"Hello, Dan. Glad you feel so spry. Want to run down to the fort and back?" said Bart without his usual smile. His manner was so glum, in fact, that Dan spoke up rather sharply:
"What in the world has happened to you? Has the Sombrero been beaten while I was laid up? My goodness, I thought you'd be glad to see me."
Bart rubbed his head, scowled at the main-sail, and sighed before he responded with an effort:
"I've got to tell you, Dan. Mind you, I don't take any stock in it, but I hate myself for letting it worry me. It's about the Kenilworth. It's too tough to repeat, really it is, but you ought to have a chance to come out and nail it as a lie. They say Captain Jim Wetherly knew she was going on the Reef, and that you knew it, too. I wish——"
"And you listened to such stuff?" Dan fiercely broke in. "Who told it to you?"
"Mr. Prentice asked me a lot of questions and I couldn't help seeing what he was trying to prove, Dan. I asked my father about it and he seemed to think things looked pretty black for Captain Jim. And father is mighty seldom fooled about anything that goes on along the Reef. I want to tell him that you say it's all foolishness. He would be mighty glad to have it cleared up all right for Captain Jim Wetherly. And he knows how chummy I am with you."
"Y-you asked your f-father about it?" stuttered Dan and his eyes were blazing. "Bart Pringle, you make my head dizzy. Look here, I'll tell you one thing that's straight goods. I wouldn't believe you were guilty of a murder, not if they had a million witnesses, unless I saw you do it with my own two eyes. And as for the Kenilworth, whether Captain Bruce meant to put her on the Reef or not, Captain Jim Wetherly had nothing to do with it. And that's all I can tell you. Of course that lets me out."
Dan's heart was sore that his chum's loyalty should have been shaken in the slightest degree, but he tried to be fair, and added in a milder tone:
"Mr. Prentice got things all snarled up somehow, but it's sure to come out right. Maybe I ought not to blame you for being worried, Bart. Things have been happening mighty fast for all hands concerned."
By this time Barton was honestly ashamed of himself and could think of nothing to say but a stammering apology which Dan accepted with a rather gloomy nod. It was the nearest their friendship had ever come to a break, and both boys would have preferred an open quarrel to this cloud of aggrieved misunderstanding. There was little more talk between them while the sloop crashed into the long seas of the outer roadstead. After they had put her about and were heading homeward, Dan exclaimed: