142 THE CRATER; " Thank you, Captain Belts. Does your present visit relate to either of those brigs ?" "Why, to corne to the p int, it does, sir. I ve taken a fancy to the Dragon, and should like to buy her." " Buy her ! Have you any notion what such a vessel will cost, Belts?" " Not a great way from eight thousand dollars, I should think, governor, now that the copper is on. Some things is charged high, in this part of the world, about a wessel, and other some is n t. Take away the copper, and I should think a good deal less would buy either." " And have you eight thousand dollars at command, my friend, with which to purchase the brig?" "If ile is money, yes; if ile isn t money, no. I ve got three hundred barrels on hand, one hundred of which is head-matter." " I rejoice to hear this, Captain Belts, and the brig you shall have. I thought to have sold both to the merchants, for I did not suppose any one else, here, could purchase them ; but I would greatly prefer to see one of them in the hands of an old friend. You shall have the Dragon, Betls, since you Irke her." " Done and done between gentlemen, is enough, sir ; not that I set myself up for a gentleman, governor, but I ve lived too long and too much in your respected society not to have 1 arn d some of the ways. The brig s mine, if ile will pay for her. And now, sir, having completed the trade, I should like to know if your judgment and mine be the same. I say the Dragon will beat the Jonas half a knot, the best day the Jonas ever seed." " I do not know but you are right, Bob. In looking at the two craft, last evening, I gave the preference to the Dragon, though I kept my opinion to myself, lest I might mortify those who built the Jonas." " Well, sir, I m better pleased to hear this, than to be able to pay for the brig! It is something to a plain body like myself, to find his judgment upheld by them that know all about a matter." In this friendly and perfectly confidential way did Mark Woolston still act with his old and long-tried friend, Ro bert Betts. The Dragon was cheap at the money men-
