He took up the paper that had rested on his knees; but the oldest sea-captain living placed upon it his cherished cutting from the Daily Mirror paper. "Well, read that, Matey," said the oldest sea-captain living. "That's better than any bit you've got there. Look, Matey. Look what it says." He indicated with a trembling finger the smudged and thumbed lettering beneath the smudged picture and read aloud: "'One of the most remarkable men to be found in our workusses--those re--those rep--those reposetteries of strange 'uman flotsam---is Cap'n Henery Peters, the oldest sea-captain living.' That's me, Matey. See my face? 'Cap'n Henery--'" "Yes," said Mr. Wriford. "Yes. That's fine," and took up the cutting and handed it back. "You ain't finished reading of it," protested the oldest sea-captain living. "I have. I read quicker than you. I'll read it again in a minute. I just want to finish this. I'm in the middle of it." The oldest sea-captain living protested anew. "You wasn't reading when I come up to you. I saw you wasn't." "I was thinking. I'd just stopped to think." It was an unfortunate excuse, arousing a fellow sympathy in the oldest sea-captain living. "Why, they do make you think, some of the words they writes, don't they?" said he. "Look at my bit--re--rep--reposetteries--there's one for yer. What's a re--rep--reposettery?" "I don't know." "Well, I don't neither, Matey," said the oldest sea-captain living, "an' I don't suppose that young chap as wrote it did." He pointed to the page upon which Mr. Wriford seemed to be engaged. "It's a cracker, Matey. You got some crackers there too by the look of it." He put his finger on a word of title lettering that ran in bold type across the top. "W-r-i-f-o-r-d," he spelt. "That's a crackjaw name for yer. What's it spell, Matey?" But Mr. Wriford, attracted by the crackjaw name thus indicated, was now giving a real attention to the paper. The oldest sea-captain living concentrated upon his own beloved features in the Daily Mirror paper, and, engrossed upon them, drifted away. Mr. Wriford read the headline, boldly printed: "THE WRIFORD BOOM: ANOTHER BRILLIANT NOVEL."