"The old gent didn' tell ye, hey?"
"Not a word."
"Hmmm—well, Harry was summat older'n you boys, he was gettin' to be a reg'lar young man. Trouble with him was he didn' know what he wanted. First off, he must have a horse, 'n' then he must have a boat, so th' old man, he got him this boat. He's crusty, but he's all to the good, th' old man is."
"You bet your life he is," said Pee-wee.
"Well, Harry an' Benty Willis—you remember Benty, Bill—him an' Benty Willis was out in the Nymph—that's this here very boat. They had 'er anchored up a ways here, right off Cerry's Hill, an' they was out in the skiff floppin' 'round—some said fishin'."
"They was bobbin' fer eels, that's wot they was doin'," said the other man.
"Well, wotever they was doin' it was night 'n' thar was a storm. An' that's every bloomin' thing me or you or anybody else'll ever know about it. The next day Croby Risbeck up here was out fer his nets an' he come on the skiff swamped, over there off'n that point. An' near it was Benty Willis."
"Drowned?" asked Roy.
"Drownded. He must o' tried to keep afloat by clingin' t' the skiff, but she was down to her gunnel an' wouldn' keep a cat afloat. He might o' kep' his head out o' water a spell clingin' to it. All I know is he was drownded when he was found. Wotever become o' that skiff, Bill?"
"And what about Mr. Stanton's son?" Roy asked.