Dennis Wayman was serving his customers, and Thomas Milsom was drinking at the bar. Joyce pushed his way to the landlord. "Have you seen anything of the captain?" he asked. "No, he hasn't been here since you left." "You're sure of that?" "Quite sure." "He's not been here to day; but he's been here within the week, hasn't he? He was here on Tuesday, if I'm not misinformed." "Then you _are_ misinformed," Wayman said, coolly; "for your seafaring friend hasn't darkened my doors since the morning you and he left to go to the coach-office." Joyce could say nothing further. He passed through the passage into the public room, where the so-called concert had begun. Jenny Milsom was singing to the noisy audience. The girl was very pale, and her manner and attitude, as she sat by the piano, were even more listless than usual. Joyce Harker did not stop long in the concert-room. He went back to the bar. This time there was no one but Milsom and Wayman in the bar, and the two seemed to be talking earnestly as Joyce entered. They left off, and looked up at the sound of the clerk's footsteps. "Tired of the music already?" asked Wayman. "I didn't come here to hear music," answered Joyce; "I came to look for my captain. He had an appointment to meet his brother here to-day at twelve o'clock, and it isn't like him to break it. I'm beginning to get uneasy about him." "But why should you be uneasy? The captain is big enough, and old enough, to take care of himself," said the landlord, with a laugh. "Yes; but then you see, mate, there are some men who never know how to take care of themselves when they get into bad company. There isn't a better sailor than Valentine Jernam, or a finer fellow at sea; but I don't think, if you searched from one end of this city to the other, you'd find a greater innocent on shore. I'm afraid of his having fallen into bad hands, Mr. Wayman, for he had a goodish bit of money about him; and there's land-sharks as dangerous as those you meet with on the sea." "So there are, mate," answered the landlord; "and there's some queer characters about this neighbourhood, for the matter of that."