Donald followed him into a sitting-room, on one side of which was a secretary, provided with a writing-desk. The captain tossed his cap and overcoat into a chair, and seated himself at the desk. He picked up a quill pen, and began to write as though he intended to scratch a hole through the paper, making noise enough for a small locomotive. He finished the writing, and signed his name to it. Then he cast the contents of a sand-box upon it, returning to it the portion which did not adhere to the paper. The document looked as though it had been written with a handspike, or as though the words had been ploughed in, and a furrow of sand left to form the letters.
"Here!" said the captain, extending the paper to his visitor, with a jerk, as though he was performing a most ungracious office.
"What is it, sir?" asked Donald, as he took the document.
"Can't you read?" growled the strange man.
Under ordinary circumstances Donald could read--could read writing when not more than half the letters were merged into straight lines; but it required all his skill, and not a little of his Scotch-Yankee guessing ability, to decipher the vagrant, staggering characters which the captain had impressed with so much force upon the paper. It proved to be a bill of sale of the Juno, in due form, and for the consideration of three hundred dollars.
"Surely you cannot mean this, Captain Shivernock?" exclaimed the amazed young man.
"Can't I? Do you think I'm a lunatic?" stormed the captain.
Donald did think so, but he was not so imprudent as to say it.
"I can't pay you three hundred dollars for the boat," pleaded he.
"Nobody asked you to pay a red cent. The boat is yours. If you don't want her, sell her to the first man who is fool enough to buy her. That's all."
"I'm very grateful to you for your kindness, Captain Shivernock; and I hope--"
"All stuff!" interposed the strange man, savagely. "You are like the rest of the world, and next week you would be as ready to kick me as any other man would be, if you dared to do so. You needn't stop any longer to talk that sort of bosh to me. It will do for Sunday Schools and prayer meetings."
"I hope I shall be able to do something to serve you."
"Have you heard the news, Captain Shivernock?" asked Donald, suddenly changing the topic.