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make haste and tell the master there was news to be imparted in secret.

At this the fellow held up his hand with thumb thrust between first and second fingers.

“Give me no fico,” wailed the most excellent cook. “Nay, I have stumbled upon a black and hidden matter. Go thou, and in haste, and it will pay thee well."

For a time they bickered in the dark, but there was in the cook’s despair a sincerity that finally made the fellow believe the tale; and finding, upon stealing aft, that there was still a light in the great cabin, he mustered up his courage and knocked.

“Enter,” cried a hard voice.

The fellow opened the door and peeped in and found the Old One sitting alone at the table. Glancing hastily about, and the more alarmed to meet the cold eye of Harry Malcolm who lay on the great bed in the corner of the cabin, he closed the door at his back and whispered, “He swears it’s true — that there’s foul work afoot. ’T is the cook who hath told me — yea, and hath bade me tell you. He would say no more — the cook, I mean.”

“Oh, my good friend, our most excellent cook!” Meditating, the Old One looked the fellow up and down. “Here,” said he, ‘‘strike off his shackles and send him in with the key.” And he threw the fellow the key to the locks.

After a while the cook came weakly in and shut the door behind him and, throwing the key on the table, fell into a chair.

‘‘Ah,” said the Old One, ‘‘what is this tale I have heard news of?”

‘‘Water!’’ gasped the cook. For though he had man-