48 THE BOY CAPTAIN.

Eliphalet may not have had very much in the way of
provisions at his disposal; but he certainly, or so it seemed
to Ben at the time, prepared a dainty lunch.

Perhaps the company he was in had some effect, or it
might have been the knowledge that for the first time in
his life he was really in command of a vessel, although one
without a crew. At all events, he decided that he had
never sat down to a more satisfactory repast, and made
no attempt to bring it to a speedy conclusion.

Before rising from the table he learned very much rela-
tive to Miss Dunham’s life on board the Progressive Age.

He knew she was motherless; that she was a good
sailor, owing to the fact of having made three voyages
with her father, who had been an able commander, and,
during the past two years at least, had hardly known a
sorrow, until Captain Dunham, stricken with fever, died
suddenly a few weeks prior to the desertion of the crew.

From that moment up to the present time Ben could
readily fancy what her life must have been, although she
touched but lightly on the subject while relating to him
the incidents of the voyage.

When the lunch was concluded the young lady excused
herself for a few moments to bring a box of cigars from
her father’s room, as she said:

«TI suppose you smoke, captain? It is a failing which
I believe all sailors have, and, fortunately, the crew has
not interfered with anything aft of the pantry.”

Now, as a matter of fact, Ben had never smoked; but
when she called him captain, and referred to the belief