And it presently came about that the only time they had any peace was when Geordie was very much intoxicated. But when they got into the calms of Capricorn on the home stretch to the north he developed a taste for gambling and made the old skipper sit up all night playing "brag" for huge sums of money. "I lends you the dibs, and, win or lose, it's all hunky for you," said Geordie. He made out orders to pay the "old man" several thousand pounds, and Smith began to feel rich. Then Geordie raked Ware into the game. At last even Brose succumbed to the lure of "I promises to pay Mr. Brose five hundred on the nail," and joined the gamble. "This is a dash comfortable ship," said Geordie. "What's a few thousand to me? I don't mind losin'. Stooard, bring rum." [Illustration: "HE ADDRESSED THE CROWD FROM THE POOP."] By the time they picked up the north-east trades poor old Smith owed the "owner" ten thousand pounds. Ware was five thousand to the good, and Brose, who had played poker in California, was worth fifteen thousand in strange paper. He began to dream of a row of houses with a public-house at each end. He and Geordie grew quite thick and compared public-house ideals. "I'm goin' to buy a hotel," said Geordie; "there's one in Trafalgar Square, London, as I've in my mind. I'll fit up the bar till it fair blazes with golden bottles." He borrowed the mate's clothes and had a roaring time, and then they came into the Channel and picked up a tug, and went round the Foreland into London river. "I'll bet lawyers and so on will be down to meet me," said Geordie. "They'll be full up with gold. To think of it! And to think I hit my poor old uncle with a brick!" He mourned over his brutality. "He wasn't half a bad chap," he said, "and I don't see what call my dad had to call him a bloodsucker after all." They docked in the South-West Dock, and sure enough they had not been alongside their berth five minutes before old Tyser's usual London agent and a very legal-looking person came on board. "Let me introduce you to the new owner," said the obsequious skipper, as he led up Geordie, who had a smile on him large enough to cut a mainsail out of. "Oh," said the lawyer, "then this is Mr. Potts?" "That's me," said Geordie. "Have you brought any money with you? I owes Mr. Ware five thousand and Mr. Brose fifteen." The lawyer smiled. "I'm afraid there's some mistake, Mr. Potts. Your uncle left a will after all." [Illustration: "I'M AFRAID THERE'S SOME MISTAKE, MR. POTTS."] Geordie's jaw dropped and so did Ware's. But Brose's fell as falls the barometer in the centre of a cyclone. "And me--did he leave me nothin'?" roared Geordie. "Oh, yes," said the solicitor. "Mr. Gray, will you kindly give me that cash-box you are carrying?" And the agent handed him the cash-box. "He left you this," said the lawyer. "And in this sealed envelope is the key." Geordie grabbed the box eagerly. "It's heavy," he said, "it's tolerable heavy."