"I have rode in my time in a side-saddle: and that, sir, is not easily forgotten. But if you will overlook it, gentlemen," said Mrs Bowldler tearfully, "I might go on to mention that Palmerston have had a misfortune with a tumbler last night." Cai continued to stare. "I _saw_ a couple performin' in the street yesterday. How did the boy get mixed up in it?" "He broke it clearin' up the _debree_ in the summer-house after the visitors had gone," Mrs Bowldler explained. "Which being a new departure, I hope you will allow me to pass it by in his case with a caution." In the course of the forenoon Cai paid a call at Mr Rogers's harbour-side store, where he found Mr Rogers himself superintending, from his invalid-chair, the weighing out of coal. Fancy Tabb was in attendance. "Hullo!" Mr Rogers greeted him. "Well, the show went very well yesterday, and I see your name in the papers this morning." Cai confessed that he, too, had seen it. "And it won't be the last time either, not by a long way. I was wantin' a word with you. Cap'n Hunken,--eh, but that's the sort of friend to have--a man in a thousand--Cap'n Hunken was tellin' me, a few days back, as he'd a mind to see ye in public life." "Thank'ee," said Cai. "'Bias has been nursin' that notion about me, I know. But I hope I can make up my own mind." "He said 'twould be a distraction for ye." "Very likely." Cai was nettled without knowing why. "But supposin' I don't need bein' distracted, not at this present?" "Not at this present," Mr Rogers agreed. "Your friend allowed that; but he said as, all human life bein' uncertain, he was worried in mind what was goin' to become o' you in the years to come." "Meanin' after his death?" asked Cai, with a touch of asperity. "He didn' specify. It might ha' been death he had in mind, or it might ha' been anything you like. What he said was, 'I'd like to see old Cai fixed up wi' summat to while away his latter years.' That's how he said it, in those exact words, an' nothing could have been more kindly put." "We're the same age, to a hair. I don't see why 'Bias should be in all this hurry, unless between ourselves . . . But you wanted a word with me." "Yes, on that very question. I'm on the School Board, as it happens, and I'm thinkin'--between you an' me--to send in my resignation, which will create a vacancy." "Oh?" said Cai, alert; "I didn' know you took an interest in education." "I don't," Mr Rogers responded frankly. "I hate the damned thing. If it rested with me, I'd have no such freaks in the land. But there's always the rates to be kept down. And likewise there's the coal contract to be considered. Added to which," he wound up, "it gives you a pull in several little ways." "I see," said Cai after a pause. "But, if that's so, why resign?" "Because I'm broken in health, an' can't attend the meetings. I'd have resigned six months ago if it hadn't been for Philp." "Did Mr Philp persuade you to hold on?"