On the word being passed that Alec Corning was back from the West Coast, a few reminiscent friends went to hunt him up, and found him in the Anchorage, in a back room overlooking Duncan's wharf; and Alec was agreeable, over a social glass and a good cigar, to explain how it came he was back in Gloucester. "If they'd only let us alone I'd 'a' got--and Archie Gillis too--good and rich." "Rich, Alec? You rich?" "Well, maybe not quite rich, for that, o' course, would call for saving, but certainly I'd had a roll to spend before I was done--if only they'd let us alone. But would they? Man, the meddlers they were!--the brass-buttoned, steam-winched buttinskis!" "But if that is their business, Alec?" "M-m--maybe. But Russians, English, Japs--yes, an' American cutters and gunboats before they were done--you ought to seen them!" Alec paused, but only for a quick breath. "We had the finest little scheme of sealing till they took to hunting us. Up and down the length and breadth of the sealing-grounds they'd up and chase us whenever they'd get word of us--from the Japan coast back by way of the Aleutians--clear down, one time, a pair of 'em, till we had to put in behind Vancouver Island and hide the _Hattie_ behind a lot o' screen boughs." Alec paused; this time for a longer, an almost reflective, breath. "That being their business, p'r'aps they were all right; but ain't it a fine thing when a gang wants to go seal-hunting that a lot o' gover'ment people must specify where they can kill 'em, and when?--and they swimmin' the wide ocean as the Lord intended! And our little vessel--the _Hattie Rennish_ when she used to go fresh halibutin' out o' here--remember her?" There were several who heartily remembered the fast and able _Hattie_. Presently, letting the elevated front legs of his chair drop to the floor, Alec rested one forearm on the table and went on to tell of how at last they got the _Hattie Rennish_. "'Twas a Californian man named Trumbull bought the _Hattie_ when she was fresh halibutin' out o' Gloucester. A good sort of a man, and 'twas him got me, with Archie Gillis for mate, to bring her 'round to Frisco. "But the time I'm going to speak of, the _Hattie_--painted green she was, and called the _Pioneer_--was layin' into Seattle, when a chap comes aboard with a letter from Trumbull to me explaining that certain aspects of the sealing business 'd been taking on a serious look to him lately and he'd sold the _Hattie_, and the party who'd bought her, letter herewith, might want to do business with me.