“Good!” cried the captain. Then he pulled out his watch, and held it as far away as the chain would stretch, frowning at it with his head aslant. “Well!” he burst out. “He hasn't got any too much time on his hands.” The old man gave a nervous start, and the girl trembled. “Hold on! Yes; there's time. It's only fifteen minutes after five.” “Oh, but we were more than half an hour getting down here,” said Lydia, anxiously. “And grandfather doesn't know the way back. He'll be sure to get lost. I _wish_ we'd come in a carriage.” “Couldn't 'a' kept the carriage waitin' on expense, Lyddy,” retorted her grandfather, “But I tell you,” he added, with something like resolution, “if I could find a carriage anywheres near that wharf, I'd take it, just as _sure_! I wouldn't miss that train for more'n half a dollar. It would cost more than that at a hotel to-night, let alone how your aunt Maria'd feel.” “Why, look here!” said Captain Jenness, naturally appealing to the girl. “Let _me_ get your grandfather back. I've got to go up town again, any way, for some last things, with an express wagon, and we can ride right to the depot in that. Which depot is it?” “Fitchburg,” said the old man eagerly. “That's right!” commented the captain. “Get you there in plenty of time, if we don't lose any now. And I'll tell you what, my little girl,” he added, turning to Lydia: “if it'll be a comfort to you to ride up with us, and see your grandfather off, why come along! _My_ girls went with me the last time on an express wagon.” “No,” answered Lydia. “I want to. But it wouldn't be any comfort. I thought that out before I left home, and I'm going to say good-by to grandfather here.” “First-rate!” said Captain Jenness, bustling towards the gangway so as to leave them alone. A sharp cry from the old man arrested him. “Lyddy! Where's your trunks?” “Why!” said the girl, catching her breath in dismay, “where _can_ they be? I forgot all about them.” “I got the checks fast enough,” said the old man, “and I shan't give 'em up without I get the trunks. They'd ought to had 'em down here long ago; and now if I've got to pester round after 'em I'm sure to miss the train.” “What shall we do?” asked Lydia. “Let's see your checks,” said the captain, with an evident ease of mind that reassured her. When her grandfather had brought them with difficulty from the pocket visited last in the order of his search, and laid them in the captain's waiting palm, the latter endeavored to get them in focus. “What does it say on 'em?” he asked, handing them to Lydia. “My eyes never _did_ amount to anything on shore.” She read aloud the name of the express stamped on them. The captain gathered them back into his hand, and slipped them into his pocket, with a nod and wink full of comfort. “I'll see to it,” he said. “At any rate, this ship ain't a-going to sail without them, if she waits a week. Now, then, Mr. Latham!”