“‘All right,’ says he, sharp.  ‘Then you come around to my landin’ to-morrer mornin’ at eight o’clock prompt and take me out in my launch to the cod-fishin’ grounds.  I’ll give you ten dollars to take me out there and back.’

“‘Well,’ says I, ‘ten dollars is a good price enough.  Do I furnish—­’

“‘You furnish nothin’ except your grub,’ he interrupts.  ’The launch’ll be ready and the lines and hooks and bait’ll be ready.  My own man was to do the job, but he and I had a heart-to-heart talk just now and I told him where he could go and go quick.  No smart Alec gets the best of me, even if he has got a month’s contract.  You run that launch and put me on the fishin’ grounds.  I pay you for that and bringin’ me back again.  And I furnish my own extras and you can furnish yours.  I don’t want any of your Yankee bargainin’.  See?’

“I saw.  There wa’n’t no real reason why I couldn’t take the job.  ’Twas well along into September; the hotel was closed for the season; and about all I had on my hands just then was time.

“‘All right,’ says I, ’it’s a deal.  If you’ll guarantee to have your launch ready, I—­’

“‘That’s my business,’ he says.  ’It’ll be ready.  If it ain’t you’ll get your pay just the same.  To-morrer mornin’ at eight o’clock.  And don’t you forget and be late.  Gid-dap, you blackguard!’ says he to the horse.

“‘Hold on, just a minute,’ I hollers, runnin’ after him.  ’I don’t want to be curious nor nosey, you understand, but seems ’s if it might help me to be on time if I knew where your launch was goin’ to be and what your name was.’

“He pulled up then.  ‘Humph!’ he says, ’if you don’t know my name and more about my private affairs than I do myself, you’re the only one in this county that don’t.  My name’s Williams, and I live in what you folks call the Lathrop place over here toward Trumet.  The launch is at my landin’ down in front of the house.’

“He drove off then and I walked along thinkin’.  I knew who he was now, of course.  There was consider’ble talk when the Lathrop place was rented, and I gathered that the feller who hired it answered to the hail of Williams and was a retired banker, sufferin’ from an enlarged income and the diseases that go along with it.  He lived alone up there in the big house, except for a cranky housekeeper and two or three servants.  This was afore he got married, Sim; his wife’s tamed him a little.  Then the yarns about his temper and language would have filled a log book.

“But all this was way to one side of the mark-buoy, so fur as I was concerned.  I’d cruised with cranks afore and I thought I could stand this one—­ten dollars’ worth of him, anyhow.  Bluster and big talk may scare some folks, but to me they’re like Aunt Hepsy Parker’s false teeth, the further off you be from ’em the more real they look.  So the next mornin’ I was up bright and early and on my way over to the Lathrop landin’.