The captain grunted, he hated to pay, especially without a long bargaining, but he knew his friend well enough to realize that it was a waste of valuable time, and that one might just as well try to bargain with a graven image. Slowly he drew out a leather pouch from his capacious pants' pocket and opening it placed--How many twenty dollar gold pieces, Reader, to make five hundred dollars? Well, Tom, what is it? "Fifteen." You Johnny? "Twenty-five." Quite right. They made a brave sight piled up in the light upon the table, but they did not stay in evidence very long for after noting each one carefully, he put it in the black bag, until they were all properly shepherded. "Would you like to have this business finished to-day, Captain?" inquired the lawyer. "You're right, I would," said Broome with emphasis. "Make it a thousand, and I'll guarantee to do it," replied the lawyer. The captain's jaw fell. "It is worth it, for the risk is double," returned the lawyer. "I haven't anything like it with me," declared the captain. "I'm no gold mine." "Give me your note then," said Reynolds, "payable in fifteen days." "I tell you what I will do, Mr. Reynolds, I'll make it for three hundred; and more I can't do." "Agreed," said the lawyer. "Have a drink on it," urged the captain, hospitably, and feeling fairly well satisfied with his bargain. "No time for that," replied the lawyer abruptly; "you'll be at the castle not later than ten and I'll make my part of the contract good. Tell those niggers of yours to dig in and row some going back." The captain evidently gave them sound instructions, because they made record time, cutting through the fog at a slashing gait. CHAPTER XVI AN ODD RESTAURANT Let us now return to our friends, Captain James Darlington and Chief Engineer John Berwick, of the good yacht, _Sea Eagle_, the latter now in the bad hands of Pirate William Broome. We left them crouching in the fog outside the car restaurant on the beach. Two men had come out into the fog. The first a big sailor as was evident by his gait, as well as his costume, and the man who followed in his wake was of a slinking type, and may have been a beachcomber. Jim could not make up his mind whether these two were members of the pirate crowd or not.