this crazy performance meant. There was not a creature on the
boat, alive or dead.

"Everything was shipshape. The little craft had evidently been
used for fishing. There were rough men's clothes on board, rubber
boots and oilskins, fresh water and provisions, blankets in
the cabin, fishing-lines and bait in the cockpit, gasolene in the
tanks--a nice little outfit, all complete, and no one to run it.

"Where had she come from? There were no names on bow or stern, no
papers in the cabin. Who had started her on this crazy voyage? How
did she get away from them? Had they perhaps abandoned her and
cast her adrift for some mysterious reason? Undoubtedly there were
men--apparently three--on board when she set out. What had happened
to them? A drunken quarrel? Or possibly one of the men had fallen
overboard; the others had jumped in to save him; the engine had
started up and the boat left them all in the lurch. Perhaps one
or all of them may have had some reason for wanting to 'disappear
without a trace,' so they hit upon the plan of going ashore at
some lonely place and turning the boat loose to wreck herself. That
would have been a stupid scheme of course, but not too stupid to
be human.

"It was just a little piece of sea mystery to which we had no clew.
So we debated it for an hour, and then set about the more important
work of salvaging the stranded derelict. Fortunately she went
ashore near the last of the ebb, and now lay comfortably in the
mud, apparently little damaged except for some long scratches on
her side, and a broken blade in her propeller. We dug away the mud
at bow and stern, made fast a tow-line, and when the tide came in