Avast and belay! You might have sunk me if I didn't happen to be a heavier craft than you."

As the man spoke he instinctively grasped the two boys, preventing them from continuing their flight.

"What's the trouble?" he went on. "I heard a female crying—sounding a distress signal like. Where are the burglars? Are you going for the police?"

"No, sir. It was us, playing tic-tac," explained Bob, thinking it best to make a clean breast of the affair.

"Tic-tac, eh? I haven't heard that since I was a boy. On whose window?"

"The Widow Mooney's, sir."

"And it was the widow, I presume, who was signaling for aid. Well,
I'll stand by and see what's wanted. You'd better come back also."

"Aw, we don't want to," spoke Ted.

"No, I suppose not. Still you're coming."

The man had both boys firmly by their arms, and he turned in the gateway with them. As he did so, Mrs. Mooney, hearing voices, ventured to open her door. The light streamed out and showed the face of the man. At the sight of it Bob uttered an exclamation.

"Why, it's Captain Spark!" he cried.

"That's what. You read my signals right, my lad, and if I'm not mistaken, you're Bob Henderson."

"Yes, sir."

Captain Jeremiah Spark was an old seafaring man. He was a distant relative of Bob's mother, and, in fact, he was on his way to call on her, having just returned from a long voyage, when he ran into the boys, or, rather, they collided with him.

"So you're playing tricks on a poor, lone widow woman, are you?" asked the captain in no very pleasant tones.

"We—we didn't mean any harm," said Bob.

"No, I suppose not. Boys never do, but the harm comes. Now I'm going to march you two lads right up before the mast; and you're going to apologize to the widow. If you don't, why, I reckon a cat-o'-nine-tails will fit the case pretty well."

Mrs. Mooney was standing in her door as the captain led the two boys up to her.

"Here's the burglars you were shouting about, ma'am," he said. "One of 'em a relative of mine, I'm sorry to say. They've come to beg your pardon. Go ahead, boys."

"I'm sorry about the tic-tac," said Bob in a low voice.

"We didn't mean nothin'," added Ted.

"Was it you boys?" asked the widow. "I was so frightened. I thought burglars were trying to cut out a pane of glass."

"I don't believe they'll do it again," remarked Captain Spark.
"Will you, boys?"

"No, sir," they chorused.

"That's right. Now come on, Bob. I'm going to your house."

The captain was warmly welcomed by Mr. and Mrs. Henderson a little later. Bob was wondering whether the captain would say anything about the recent prank, but the old seaman said nothing, though his eyes twinkled when, in response to a question from Mr. Henderson as to where the captain had met Bob, the former replied that there had been a collision in the dark.

That night, after Bob had gone to bed, Mrs. Henderson had a talk with her relative.

"I don't know what to do with Bob," she said. "He is always getting into mischief. He is not a bad boy at heart, but he is thoughtless."

"Yes, that he is," agreed Captain Spark.

"I am almost sure he was up to some prank tonight," went on Bob's mother. "I shall probably hear about it in the morning, when some of the neighbors call to make a complaint. Oh, dear, I wish I knew what to do!"

"I'll tell you what," suddenly exclaimed the captain, banging his fist down on the table with emphasis. "Let me take him to sea with me aboard the Eagle."

"Take him to sea? Take Bob on a voyage?" asked Mrs. Henderson.

"That's it! You let me take him, and I'll guarantee I'll make a man of him. The land is no place for a boy, anyhow. He needs a bit of ocean travel to broaden his views."

"That is a strange proposition," said Mr. Henderson. "We must think it over."

CHAPTER IV

TALKING IT OVER

Captain Spark was invited to spend a week or more at the Henderson home. He was up bright and early the next morning—in fact, before any one else, and Bob, hearing some one moving around downstairs, and knowing his father and mother were not in the habit of having such an early breakfast, descended to see who it was.

"Good-morning, my lad," greeted the mariner. "I suppose you are going to take the morning watch and holystone the decks. Nothing like being active when you're young. It will keep you from getting old."

"Yes, sir," replied Bob, for he did not know what else to say.

"Haven't got any more tic-tacs, have you?" and there was a twinkle in the captain's eyes.

"No, sir."

"That's right. If you've got to play tricks, do it on somebody your size. Then it's fair. Don't scare lone widows."

"I won't do it again," promised Bob, who felt a little ashamed of his prank of the previous night.

Soon Mrs. Henderson came downstairs to get breakfast, and when the meal was over Bob got ready for school, Mr. Henderson leaving for his work in the woolen mill.

When Bob was safely out of the way Captain Spark once more brought up before Mrs. Henderson the proposition he had made the night before.

"Well, Lucy," he said, for he called Mrs. Henderson by her first name, "have you thought over what I said about taking Bob to sea?"

"Yes, I have."

"And what do you think of it?"

"Well, to tell you the truth, I don't like the idea."

"Why not? I'm sure it would be good for him."

"It might. I'm sure you mean it well, but I couldn't bear to have him go."

"It will make a man of him—cure him of some of his foolish ways,
I'm sure."

"Perhaps it would. Bob is very wild, I know, but I think I have more influence over him than any one else. He will do anything for me, or for his father, either, for that matter. I am afraid if Bob got away from our influence he would be worse than he is now."

"Oh, we have a few good influences aboard the Eagle," said the captain with a grim smile. "Only we don't call 'em influences. We call 'em ropes' ends, or cat-o'-nine-tails, or a belaying-pin. I've known a limber rope's end, applied in the right place, do more good to a boy than lots of medicine."

"Oh, but, captain, I couldn't have Bob beaten!"

"No, of course not, I was only joking. Not that it doesn't do a boy good, though, once in a while, to have a good tanning. But I don't recommend it for a steady diet."

"Bob's father has never whipped him since he was a small lad," went on Mrs. Henderson. "Not that he doesn't seem to deserve it sometimes even now, but Mr. Henderson believes in talking to him and showing him how wrong he has acted."

"Yes, talk is good," admitted the mariner, "but if there's a rope's end handy, it sometimes makes the talk a little more effective—just a little bit."

"I suppose life aboard a sailing ship is very hard now-a-days," ventured Mrs. Henderson. Somehow she dwelt on the plan of having the captain take Bob, though she felt she could not consent to it.

"No harder than it ever was. In fact, it's easier than when I was a boy and ran away to