“Thirty fiddlesticks!  Here,” and the broker pulled out a well-filled pocket-book and counted out some bills—­“here are three hundred dollars.  You will have to fit the yacht up for a long cruise.  There! don’t make any objections.  I owe you something for helping me out of a bad scrape to-day.  You can promise to pay me if you like, and, when you come into possession of your property, you can do so.  But never mind the note.  It isn’t worth anything, anyway, and I can trust you, I’m sure.  Now, who is this man that you say will go with you?”

“I don’t know his name.  Tom, the fisherman, calls him Old Ben.  He was the boatswain on my father’s ship.”

“Well, I want to see him.  Come with me.”

The two strolled over to the fisherman’s cabin, where Tom and Ben were found smoking their pipes and telling each other sea stories.  It did not take Mr. Leeds long to come to the point, and, when the whole story had been repeated, the broker asked the fisherman whether the Orion could be relied upon to make such a trip.

“Well, there’s a risk about it, of course,” was the reply; “but the Orion is a mighty fine boat—­mighty fine.  She would stand up before a good stiff gale, and Old Ben, here, is just the man to handle her.”

“Well, then, Old Ben, will you go along and run her?” asked the broker.

“Now, I ain’t a holdin’ out any promises that we will find the cap’n,” and the old salt shook his head.  “It’s my opinion that the chances is all agin’ it.  But if the youngster wants to go, and as Tom says the boat is a good one, why, I don’t mind makin’ the trip.  It may be there is something behind it all and that the cap’n is still alive; but, as I said—­”

“I don’t ask you to go for nothing, you understand,” interrupted the broker.

He took out his pocket-book again and selected five twenty-dollar bills.

“You don’t make more than twelve or fifteen dollars a month before the mast.  Here are one hundred dollars, and if you find the cap’n, there is more for you.”

“Thankee, sir,” said the boatswain, with a bob of the head.  “But I didn’t expect that.  I would have gone without it.  Yes, I will go, and we will find the cap’n, if he’s in the land of the livin’.  If he ain’t, why, then—­he ain’t; and that’s all there is about it.”

“We shall have to get off in the morning; or, rather, as soon as possible,” said Clyde, delighted with the prospect.  “My uncle will have me in his clutches to-morrow, and if he gets hold of me there may be trouble.”

“I think that is the best way,” approved the broker.  “You will need some stores, but you cannot get them here.  You will have to run in to New York and take them aboard.”

“Yes, that’s right,” assented Old Ben.

“And you had better take out papers that will allow you to cruise as a yacht.  I will have the Orion made over to Clyde, so he will be your owner, and you will find him a good sailor as well.”