Pagina 243 van 416

The novels were forgotten with the appearance of this old relic.

_The M. C. Burns_ was the original Burns schooner when Nat's

father was still in the fish business at Freekirk Head. It was

the direct predecessor of the Nettie B., which was entirely

Nat's. On the death of the elder Burns when the May Schofield

went down, the _M. C. Burns_ had been sold to realize immediate

cash. And here was her log!

Code looked over pages that were redolent of the events in his

boyhood, for Michael was a ready writer and made notes regularly

even when the M. C. was not on a voyage. He had spent an hour in

this way when he came to this entry on one of the very last

pages: