"I told you," said Carolyn's small voice, "that I just _knew_ he wouldn't be good in an old cellar." "You may shut the door," said Carolyn's mother rather sternly to the man. "You will hear nothing from the dog for the rest of the night." The man backed out rather abashed. But wherever they went the succeeding morning they were obliged to take Prince with them. He was _persona non grata_ at that hotel. It was a most delightful day, and they set sail for Block Island at the very pleasantest hour of it. The little steamer sailed out of the bay, passed the Dumplings and Fort Adams, breasting the heavy groundswell running between Point Judith on the mainland and Sands Point, the extreme northern tip of Block Island. Lying but twenty-five miles or so from Newport, the island soon came into view; and the sun-bathed Crescent Beach and the Clay Cliffs of divers hues offered a very attractive picture to the passengers on the steamboat. They swept past the reach of the Neck in sight of the stony beach of it and of the crescent-curled bathing beach with its sands hard enough to drive upon with a brake and pair of horses; and so around the end of the breakwater into the Old Harbour. Along the main street and up on the hills behind the little hamlet, were the freshly painted hotels and boarding houses, making a colourful picture. Backed up to the wharf where the steamboat docked were several brakes from the larger hotels, as well as a collection of surreys and carryalls as quaint as Tim the hackman's vehicle at Sunrise Cove. The island was no place for automobiles. There was a single street-car running during the summer months from the South Side to the bathing beach and the New Harbour at the Great Salt Pond. Carolyn May and Prince, on the upper deck of the steamboat, were deeply interested while the vessel approached the landing. The clang of the bellbuoy at the mouth of the harbour excited Prince, and the little girl was obliged to speak sternly to him to make him cease barking. "That's not a fire engine bell, Princey," she told the excited beast. "Why! they don't have fire department automobiles 'way out here in the ocean. I should think you'd have more sense." The men and boys who drove the buses and other vehicles were a nondescript lot in appearance; but most of them wore yachting caps and were dressed in a seamanlike way that distinguished them from the visitors to the island. One old man caught Carolyn's eager attention because of a certain physical peculiarity, if for no other reason. His was a sturdy if undersized body. His face was tanned by salt winds and tropical sun to a deep, mahogany hue. He wore a fringe of grey beard masking his throat from ear to ear, but his lips and cheeks were scrupulously shaven. He moved smartly and was dressed neatly; and those observant persons who were familiar with his type would never have mistaken him for anything but the ex-navalman he was.