"Is she in the bay or in the canal?"

"She looks like a mighty toney kind o' vessel," said Cap'n
Abernethy. "If I was to make a guess I'd say she was one of them
craft that sails herself along when she wants to with one of
these newfangled gasoline engines."

"She wasn't towed here then?" Cleggett gave up the attempt to
learn from the Captain just where the house boat was.

"She lies in the canal," said the Cap'n. Having established the
point that he could not be FORCED to tell where she lay, he
volunteered the information as a personal favor from one
gentleman to another. "She lies ahead of us in the canal, a
p'int or so off our port bow, I should say. And if you was to ask
me I'd say she wasn't layin' there for any good purpose."

"What do you think she's up to? What makes you suspicious of
her?"

"No, sir, she wasn't towed in," said Cap'n Abernethy, "or I'd 'a'
heard a tug towin' her. Comin' of a seafarin' fambly I'm a light
sleeper by nature."

Cleggett finished dressing and went on deck. Sure enough, towards
the south end of the canal, three or four hundred yards south of
the Jasper B., and about the same distance east of Morris's, was
anchored a house boat. She was painted a slaty gray color. As
Cleggett looked at her a man stepped up on the deck, and, putting
a binocular glass to his eye, began to study the Jasper B. After