with a clove hitch round her waist, and she looking up into his eyes
like they were peekholes in the fence 'round paradise. That was enough.
It just simply COULDN'T go any further, so that night me and Jonadab had
a confab up in my room.

"Barzilla," says the cap'n, "if we tell Peter that that relation of
his is figgering to marry Maudina Stumpton for her money, and that he's
more'n likely to elope with her, 'twill pretty nigh kill Pete, won't it?
No, sir; it's up to you and me. We've got to figger out some way to get
rid of the critter ourselves."

"It's a wonder to me," I says, "that Peter puts up with him. Why don't
he order him to clear out, and tell Belle if he wants to? She can't
blame Peter 'cause his uncle was father to an outrage like that."

Jonadab looks at me scornful. "Can't, hey?" he says. "And her high-toned
and chumming in with the bigbugs? It's easy to see you never was
married," says he.

Well, I never was, so I shut up.

We set there and thought and thought, and by and by I commenced to sight
an idee in the offing. 'Twas hull down at first, but pretty soon I got
it into speaking distance, and then I broke it gentle to Jonadab. He
grabbed at it like the "Labrador mack'rel" grabbed Stumpton's hook. We
set up and planned until pretty nigh three o'clock, and all the next
day we put in our spare time loading provisions and water aboard the
Patience M. We put grub enough aboard to last a month.

Just at daylight the morning after that we knocked at the door of