Then Dick went off to buy supplies for the next day. Alec asked if he might go along. They got a roast of meat, some sausage, canned beans, butter, bread, condensed milk, and other articles.
Captain Bagley, meantime, had gone to the office to make his daily report to Captain Rumford. That done, he started for a store to buy a cigar, when the postmaster hailed him. "Say, Cap'n," he said, "you don't know anything about a party named Cunningham, do you? I've got a letter addressed to an Alec Cunningham, care of Thomas Robinson. You and Robinson used to be such pals I thought you might know something about it."
"You've come to just the right place. That's Robinson's nephew. He's a member of my crew now. I'll just get that letter and give it to the kid."
When Captain Bagley returned to the Bertha B Alec was sitting alone in the cabin.
"Here's a letter for you, Alec," said the skipper.
Alec tore the letter open and ran his eye over it. Tears came into his eyes, and he bowed his head on his chest.
"What's wrong, lad?" asked the skipper, kindly.
Alec could not trust himself to reply. He merely thrust the letter into the skipper's hand.
Captain Bagley read the communication and frowned. "He's pretty much of a skunk," he said.
The letter was an imperative demand for the balance due on the tombstone Alec had ordered for his father. Unless this were first received, the letter said, the stone would not be set up.