"
"I'll wager you do, now! Where did you live before you came here?"
"With Papa and Mamma."
"What, now, may your name be?"
"Bobby, thir."
"What is your papa's name?"
"What is my papa's name?"
"Yes, what is your papa's name?"
"Why, 'Papa,'" in great surprise that all the world did not know that.
Further solicitation brought from the child the statement that "Uncle
Robert took me for a nice ride in a boat, but Uncle Robert got hurted,
and I came here."
And this was the sum total of the information concerning Bobby's past
that Skipper Ed succeeded in drawing from the child, though he
questioned and cross-questioned him at length, after Abel and Mrs. Abel
had told how they found him that August morning. But Abel and Mrs. Abel,
considering these things of small importance, did not mention to or
show Skipper Ed the packet containing the notebook found in the dead
man's pocket, and which they had carefully put away.
Skipper Ed did not altogether accept the theory of Abel and Mrs. Abel
that God had in a miraculous manner sent Bobby to them from heaven,
directing his course from the Far Beyond, through the place where mists
and storms were born. Skipper Ed in his own mind could not dismiss the
subject in this casual manner. He scented some dark mystery, though he
doubted if the mystery would ever be cleared.
Abel must needs exhibit to Skipper Ed and Jimmy the boat, and when
Skipper Ed saw it his practiced eye told him that the finish and
workmanship were far too fine and expensive for any ordinary ship's
boat, and that it was the long boat of a luxuriously appointed private
yacht.
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