A curious change flitted across old Troop's hard face. "What
might you have been doin' at your time o' life with one hundred
an' thirty-four dollars, young feller?"

"It was part of my pocket-money - for a month." This Harvey
thought would be a knockdown blow, and it was - indirectly.

Oh! One hundred and thirty-four dollars is only part of his
pocket-money - for one month only! You don't remember hittin'
anything when you fell over, do you? Crack ag'in' a stanchion,
le's say. Old man Hasken o' the "East Wind" - Troop seemed to be
talking to himself - "he tripped on a hatch an' butted the
mainmast with his head - hardish. 'Baout three weeks afterwards,
old man Hasken he would hev it that the "East Wind" was a
commerce-destroyin' man-o'-war, an' so he declared war on Sable Island
because it was Bridish, an' the shoals run aout too far. They
sewed him up in a bed-bag, his head an' feet appearin', fer the
rest o' the trip, an' now he's to home in Essex playin' with
little rag dolls."

Harvey choked with rage, but Troop went on consolingly: "We're
sorry fer you. We're very sorry fer you - an' so young. We won't
say no more abaout the money, I guess."

"'Course you won't. You stole it."

"Suit yourself. We stole it ef it's any comfort to you. Naow,
abaout goin' back. Allowin' we could do it, which we can't, you
ain't in no fit state to go back to your home, an' we've jest come