“You see,” continued Dan, with a grin, “I hadn’t slept very well on the boat coming from New York and I’d got up early. So I was awfully sleepy and tired. ‘So,’ says I to myself, ‘I’ll just lie down here on the bunk a minute and rest up’; I knew I had a hard job ahead of me. Well, that’s about all I remember until I woke up a while ago and smelled coffee; I guess it was the coffee that woke me. At first, when Nelson sung out and told me you were three to one, I thought I was still dreaming. Then I did some thinking and guessed that somehow or other you’d taken me for some one else. I didn’t know what the gag was, but I thought I’d see it through. When you told me to hand over my revolver I remembered Bob’s and got that out. I did what I could for you, you see. But I came near spoiling it by laughing. When I heard Nel’s stern voice I thought I’d have to stuff a pillow in my mouth!” “It’s good you didn’t get gay and come through the door,” said Nelson grimly. “If you had you’d been laid out with a monkey wrench on the side of your head.” “That would have been a wrench,” laughed Dan. “Give me some more of the hash, Tommy; it’s the best ever.” After luncheon was over they decided to go on and try to make New Haven that evening. It was not yet three o’clock and they would have four hours and a half of daylight in which to cover about forty-five miles. So the tender was hoisted aboard and the _Vagabond_ was cast loose from the wharf, and twenty minutes later they left the river water and turned westward. Bob gave a grunt of satisfaction. “Well,” he said, “I’m glad to see the last of that place. I’d begun to think that we were going to spend the rest of the summer there!” A moment later Tom pointed out the Seamont Inn where it stood on a hill a short distance back from the shore. And for the next half hour he regaled Dan with a history of his brief connection with that hostelry. It was an ideal afternoon, with the hot sunshine tempered by a cool breeze from the southwest. On the starboard the picturesque Connecticut shore lay near at hand, jutting out into little promontories and retreating to form charming bays and inlets. On their other side, the distant shore of Long Island showed blue and hazy across the smooth waters of the Sound.