Kendrick nodded assent.

“I think I did,” he said.  “Yes, I remember him.  He was one of the big boys when I was a little one, and he used to bully us small chaps.”

“That’s the feller.  He ain’t changed his habits so much, neither.  But he’s our lawyer and I cal’late he’s doin’ well.”

“Is he?  Well, that’s encouraging, at any rate.  And he’s the only lawyer you have?  Only one lawyer in a whole town.  Why in New York I couldn’t throw a cigar stump from my office window without running the risk of hitting at least two and starting two damage suits.”

The captain chuckled.

“I presume likely you didn’t throw many,” he observed.  “That would be expensive fun.”

“It would,” was the prompt reply.  “Cigars cost money.”

They jogged on for a few minutes in silence.  Then said Captain Obed: 

“Well, John, what are you plannin’ to do first?  After we get into port, I mean.”

“I scarcely know.  Look about, perhaps.  Possibly try out a boarding-house and hunt for a prospective office.  By the way, Captain, you don’t happen to know of a good, commodious two by four office that I could hire at a two by four figure, do you?  One not so far from the main street that I should wear out an extravagant amount of shoe leather walking to and from it?”

More reflection on the captain’s part.  Then he said: 

“Well, I don’t know as I don’t.  John, I’ll tell you:  I’ve got a buildin’ of my own.  Right abreast the post-office; Henry Cahoon has been usin’ it for a barber-shop.  But Henry’s quit, and it’s empty.  The location’s pretty good and the rent—­well, you and me wouldn’t pull hair over the rent question, I guess.”

“Probably not, but I should insist on paying as much as your barber friend did.  This isn’t a charity proposition I’m making you, Captain Bangs.  Oh, let me ask this:  Has this—­er—­office of yours got a good front window?”

“Front window!  What in time—?  Yes, I guess likely the front window’s all right.  But what does a lawyer want of a front window?”

“To look out of.  About all a young lawyer does is look out of the window.  Now about a boarding-place?”

Captain Obed had been waiting for this question.

“I’ve got a boardin’-place for you, John,” he declared.  “The office I may not be so sartin about, but the boardin’-place I am.  There ain’t a better one this side of Boston and I know it.  And the woman who keeps it is—­well, you take my word for it she’s all right.”

His passenger regarded him curiously.

“You seem very enthusiastic, Captain,” he observed, with a smile.

Captain Bangs’ next remark was addressed to the horse.  He gruffly bade the animal “gid-dap” and appeared a trifle confused.

“I am,” he admitted, after a moment.  “You’ll be, too, when you see her.”

He described the High Cliff House and its owner.  Mr. Kendrick asked the terms for board and an “average” room.  When told he whistled.