“Mr. Clemmons told me his son Scott had received an appointment, and that a like official looking document had come through the mails for you, and he supposed it was also a cadet midshipman’s berth in our navy, though he wondered how you had obtained, without influence, what he had found no easy task to secure for his son.”
“Yes, sir, I have orders to report for examination, but I wished to keep it secret, for I may fail, you know, sir.”
“Not you; but I suppose you won yours from having saved a schooner from being wrecked some half a year ago, and which made quite a hero of you, I remember.”
Mark saw that the judge was on the wrong track, so he did not correct him as to how he had gotten his appointment.
“Well, Mark, you came to see me for some purpose, so out with it,” said the judge.
Mark told of his seeing the little schooner adrift at sea, and going out in his boat had found her abandoned, so sailed her into port.
He had taken from his meager savings enough to advertise her in Boston, Portland and New York, but no claimant had come, and so he wished to know if the vessel belonged to him.
“You have a claim upon her, Mark, and can get salvage, should her owner turn up; but there is just such a craft needed, or will be within a couple of months, for running around the islands with parties, and my advice to you is to secure a skipper and a couple of men and let them run the trips for you, for it will bring in a snug income to your mother, while, should her owner appear, you have the vessel to give up to him upon the payment of salvage. Now, what do you think of my advice, Mark?”
“I thank you for it, sir, and shall take it.”
“And your skipper can report to me, if you wish, while you must tell your mother to come to me, if I can in any way serve her, for I suppose she will move up to B—— when you go?”