Captain Ringgold had done his best to comfort him with the assurance that it would not be the policy of Scoble to annoy or persecute his mother. His sole object was to effect a reconciliation with her, and he certainly could not accomplish it by ill-treating her. It was sound reasoning, and Louis accepted it. The only thing he had to fear was that she would be overborne by the wily persuasions of the villain, though even in this respect he was tolerably confident that she would be unyielding after the strong position she had taken. Solaced by the reasonable view of his excellent friend, he had consented to take to a berth in the cabin, and endeavor to obtain some rest. Captain Ringgold did not seem to require any sleep, so carried away was he by the interest he felt in the enterprise in which he was engaged. After all that he had said to Louis, he found Bickling, the cook, asleep on a divan in the cabin. This man had given all the information that had been obtained in regard to the intentions of Scoble, especially that the Maud was going to Bermuda. It had been conveyed in a very hurried manner while the party were walking from the creek to the town, in the midst of the excitement of the occasion, and the shipmaster was not quite satisfied with it. He did not scruple to rouse the cook from his deep slumber for the purpose of examining him more at his leisure. “You heard Captain Scoble say that he was bound for Bermuda, did you?” demanded the captain, as he seated himself at the cabin table, some distance from Louis’s berth. “Which I did, sir, and very plainly too, sir,” replied Bickling after a long and heavy gape. “Did he give any reason for going to Bermuda?” “Which he did not then, sir; but Stowin, which it is one of the seamen of the vessel, told me ’e ’ad a brother there, which was the keeper of an ’otel in St. George’s. Perhaps you don’t know about the Bermuda Islands, sir?” “I have been there half a dozen times, and know all about the islands. Stowin told you Captain Scoble had a brother there?” “Which he did, sir, and that the captain had ten thousand pounds left him by his uncle in India, and ’e ’ad a bill for the same money for his brother, which his name is ’Enery Scoble, and I ’ave been to his ’otel in St. George, sir.” In answer to the questions of the captain, Bickling said he had first met Scoble at a restaurant in Baltimore, where he was order-cook. His furnace was in the dining-room, and the captain of the Maud had spoken to him about obtaining a cook for his vessel. As he wanted to return to England, he had engaged with him for the voyage, as Scoble said he was to have a lady passenger, and wanted to have a good table for her. “But where was Scoble’s vessel at this time?” asked Captain Ringgold. “Which it was somewhere on the coast of New Jersey, sir, and I don’t just know where; but he called it Dolphin Bay,” replied the cook.