"I allow she is a handsome craft, and she ought to be fast."
"She is fast. We have been sailing about until there was enough water in the creek, and we have passed every barge that we have come near. She is comfortable, too. Come below and look at her cabin."
"Well, I never!" Mrs. Nibson said, pausing in astonishment at the foot of the ladder. "I have been in many barge cabins, but never saw one like this." Her surprise increased when the door of the bulkhead was opened and she saw the sleeping cabin beyond. "Did you ever, Bill?"
"No, I never saw two cabins in a barge before," her husband said. "I suppose, miss, the owner must have had the cabin specially done up for his own use sometimes, and the crew lived forward."
"There is a place forward for the second hand," she replied, "and I suppose the owner will sleep here."
"Of course it is a loss of space, but she will carry a big load, too. Who is the owner, miss, if I may make so bold as to ask?"
"The registered owner is William Nibson," Hilda said quietly.
The bargeman and his wife gazed at each other in astonishment.
"But," he said hesitatingly, "I have never heard of any owner of that name."
"Except yourself, Nibson."