'Bias, not at all discomposed, went on filling his pipe. "I see what you're drivin' at," said he. "'Tis the same tale Philp was chantin' just now, over the wall; how that Rogers had lost his own money and ours as well, and 'twas in everybody's mouth. Which I say to you what I said to him: ''Tis the old story,' I says, 'let a man be down on his back, and every cur'll fly at him.'" "But suppose 'twas true? . . . Did Rogers ever show the bonds and papers for your money?" "'Course he did. Showed me every one as they came in, and seemed to make a point of it. 'Made me count 'em over, some time back. 'Wouldn' let me off 'till I'd checked 'em, tied 'em up in a parcel, docketed 'em, sealed 'em, and the Lord knows what beside. Very dry work. I claimed a glass o' grog after it." "And then you took 'em away?" asked Cai with a sudden hope. "Not I. For one thing, they're vallyble, and I don't keep a safe. I put 'em back in the old man's--top shelf--alongside o' yours." Cai groaned. "They're missin' then!" "Who told you?" "The child--Fancy Tabb." 'Bias looked serious. "Why didn' she come to me, I wonder?" "I reckon--knowing what friends we'd been--she left it to me to break the news." "I won't believe it," declared 'Bias slowly. But he sat staring straight at the horizon, and after each puff at the pipe Cai could hear him breathing hard. "The child's not given to lyin'. And yet I don't see--Rogers bein' helpless to open the safe on his own account. At the worst 'tis a bad job for ye, 'Bias." "Eh? . . . 'Means sellin' up an' startin' afresh: that's all--always supposin' there's jobs to be found, at our age. I don't know as there wouldn't be consolations. This here life ashore isn't all I fancied it." Now Cai had in mind a great renunciation: but unfortunately he could not for the moment discover any way to broach it. He played to gain time, therefore, awaiting opportunity. "As for getting a job," he suggested, "there's no need to be downcast; no need at all. If the worst came to the worst, there's the _Hannah Hoo_, f'r instance, and a providence she never found a buyer." "Ay, to be sure--I'd forgot the bark'nteen." "Come!" said Cai with a quick smile, playing up towards his grand _coup_. "What would you say to shippin' aboard the _Hannah Hoo?_" "What?--as mate under _you_? . . . I'd say," answered 'Bias slowly, "as I'd see you damned first." "But"--Cai stared at him in bewilderment--"who was proposin' any such thing? As skipper I thought o' you--what elst? Leastways--" "And you?" "Me? . . . But why? There's no call for _me_ goin' to sea again." "Ah, to be sure," said 'Bias bitterly, "I was forgettin'. You'll stay ashore and make up your losses by marryin'!" "But I haven't _had_ any losses!" stammered Cai. "Not beyond the hundred pound in the _Saltypool_. . . . Didn't I make that plain?" "No, you didn't." 'Bias laid down his pipe. "Are you standin' there and tellin' me that _your_ papers are all right and safe?"