“Looks like I’d get even with some of ’em yet,” he exclaimed, softly. “There’s something aboard that yacht that’s valuable—and what’s more, that man Carleton came all the way down here on purpose to get it. I see it—I see it. They had a locker where they hid valuables, and there’s something there yet worth getting. Oh, I wish I had the rest of that letter!” The squire, forming a sudden resolve, put the precious paper in a drawer, locked it therein, and hurried down to the tent on the point. By good luck, he met Henry Burns coming away from it. “How d’ye do, my boy?” he said, trying to smile agreeably and to conceal his excitement, at the same time. “How do you do, Squire Brackett?” replied Henry Burns, reading easily something of more than ordinary significance in the squire’s shrewd face. “Nice day, sir.” “Yes—yes, so it is,” returned the squire. “See here, I’d like to hire that yacht of yours for a few days—possibly a week. I won’t sail her, of course. I’m no skipper. I’ll get John Hart to run her for me.” “Sorry to disappoint you, squire,” said Henry Burns, “but we can’t let the _Viking_. The season is most over, you see, and we want to have some fun with her the rest of the time. We’ve begun cleaning her out and washing her insides, ready for painting. Perhaps the crew will let you have the _Surprise_, though. I guess Harvey will be willing.” “Well, now,” said the squire, “supposing I pay you ten dollars for her, just for four days. I’ll take—” “No, sorry to refuse,” said Henry Burns, “but I don’t see how we can do it. Besides, we’ve got lots of money, ourselves, you know. We’ve been mackereling.” The squire continued his urging, but Henry Burns was obdurate. The _Viking_ couldn’t be hired—by Squire Brackett, at least. He went home, fuming inwardly. “If I only had the rest of that letter,” he kept repeating. “I don’t dare to offer them very much, on a mere chance. It might turn out like that land I bought of Billy Cook.” The squire, having his mind thus tantalized, began to worry over the mystery and even to dream of it. One night he dreamed that he had hired the yacht, and that he had found a bag filled with twenty dollar gold pieces in it; and, when he woke up, he was so angry to find it was only a dream that he scandalized poor Mrs. Brackett with his exclamations. Young Harry Brackett was made to feel the effects of his father’s mental disturbance. The squire assailed him with questions about Mr. Carleton, which puzzled the son exceedingly. Finally the squire demanded, point-blank, to know what Mr. Carleton had said to him when he commissioned him to buy the yacht. “And you needn’t deny that he did get you to try to buy it, either,” he exclaimed, warmly, “because I know all about that.” Harry Brackett, taken aback, but concluding that Mr. Carleton had told his father about it, admitted the commission, but could not recall anything in particular that Mr. Carleton had said at that time.