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  MRS. CLIFF'S YACHT

  [Illustration: BURKE DETERMINED TO GET NEAR ENOUGH TO HAIL THE DUNKERY
  BEACON]




  MRS. CLIFF'S YACHT

  BY

  FRANK R. STOCKTON

  _ILLUSTRATED BY A. FORESTIER_

  NEW YORK
  CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
  1896


  COPYRIGHT, 1896, BY

  CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

  NORWOOD PRESS

  J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith

  Norwood Mass. U.S.A.




CONTENTS

  CHAPTER                                                           PAGE

  I. ALONE WITH HER WEALTH                                             1

  II. WILLY CROUP DOESN'T KNOW                                         7

  III. MISS NANCY SHOTT                                               16

  IV. A LAUNCH INTO A NEW LIFE                                        25

  V. A FUR-TRIMMED OVERCOAT AND A SILK HAT                            36

  VI. A TEMPERANCE LARK                                               45

  VII. MR. BURKE ACCEPTS A RESPONSIBILITY                             59

  VIII. MR. BURKE BEGINS TO MAKE THINGS MOVE IN PLAINTON              68

  IX. A MEETING OF HEIRS                                              80

  X. THE INTELLECT OF MISS INCHMAN                                    92

  XI. THE ARRIVAL OF THE NEW DINING-ROOM                              99

  XII. THE THORPEDYKE SISTERS                                        109

  XIII. MONEY HUNGER                                                 114

  XIV. WILLY CROUP AS A PHILANTHROPIC DIPLOMATIST                    121

  XV. MISS NANCY MAKES A CALL                                        128

  XVI. MR. BURKE MAKES A CALL                                        135

  XVII. MRS. CLIFF'S YACHT                                           147

  XVIII. THE DAWN OF THE GROVE OF THE INCAS                          156

  XIX. THE "SUMMER SHELTER"                                          162

  XX. THE SYNOD                                                      169

  XXI. A TELEGRAM FROM CAPTAIN HORN                                  173

  XXII. THE "SUMMER SHELTER" GOES TO SEA                             182

  XXIII. WILLY CROUP COMES TO THE FRONT                              192

  XXIV. CHANGES ON THE "SUMMER SHELTER"                              203

  XXV. A NOTE FOR CAPTAIN BURKE                                      218

  XXVI. "WE'LL STICK TO SHIRLEY!"                                    228

  XXVII. ON BOARD THE "DUNKERY BEACON"                               235

  XXVIII. THE PEOPLE ON THE "MONTEREY"                               247

  XXIX. THE "VITTORIO" FROM GENOA                                    254

  XXX. THE BATTLE OF THE MERCHANT SHIPS                              264

  XXXI. "SHE BACKED!"                                                273

  XXXII. A HEAD ON THE WATER                                         279

  XXXIII. 11 deg. 30' 19" N. LAT. by 56 deg. 10' 19" W. LONG.                286

  XXXIV. PLAINTON, MAINE                                             298




  LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

                                                                    PAGE

  BURKE DETERMINED TO GET NEAR ENOUGH TO HAIL THE
  "DUNKERY BEACON"                                         _Frontispiece_

  THE GENTLEMAN RAISED HIS HAT AND ASKED IF MRS. CLIFF
  LIVED THERE                                                         42

  MRS. CLIFF'S INVITATION WAS DISCUSSED WITH LIVELY
  APPRECIATION                                                       170

  THERE, FASTENED AGAINST THE FORE-MAST, WAS A LARGE
  PIECE OF PAPER                                                     194

  WHEN SHIRLEY WENT ON DECK HE WAS MUCH PLEASED TO
  SEE THE "SUMMER SHELTER"                                           238

  BANKER COULD NOT HOLD BACK                                         270

  HE SEIZED IT AND RAISED IT TO HIS SHOULDER                         290

  WILLY SAT AND LOOKED AT HIM                                        312




MRS. CLIFF'S YACHT

CHAPTER I

ALONE WITH HER WEALTH


On a beautiful September afternoon in a handsome room of one of the
grand, up-town hotels in New York sat Mrs. Cliff, widow and millionaire.

Widow of a village merchant, mistress of an unpretending house in the
little town of Plainton, Maine, and, by strange vicissitudes of fortune,
the possessor of great wealth, she was on her way from Paris to the
scene of that quiet domestic life to which for nearly thirty years she
had been accustomed.

She was alone in the hotel; her friends, Captain Horn and his wife Edna,
who had