"Stop it?" 'Bias stared. He was plainly amazed. "I mean, stop talkin' about it! I do, indeed." Still 'Bias stared. Of a sudden a partial light broke in upon him. "Good Lord!" he muttered. He arose, knocked the ashes from his pipe, laid it carefully on the chimney-shelf, slid his hands under his coat-tails, and very solemnly faced about. "I'd an inklin' o' this, once or twice, and I don't mind confessin' it," said he, looking down with a compassionate air which Cai found insupportable. "Tho' 'twas no more than an inklin', and I put it aside, seein' as how no man with eyes could mistake the one she favoured." "Meanin' me, o' course," interjected Cai, jabbing the tobacco down in his pipe. "_You?_" 'Bias opened his eyes wide: then he smiled an indulgent smile. "Ho--you must excuse me--but if that isn' too rich!" "You needn't start grinnin' like that, or you may end by grinnin' on the wrong side of your face." Cai, instead of pitying his friend's infatuation, was fast losing his temper. "What'd you say if I told you I had proofs?" "I'd say you was a plumb liar," answered 'Bias with equal promptness, candour, and aplomb. "Proofs? _What_ proofs?" Cai hesitated a moment. . . . After all, what proof had he to cite? A gentle pressure of the arm, for example, is not producible evidence. "Never you mind," said he sullenly. "You'll have proof enough when the time comes." 'Bias received this with a dry smile. "I thought as much. You haven't any, my sonny--not so much as would cover a threepenny-bit." "You have, I suppose?" sneered Cai. "Heaps." "Very well; let's have a sample. . . . You won't find it on the mantelpiece," for 'Bias had turned about and was picking up his pipe again with great deliberation. "I've no wish to hurt your feelin's undooly," said he, eyeing the bowl for a moment and tapping out the ashes into his palm. "Don't mind _me!_" "But I _do_ mind ye. . . . See here now, Cai," he resumed after a short pause, "we've known one another--let me see--how long?" "Seventeen years, come the twenty-first of November next," quickly responded Cai, fumbling at the tobacco-jar. "In Rotterdam, if you'll remember--our vessels lyin' alongside. 'Hullo!' says you." "Far as I remember, you asked me aboard." "Yes. 'Hullo!' says you; 'that's a pretty-lookin' craft o' your'n.' 'She'll work in' an' out o' most places,' says I. 'Speedy too, I reckon,' says you, 'for a hard-wood ship; though a bit fine forra'd. A wet boat, I doubt?' 'Not a bit,' says I; 'that's a mistake strangers are apt to make about the _Hannah Hoo_. Like to step aboard an' cast a look over her fittin's? I can show ye something in the way of teak panels,' says I: and you came. That's how it began," wound up Cai, staring hard at the tobacco-jar, for--to tell the truth--a faint mist obscured his vision. 'Bias, too, was staring hard, down upon the hearth-rug between his feet.