“‘But,’ says I, referring to what he was telling, ’if she was such a nice girl and come from such nice folks, how—­’

“‘How do I know?’ says he.  ’Promises to marry and such kind of lies, I s’pose.  And the plain fact is that he’s really engaged to marry a swell girl in Newport.’

“He told me her name and a lot more about her.  I tried to remember the most of it, but my head was whirling—­and not from cherry rum, either.  All I could think was:  ’Obed, it’s up to you!  You’ve got to do something.’

“I was mighty glad when the sailors hailed from the shore and Ben had to go.  He ’most cried when he said good-by, and went away stepping high and bringing his heels down hard.  I watched the dingey row off—­the tide was out, so there was barely water for her to get clear—­and then I went back home to think.  And I thought all the afternoon.

“Two and two made four, anyway I could add it up, but ’twas all suspicion and no real proof, that was the dickens of it.  I couldn’t speak to Phoebe Ann; she wouldn’t b’lieve me if I did.  I couldn’t telegraph Cap’n Eben at Provincetown to come home that night; I’d have to tell him the whole thing and I knew his temper, so, for Barbara’s sake, ’twouldn’t do.  I couldn’t be at the shore to stop the launch leaving.  What right had I to stop another man’s launch, even—­

“No, ’twas up to me, and I thought and thought till after supper-time.  And then I had a plan—­a risky chance, but a chance, just the same.  I went up to the store and bought four feet of medium-size rubber hose and some rubber tape, same as they sell to bicycle fellers in the summer.  ’Twas almost dark when I got back in sight of my shanty, and instead of going to it I jumped that board fence that me and Prince had negotiated for, hustled along the path past the notice boards, and went down the bluff on t’other side of Davidson’s p’int.  And there in the deep hole by the end of the little pier, out of sight of the house on shore, was Allie’s launch.  By what little light there was left I could see the brass rails shining.

“But I didn’t stop to admire ’em.  I give one look around.  Nobody was in sight.  Then I ran down the pier and jumped aboard.  Almost the first thing I put my hand on was what I was looking for—­the bilge-pump.  ’Twas a small affair, that you could lug around in one hand, but mighty handy for keeping a boat of that kind dry.

“I fitted one end of my hose to the lower end of that pump and wrapped rubber tape around the j’int till she sucked when I tried her over the side.  Then I turned on the cocks in the gasoline pipes fore and aft, and noticed that the carbureter feed cup was chock full.  Then I was ready for business.

“I went for’ard, climbing over the little low cabin that was just big enough for a man to crawl into, till I reached the brass cap in the deck over the gasoline-tank.  Then I unscrewed the cap, run my hose down into the tank, and commenced to pump good fourteen-cents-a-gallon gasoline overboard to beat the cars.  ’Twas a thirty-gallon tank, and full up.  I begun to think I’d never get her empty, but I did, finally.  I pumped her dry.  Then I screwed the cap on again and went home, taking Allie’s bilge-pump with me, for I couldn’t stop to unship the hose.  The tide was coming in fast.