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"Thank you." She flashed one of her radiant smiles at him and

made him a friend for life.

"That was a great race to-day," she remarked irrelevantly, but

with enthusiasm. "How much did you beat the Nettie B., Code?"

"A half an hour," he replied, mystified at the turn of the

conversation.

"Well, that is a coincidence." She looked from one to the other.

"It's exactly the same amount of time he beat you seven months

ago when he raced the old May against the M. C. Burns, isn't it?"

Her glance shot to Nat.

"Why, I believe it is, Mrs. Mallaby," he stammered. The quick

transition to that painful and dangerous period had caught him

off his guard.

"That was a great race, too," she said cheerfully, "and it's too

bad you never sailed the second one. Especially after you wanted

to bet so much. You thought you would win the second race, didn't

you, Nat?" She was sweetness itself.

"Why, yes, I thought so," he admitted guardedly. "But I don't see

what all this has got to do--"