed," said the boy, when the letter was shown to him.

That afternoon as Bob was coming back from the store, he met, on the
main street of the village, an old man who lived on the outskirts of
the town. His name was Captain Obediah Hickson and he had once been
a sailor, though he told so many different versions of his life at
sea, that it was hard to say where truth began and fiction left off.
Still he might not have meant to deceive any one, for he was rather
simple-minded.

"What's this I hear about you going to take a long sea voyage?" he
asked of Bob.

"It's true, Captain Obed," which was what every one called the aged
man. "I'm going around Cape Horn with Captain Spark. We start
soon."

"Around Cape Horn, eh? Then you'll strike the Southern Pacific."

"I expect so."

A curious change seemed to come over the old man. He looked
carefully up and down the street to see that no one was in sight,
and then, approaching quite closely to Bob, he whispered:

"Bob, come to my house to-night."

"What for?"