“Keep out of the way of gentlemen who want to dry themselves,” grunted the skipper, and he calmly took possession of the fire, beckoning his crew to follow him.  The Colonel and Mr. Bodge were shut out from the cheering blaze.

The first thing Cap’n Sproul did, as he squatted down, was to pull out his wallet and inspect the precious check.

“It’s pretty wet,” he remarked, “but the ink ain’t run any.  A little dryin’ out is all it needs.”

And with Ward shouting fearful imprecations at him over the heads of the group about the fire, he proceeded calmly to warm the check, turning first one side and then the other to the blaze.

“If you try to grab that,” bawled Hiram, who was squatting beside the Cap’n, eying him earnestly in his task, “I’ll break in your head.”  Then he nudged the elbow of the Cap’n, who had remained apparently oblivious of his presence.  “Aaron,” he muttered, “there’s been some things between us to-night that I wish hadn’t been.  But I’m quick-tempered, and I ain’t used to the sea, and what I done was on the spur of the moment.  But I’ve shown that I’m your friend, and I’ll do more to show—­”

“Hiram,” broke in the Cap’n, and his tone was severe, “mutiny ain’t easy overlooked.  But considerin’ that your elephant has squared things for you, we’ll let it stand as settled.  But don’t ever talk about it.  I’m havin’ too hard work to control my feelin’s.”

And then, looking up from the drying check, he fixed the vociferous Colonel with flaming eyes.

“Did ye hear me make a remark about my feelin’s?” he rasped.  “Your business and my business has been settled, and here’s the paper to show for it.”  He slapped his hand across the check.  “I didn’t come back here to talk it over.”  He gulped down his wrathful memory of the reasons that had brought him.  “You’ve bought Bodge.  You’ve bought Cap Kidd’s treasure, wherever it is.  You’re welcome to Bodge and to the treasure.  And, controllin’ Bodge as you do, you’d better let him make you up another fire off some little ways from this one, because this one ain’t big enough for you and me both.”  The Cap’n’s tone was significant.  There was stubborn menace there, also.  After gazing for a time on Sproul’s uncompromising face and on the check so tantalizingly displayed before the blaze, Colonel Ward turned and went away.  Ten minutes later a rival blaze mounted to the heavens from a distant part of Cod Lead Nubble.  Half an hour later Mr. Bodge came as an emissary.  He brought the gage of battle and flung it down and departed instantly.

“Colonel Ward says for me to say to you,” he announced, “that he’ll bet a thousand dollars you don’t dare to hand that check into any bank.”

“And you tell him I’ll bet five thousand dollars,” bellowed the Cap’n, “that I not only dare to cash it, but that I’ll get to a bank and do it before he can get anywhere and stop payment.”

“It’s a pretty fair gamble both ways,” remarked Hiram, his sporting instincts awake.  “You may know more about water and ways of gettin’ acrost that, but if this wind holds up the old spider will spin out a thread and ride away on it.  He’s ga’nt enough!”