"My mother isn't dead, is she?" gasped Dory, clinging to the office-counter for support. "No, she is not. But another member of your family is to be buried to-day," added the landlord. "Is it my sister Marian?" groaned Dory. "No, Dory: it is your father." The young skipper staggered to a chair, and dropped into it. The landlord hastened to him. His father was dead. Though it was known in Plattsburgh, and had been for three days, that the Au Sable steamer, while in charge of Perry Dornwood, the assistant pilot, had been run over a point of rocks, and wrecked, Dory had not heard of it. Some who could have told him the news did not care to hurt his feelings; others did not know he was the son of the pilot; and many heard of the event, and forgot it the next minute. "My father dead!" groaned Dory. "And I did not even know that he was sick!" The landlord did not care to give him the whole of the sad particulars. He was silent, thinking that some friend of the family could discharge this painful duty better than he could. "That is what my uncle Royal wanted of me, and I have been running away from him," added Dory. The landlord had seen Captain Gildrock the day before when he came to Plattsburgh to look for the boy; and he supposed he had found him. He concluded that the skipper thought it necessary to take his boat to Burlington, and had therefore permitted the Sylph to go on without him. He was surprised to see him when he came into the hotel. The Sylph had merely come up to the wharf to land her passengers, and Peppers had only told about the trick played upon him by Pearl. In fact, the captain had asked him and Moody not to mention the fact that his nephew had run away from him. It looked like an unpleasant family matter, and he did not care to have it talked about. Dory was overwhelmed by the intelligence of the death of his father. It was some time before he recovered his self-possession, and then only when the landlord again reminded him that he might be late for the funeral. His good friend walked down to the wharf with him, carrying a basket of provisions he had ordered for him; but the skipper did not feel like eating now. He took the basket, and the Goldwing was soon standing down the bay. Of course it was not possible for Dory to think of any thing but the death of his father as he sailed up the lake. He had no particulars of the sad event; but now it appeared that his uncle had been in search of him, and had taken great pains to find him. He regretted very much that he had avoided him, and he thought more of uncle Royal than ever before in his life. He had regarded him as a rich man, who was selfish, and who had neglected his sister, the boy's mother. He had not been in her house since she was married.