"I'll be right down," telephoned the shipper. "I'm almost through supper, and you can look for me as soon as I can get there."
Captain Bagley sat down to wait for the shipper. The latter lived in a village only a few miles distant, and his motor-car carried him back to the office in no time.
"What's wrong, Bagley?" he said anxiously, as he came into the office.
"Nothing to worry about, Cap'n, but something that'll disappoint you. I notice that you took a great fancy to the new hand."
"Yes. He's a fine lad. He's going to make a good man."
"Well, I am sorry to tell you he's skipped with my week's pay and the money that was due Hawley."
Captain Rumford's face turned black as a thunder-cloud. "Have you any notion where he skipped to? We must catch him, even if it costs more than he took. I try to treat my men right, but I'll be hanged if I'll let anybody rob me." The shipper was now as angry as his oyster captain had been a little while previously.
"How did it happen? How did he get hold of your roll?"
"Why, him and me was the only two aboard the _Bertha B_, and I laid my money in my bunk while I was changing my clothes. Then I happened to think about them dredges, and I bolted out to ketch you, without a thought about the money being there. When I got back both the kid and the money was gone."
"Looks like a plain enough case," said the shipper. "Do you know of any reason why he should steal? He looked as honest as sunlight."
"Yes. There was a very particular reason. He's been worrying about money ever since he got here. Showed me a letter he got about his father's tombstone. Seems he paid a marble man to put a stone on his father's grave. Gave him every cent he had, but that was only half the price. The man agreed to put the stone up and wait for the balance of his money until the lad could earn it. But he played the kid dirt. Wrote him he wouldn't put no stone up until he had every cent. The kid seems to have thought everything of his dad, and it worried him sick. The last thing I heard him say was that it would take him an awful long time to get that money earned."
"It's a plain case, I guess. That explains why he didn't give me my quarter," and the shipper told Captain Bagley of his giving Alec a dollar to get a meal and of Alec's failure to return the change.