navigation sufficiently to obtain them was a problem. Though he
held a British navigator's license, he did not appear to be an
Englishman. None of us ever knew, I think, from what country he
originally came. His rough, mumbling, unready speech might have
been picked up in any of the seaports of the English-speaking
world. His manners smacked of the forecastle, and he was
altogether so difficult to classify that I used to toy with the
theory that he had murdered the real Captain Magnus for his papers
and was masquerading in his character.

The captain, as Mr. Vane had remarked, was Miss Browne's own find.
Before the objections of Mr. Shaw--evidently a Negative Influence
from the beginning--had caused her to abandon the scheme. Miss
Browne had planned to charter a vessel in New York and sail around
the Horn to the island. While nursing this project she had formed
an extensive acquaintance with persons frequenting the New York
water-front, among whom was Captain Magnus. As I heard her remark,
he was the one nautical character whom she found sympathetic, by
which I judge that the others were skeptical and rude. Being
sympathetic, Captain Magnus found it an easy matter to attach
himself to the expedition--or perhaps it was Violet who annexed
him. I don't know which.

Mr. Vane used to view the remarkable gastronomic feats of Captain
Magnus with the innocent and quite unscornful curiosity of a little
boy watching the bears in the zoo. Evidently he felt that a
horizon hitherto bounded mainly by High Staunton Manor was being
greatly enlarged. I knew now that the Honorable Cuthbert's father
was a baron, and that he was the younger of two sons, and that the
elder was an invalid, so that the beautiful youth was quite certain