“Well, then, to come to the point, I want to buy her.”

“You want to buy her!  Well, that is a good one.  Do you know what I paid for the Orion?”

“No, sir.”

“Well, she cost me just one thousand dollars.  How much are you willing to give for her?”

Mr. Leeds looked at the well-worn garments of the would-be purchaser and smiled.

“What will you sell her for?” asked Clyde.

“Come, now, is this a joke, or what?” grinned the broker.  “Has your uncle suddenly opened his heart, or have you come into possession of your property?”

“Neither,” replied the boy, gravely, “but if you will sell me the yacht on a note—­”

“On a note, eh?  Well, isn’t this rich?  What is your note worth?”

“Nothing, I know, Mr. Leeds; but it will be some day.  I can’t pay you now, but when I am old enough to draw a note I will pay it.”

The broker looked at the boy steadily for a moment.

“Clyde, something is up,” he said.  “What is it?”

“It all comes out of that ‘pointer’ you gave me this afternoon.  I am going to leave home to escape being driven away.”

“Phew!” whistled the broker.  “Tell me about it.”

And Clyde went over the whole story from beginning to end, and gave a graphic description of the plot to send him to Australia.

“Well, this is about the worst I ever heard,” was Mr. Leeds’ comment, when the recital was finished.  “I couldn’t have believed your uncle would have gone to such extremities.  Well, we must block that game.  We can haul him into court and prove a conspiracy.”

“No,” objected Clyde, “that wouldn’t do at all.  Of course, my uncle would deny the whole thing, and then, when it had all blown over, off I would go.”

“But what do you intend to do?”

“I believe that my father is still alive.  One of the men who was with him thinks it is possible.  I shall never be satisfied until I have made an investigation, and I want to take him and go to the Caribbean Sea.  I thought if you would sell me the yacht on credit I would go.”

“Well, I won’t sell the Orion,” declared the broker.

Clyde’s hopeful countenance fell.

“I said I wouldn’t, and I won’t.  But you can have her, and everything aboard of her—­that is, if she is fit to go on such a cruise.”

Clyde’s eyes filled with tears.

“You are too good.  I can’t take it unless you will let me pay for it when I can.”

“Nonsense!  Don’t talk that way.  I never was good in my life, and I think it won’t hurt me any to do a little thing like that.  The Orion is of no use to me, and, unless you do take her, I shall run her on the rocks and set her on fire, as sure as I am alive.  But what are you going to do for money?  You can’t go anywhere without money?”

“Ray and I have got thirty dollars between us.”