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Rh of the table, which was strewn with papers and presided over by Garth, pencil in hand.

"At it again?" Jim inquired. "Sail or steam? I suppose that's an unnecessary question, however."

He dragged a chair suddenly across the room and sat down beside his son.

"Now they'll be perfectly happy for the rest of the day," Elspeth confided to Joan, who had put down her book to watch the pair.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Designing boats," Elspeth said. "It's apt to languish a bit during open weather, when they can sail and be out, but in winter they do nothing else."

Joan looked on with a keener interest. This phase of Garth's enthusiasm for the sea had not yet been shown her.

"Perhaps," she mused softly, "later on he'll find his work in building ships for others to command."

"That," said Elspeth, "is what I hope."

They were silent, for the conversation at the table had become earnest and interesting. Jim was inspecting a paper contemplatively.

"What's this?" he demanded. "This wouldn't float, man! What is it?"