The second cutter had gone but a short distance before it was hailed by a boat from the shore, with a man in uniform in the stern sheets. He was a Custom-House official, and having satisfied himself that the cutter contained no merchandise, he permitted it to proceed to the shore. The official then came on board of the steamer, where he was received by Captain Ringgold, who explained that no goods or passengers would be landed from the present anchorage, as the ship had come in principally to land the wrecked party he had seen in the cutter. The official declared that he was obliged to remain on board as long as the steamer was at the islands. “I shall be very happy to have your company, Mr.----” “Stockling is my name, captain,” prompted the official. “Captain Ringgold is mine. I hope you will make yourself at home on board,” added the commander, as he offered his cigar-case to the officer. The captain directed Sparks to bring a couple of arm-chairs on deck, and had them placed where all that happened on board could be observed. Then he went to the galley, where he found Bickling at his usual duties. “Cook, I think you told me that Captain Scoble had a brother in the Bermudas.” “Which it is true I did; and his brother’s name which it is ’Enery Scoble, and he kept an ’otel in St. George’s.” “Henry Scoble, is it?” “Which it is, sir.” The commander returned to the shady side of the quarter-deck where he had seated Stockling, and took the other arm-chair placed there. He was very polite to his official guest, who praised the cigar he was smoking. The captain told him about the shipwreck of the Maud, and talked about St. George’s, the port where the officer resided. “Do you know a gentleman in St. George’s by the name of Henry Scoble?” asked Captain Ringgold. “I did know him, sir, for my chum, George Hastings, and I had lodgings at his hotel for a few months; but he is no longer in the land of the living,” replied Stockling. “Then he is dead?” “Died only about a month ago. He kept a hotel in St. George’s, but that was not his chief business,” answered the official. “What was his chief business?” “It would be hard to tell in full; but he was a dealer in spirits and wines, and was a smuggler and a speculator, as well as a wrecker.” “Then he made money?” suggested the captain. “Loads of money; and his estate is valued at over a hundred thousand pounds, which he gave by his will to his only brother, taking out five thousand pounds for his only sister. But his brother is a bad man, worse even than Henry; and everybody here is sorry that the money goes to him.” “Why do you say that he is a bad man?” “In the first place because he abused his wife, and then abandoned her to take care of herself.” “Indeed!” exclaimed the captain, but very quietly.