That wove something alluringly mysterious--and mysteriously alluring--about the man who made sick boats well, whereas had she given rein to the possibility of his belonging to the motorboat factory across the river, and scientifically testing gasoline engines it would be neither proper nor interesting that her young nephew should run back and forth with pearls of wit and wisdom.

It developed that Worth visited this tip of the Island with the ever faithful Watts, and that one day the boat mender and Watts had--oh just the awfulest fight with words Worth had ever heard.

It was about the Government, which the man who mended the boats said was running on one cylinder, drawing from patriotic Watts the profane defense that it had all the power it needed for blowing up just such fools as that! He further held that soldiers were first-class dishwashers and should be brave enough to demand first-class dishwashing pay.

Katie had chuckled over that.

But she had puzzled rather than chuckled over the statement that the first war the saddles manufactured on that Island would see would be the war over the manufacturing of them.