Page:Barbour--Captain Chub.djvu/243

Rh “How passing strange!” murmured Chub. “Roy, hand the lady her letter. She appears to doubt my word.”

Roy laughed, and fished the missive from his pocket.

“You didn’t send it!” Harry exclaimed. Chub shook his head.

“No, we feared it might alarm you. We thought it better to bring it along with us. You will see that we agreed to be here the twenty-first. It is now the twenty-first. And here we are, right on time. Punctuality is one of our principal virtues. Tell her some of the others, Dick.”

“The fact is,” owned Roy, “that I forgot to mail it, Harry. I’m awfully sorry, really.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter now that you’re here, does it?” asked Harry, beamingly. “And doesn’t the Jolly Roger look beautiful?”

“She is no longer the Jolly Roger,” corrected Chub. “We have changed the name to Slow Poke. After you’ve been on her awhile you’ll know why. But she does pretty well. I take very good care of her. Of course, if I had a capable, intelligent crew, I might do much better, but—”