assuredly injure his health if he worked by candle light.

Fortunately, John Wilkes had just opened a fresh sales-book, and
Cyril told him that he wished to refer to some particulars in the
back books. He first opened the ledger by inscribing under their
different heads the amount of each description of goods kept in stock
at the last stock-taking, and then entered under their respective
heads all the sales that had been made, while on an opposite page he
entered the amount purchased. It took him a month's hard work, and he
finished it on the very day that the new stock-taking concluded.




CHAPTER III

A THIEF SOMEWHERE


Two days after the conclusion of the stock-taking, Cyril said, after
breakfast was over,--

"Would it trouble you, Captain Dave, to give me an hour up here
before you go downstairs to the counting-house. I am free for two
hours now, and there is a matter upon which I should like to speak to
you privately."

"Certainly, lad," the old sailor said, somewhat surprised. "We shall
be quiet enough here, as soon as the table is cleared. My dame and
Nellie will be helping the maid do up the cabins, and will then be