“Nevertheless, mother, I will give myself up, and take my chance.  To fly would be to give them reason to believe me guilty.”

“Give yourself up!” exclaimed the captain, “you’ll do nothing of the sort.  Come, lad, remember I’m an old man, and an uncle.  I’ve got a plan in my head, which I think will keep you out of harm’s way for a time.  You see my old chronometer is but a poor one,—­the worse of the wear, like its master,—­and I’ve never been able to make out the exact time that we went aboard the Termagant the night you went away.  Now, can you tell me what o’clock it was?”

“I can.”

’"Xactly?”

“Yes, exactly, for it happened that I was a little later than I promised, and the skipper pointed to his watch, as I came up the side, and jocularly shook his head at me.  It was exactly eleven P.M.”

“Sure and sartin o’ that?” enquired the captain, earnestly.

“Quite, and his watch must have been right, for the town-clock rung the hour at the same time.”

“Is that skipper alive?”

“Yes.”

“Would he swear to that?”

“I think he would.”

“D’ye know where he is?”

“I do.  He’s on a voyage to the West Indies, and won’t be home for two months, I believe.”

“Humph!” said the captain, with a disappointed look.  “However, it can’t be helped; but I see my way now to get you out o’ this fix.  You know, I suppose, that they’re buildin’ a lighthouse on the Bell Rock just now; well, the workmen go off to it for a month at a time, I believe, if not longer, and don’t come ashore, and it’s such a dangerous place, and troublesome to get to, that nobody almost ever goes out to it from this place, except those who have to do with it.  Now, lad, you’ll go down to the workyard the first thing in the mornin’, before daylight, and engage to go off to work at the Bell Rock.  You’ll keep all snug and quiet, and nobody’ll be a bit the wiser.  You’ll be earnin’ good wages, and in the meantime I’ll set about gettin’ things in trim to put you all square.”

“But I see many difficulties ahead,” objected Ruby.

“Of course ye do,” retorted the captain.  “Did ye ever hear or see anything on this earth that hadn’t rocks ahead o’ some sort?  It’s our business to steer past ’em, lad, not to ’bout ship and steer away.  But state yer difficulties.”

“Well, in the first place, I’m not a stonemason or a carpenter, and I suppose masons and carpenters are the men most wanted there.”

“Not at all, blacksmiths are wanted there,” said the captain, “and I know that you were trained to that work as a boy.”

“True, I can do somewhat with the hammer, but mayhap they won’t engage me.”

“But they will engage you, lad, for they are hard up for an assistant blacksmith just now, and I happen to be hand-and-glove with some o’ the chief men of the yard, who’ll be happy to take anyone recommended by me.”