"You ought to be. Mistook me?--O' course you did. And as for Cap'n Hunken's sendin' me, he don't even know yet that he's lost his money: and if he did he'd be too proud, as you ought to know." "Lost his money?" echoed Cai. "What money?" "Well, to start with, you don't suppose Mr Rogers got his stroke for nothin'? 'Twas the news about the _Saltypool_ that bowled him out: an' between you an' me, in a few days there's goin' to be a dreadful mess. He always was a speckilator. The more money he made--and he made a lot, back-along--the more he'd risk it: and the last year or two his luck has been cruel. In the end, as he had to tell me--for I did all his writin', except when he employed Peter Benny,--he rode to one anchor, and that was the _Saltypool_. He ran her uninsured." "Uninsured?" Cai gave a low whistle. "But all the same," said he, "an' sorry as I am for Rogers, I don't see how that affects--" "I'm a-breakin' it gently," said Fancy, not without a small air of importance. "Cap'n Hunken had a small sum in the _Saltypool_--a hundred pounds only." "I wonder he had a penny. 'Tisn't like 'Bias to put anything into an uninsured ship." "Mr Rogers did it without consultin' him. Cap'n Hunken didn' know, and _I_ didn' know, for the money didn' pass by cheque. Some time back in last autumn--I've forgot the date, but the books'll tell it--the old man handed me two hundred pound in notes, not tellin' me where they came from, with orders to pay it into his account: which I took it straight across to the bank--" "Belay there a moment," interrupted Cai. "A moment since you mentioned _one_ hundred." "So I did, because we're talkin' of Cap'n Hunken. Two hundred there were, and all in bank notes: but only one hundred belonged to _him_--and I only found _that_ out the other day, when he heard that Mr Rogers had put it into the _Saltypool_, and there was a row. As for the other-- Lawks, you don't tell me 'twas yours!" exclaimed Fancy, catching at the sudden surmise written on Cai's face. "Why not? . . . If he treated 'Bias that way? Sure enough," said Cai. "I took him a hundred pounds to invest for me, about that time." "Did he pay you a dividend this last half-year?" "To be sure--seven pound, eight-an'-four." "That was on the _Saltypool_," Fancy nodded. "And oh! Cap'n Hocken, I am so sorry! but that hundred pound o' yours is at the bottom of the sea." "Well, my dear," said Cai after a pause, pulling a wry face, "to do your master justice, he warned me 'twas a risk. There's naught to do but pay up un' look pleasant, I reckon. 'Twon't break me." "Cut the loss, you mean. The shares was paid up in full, and there can't be no call." "You're knowledgeable, missy: and yet you're wrong this time, as it happens. For (I may tell you privately) the money didn' belong to me, but to Mrs Bosenna, who asked me to invest it for her." "Oh!--and Cap'n Hunken's hundred too?"