"_And_ shipshape. That's one load off my mind, anyway," sighed Captain Cai. "You're bound to like 'em--that is, if you like Troy at all. There's hot and cold water laid on, so's you can have a bath at a moment's notice." "I don't _see_ myself, exactly," said Captain Tobias. "But never mind." "Well, as I was sayin', I called there to-day--to break the ice, so to speak--" "You didn't mention ice; or, if you did, I missed hearin' it." "'Tis a way of speakin'. Well, the widow pressed me to stay to dinner, and there was a suckin' pig; and afterwards--" "Hold hard." Captain Tobias removed the pipe from his mouth and stared earnestly at his friend. "Say that agen," he commanded. "There was roast suckin' pig, I tell you. It melted in y'r mouth. Well, after dinner she left me alone with pipes an' tobacco; an' 'twas then, I suppose, that in my forgetful way I must have slipped the box into my pocket." "'Twasn' very nice treatment, was it?--after the length she'd gone to put herself out." "But 'twas absence o' mind, you understand." "I seem to remember," mused Captain Tobias, "there was a Lord Somebody-or-other suffered from the same complaint. I read about it in the papers, an' only wish I'd cut it out. Any little valu'bles lyin' about he'd slip into his pocket. But I never heard of your bein' afflicted in that way." "Of course I'm not!" Captain Cai protested warmly. "Then I don't see what excuse you'll put up. . . . But wait till we get all this cargo stowed. Ahoy, there!" Captain Tobias called up the porters, and after consultation it was decided to convert the goods-shed into a cloak-room for housing the bulk of his luggage, but to send on his sea-chest and the birdcage by wheelbarrow to his lodgings. "What's the address?" he asked, turning to Captain Cai. "Ship Inn." "What?" Captain Tobias paused in the act of picking up the nine-gallon jar. "Drinks on the premises?" "Lashin's." "What a world o' fuss that arrangement do save! Here!--" to the porter who stood checking the articles deposited--"this goes into hold wi' the rest. Contents, rum, an' don't you forget it, my son; leastways, pr'aps I'd better say, don't you remember it." "I'm a total abstainer, sir," said the porter proudly. "You don't tell me? . . . One meets with such cases, about. . . . Well,"--Captain Tobias turned to Captain Cai again, as one averting his face from a sorrow to which no help can be proffered--"what's the distance?" "To the Ship? About half a mile--a nice easy walk, an' the barrow can follow us." They were no sooner outside the station premises, however, than Captain Tobias called halt to the driver of the wheelbarrow, paid him, and instructed him to proceed ahead. "And you may tell the landlord," he added, "to expect us when he sees us." He watched the man out of sight before explaining this manoeuvre. "'Twas clever of you to mistake me, in front of those fellows; but I _meant_, what distance to this here widow's?"