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“Where are your shoes and hat, Mark?”

“I’ll tell you all about it, mother, as soon as I have slipped into some dry togs,” and the lad hastened away to his own room.

But he was back again by the time Peggy had supper upon the table, and the three sat down to eat, for, though a servant, the old woman was a tried and trusted friend, one who had been Mark’s nurse in babyhood.

His adventure had given the youth an appetite, and his mother knew there was no hope of hearing what he had to tell until he had eaten off the edge of his hunger, so she wisely heaped his plate with edibles, and enjoyed seeing them disappear.

At last he said:

“Mother, there’s a yacht in our bay.”

“A yacht, Mark?”

“Yes, and a beauty. She’s the largest pleasure craft I ever saw.”

“But how did she get there, my son?”

“I played pilot, mother, and ran her in, and just in time, too.”

“Those on board were indeed fortunate in finding so good a pilot near at hand, Mark; but tell me of it, for this is an ugly night for such work.”