“Come,” said Paul, after the boat had been tied up where the waves could not reach them and things had begun to assume a more comfortable aspect; “Here’s a fine little cabin and an oil stove on which to make a hot pot of coffee, besides assisting to dry us out.  I insist on you staying to keep me company for a while.  We are both cold and wet.  Say you will, Darry!”

Darry did not need much urging.  He was wet and chilled, and it did look cozy after Paul had started the stove going.

“Besides,” continued Paul, misconstruing his silence; “I am under heavy obligations to you for coming to my assistance when you did.  You saved my life and you are a regular life saver like Mr. Peake.  There must be some way in which I can partly cancel that debt.  You are allowed salvage by law when you save a vessel, Darry, did you know it?  But for your coming my poor little Griffin must have gone to pieces, not to mention what would have become of her owner.  Now, how can I settle for this indebtedness.”

He was laughing as he spoke, but Darry considered the moment had come for him to put in a plea for his friends.

So he swallowed what seemed to be a lump in his throat, for after all it was no easy thing to ask such a favor from one who was hardly more than a stranger.

“Mr. Singleton, I was just wishing I could meet you somewhere soon,” he began.

“Well, that is queer, since I was thinking about you too, and hoping you would not go back on me, for somehow, I seem to have set my mind on having you with me.  And besides, there was another reason why I wanted to keep track of you, which I may tell you some day soon, Darry.  But why were you wanting to see me?”

“To ask a great favor?”

“Not to let you off from your promise?”

“Oh, no, I’ll be only too glad of a chance to be with you.  It would be glorious to spend some time aboard this fine little boat.  What I wanted to say ­that is, the favor I wanted to ask was not for myself.”

“Come, that’s rather strange, Darry.  Not for yourself ­a favor for another?  Let’s hear what it’s about.  You’ve certainly excited my curiosity, and don’t hesitate a bit about it.  I shall be only too willing to do anything that lies in my power, if it pleases you.”

The words were most kind, and the smile that accompanied them even more so.

Darry flushed with a sense of coming victory, for something told him he was in line to win out, and that the money-shark would be cheated of his prey.

“I want to borrow a hundred dollars, sir,” he said, slowly.

Paul laughed as if amused.

Immediately taking out his pocket-book he withdrew from it a bank bill of a large denomination and handed it to his companion, who received it in an embarrassed way.

“There you are, Darry, and there is no loan about it.  I owe you many times that much for your assistance.  Now, don’t say anything about it, for I am not used to being crossed.  It’s a mere bagatelle to me, as you must know.  Some time if you feel like it you may tell me the circumstances that have arisen; but not until you’re good and ready.  I’m only too delighted to be of a little help.”

“I’m going to tell you all about it right here.  It’s only fair you should know where your money is going, sir.  As soon as I get my breath you shall hear,” went on Darry, fingering the hundred dollar bill as though he could hardly believe his senses.

Never did a bill of like denomination seem to carry more happiness in its touch; he could easily picture the light that would dawn upon the worried features of Mrs. Peake when he handed her that mortgage, canceled, and Abner, too, how he would be likely to throw up his hat in the air and shout like a boy.

Paul Singleton had been observing him curiously, but with kindling eyes, as if he saw more and more in this boy to admire; he could give something of a guess as to what was coming, and hence was not much surprised a little later when he heard the story of Darius Quarles and his long-slumbering revenge.

He laughed heartily at the quaint way in which Abner had hinted about Nancy tumbling overboard on purpose, in order to discover which of her lovers was the better man.

“I’ve met the lady, and to tell the truth I really believe she would have been equal to such a prank some years back.  There’s a lurking spirit of mischief in her eyes to this day, though I know she has met with a great grief lately, for I heard all about poor little Joe,” Paul said, after Darry had finished.

“You can never understand how glad I am to be able to bring a little joy to this poor couple.  They have not known much happiness, sir.  Even now, Abner is compelled to be away from home all the time in order to earn bread for his family.”

Paul Singleton seemed to consider.

“We’ll talk that over later on, Darry, when we have plenty of time,” he answered.  “Perhaps I may be able to suggest a remedy.  I have shares in several properties down this way, and possibly Abner can be given a steady job as keeper at the club, or put in charge of a farm I own not far away from here.  Depend upon it, some means can be found to help your benefactor out.  I’d rather talk about you, just now, and what you have seen in your adventurous past.  In fact, I’d like to know everything that ever happened to you, if you don’t mind,” he continued.

Again Darry had that queer sensation pass over him, and he could not but remember what Abner had said about the possibility of his finding out something connected with his childhood, and that this young gentleman would be the means of supplying the missing link.

So as they sat there and sipped the delicious coffee and dried out in comfort, he answered all the questions Paul could think of asking.

They covered his entire past, from his earliest recollection, and especially about the old man who had finally deserted him in Naples, for he naturally occupied a prominent place in the recital.

Darry had called him uncle, but thought the man could not have held that relationship toward him.  He never knew what had become of the old man, but suspected that he must have met with some fatal accident in the Italian city.

Then he narrated how he had supported himself by playing the violin, and at the same time learned to speak Italian as well as a native.

Finally came the scene in the cafe, when Captain Harley rescued him from the cruelty of a bully, and after that there was very little to tell up to the time the brigantine was lost and his best friend vanished from the scene, never to appear again on earth.

Paul Singleton harked back to his earliest recollections, and with the skill of a lawyer asked questions that put Darry’s memory to a strain; he examined the singular mark upon the boy’s arm with deepest interest and seemed impressed.

“That will undoubtedly prove one thing or the other, as soon as I can see her,” Darry heard him say, as if to himself.

Evidently Paul Singleton knew nothing of the mark and was depending upon some other party to settle the identification.

It was noon before either of them realized it.

Darry declared he must hurry off so as to catch the lawyer at his office and settle matters before going home.

“Hark, Darry,” said Paul, holding his hand as they parted; “promise me that if there is anything else I can do to please you I’m to know it right away.  Confide in me, my boy.  It makes me happy to share, even to a limited extent, in your little affairs.  And you know we are going to be great chums all winter, you and I. Look on me then as a sort of elder brother or a cousin, if you please.”

And Darry thought as he looked into the clear laughing eyes of Paul Singleton that nothing would give him greater happiness on earth than if he could claim relationship to this fine manly fellow.

He seemed to be walking on air as he left the cove and headed into the village.

Upon calling at the office of Darius Quarles he was disappointed to learn that the lawyer had gone off in his closed buggy early that morning, and would not be back all day ­he had to foreclose a mortgage the clerk remarked, and never allowed that duty to be performed by a subordinate, for it gave him too much satisfaction to attend to it personally.

Even his employees had a secret contempt for his mean ways, it seemed.

“He expects to be home to supper, and if your business is pressing you might call at his house, which is just out of the village on the road to Harden,” the young clerk said in concluding.

“Thank you, I believe I shall call, as I wish to see him very much,” replied Darry, and left the place.

He made his way along the rather lonely road that led to the humble home of the Peakes, bowing his head to the storm, and yet with a song of thanksgiving swelling in his heart, for he knew he was carrying with him the means of lifting the load that had for some time oppressed his kind benefactors.

Suddenly something struck him a stunning blow and looking up as he staggered he heard a chorus of shrill laughs, and realized that a rope had been thrown around him in such a way that his arms were pinioned down at his sides.

At the same moment several impish figures sprang out of the dense brush and fell upon him with vicious blows, as though bent upon knocking him down.

Though they had their faces concealed after a ridiculous fashion he recognized the malicious laugh of one as belonging to Jim Dilks.