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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Galusha the Magnificent, by Joseph C. Lincoln
+(#10 in our series by Joseph C. Lincoln)
+
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+Title: Galusha the Magnificent
+
+Author: Joseph C. Lincoln
+
+Release Date: January, 2004  [EBook #4905]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on March 24, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, GALUSHA THE MAGNIFICENT ***
+
+
+
+
+This etext was produced by Don Lainson.
+
+
+
+
+
+GALUSHA THE MAGNIFICENT
+
+
+by
+
+
+JOSEPH C. LINCOLN
+
+
+
+
+
+GALUSHA THE MAGNIFICENT
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+
+Mr. Horatio Pulcifer was on his way home.  It was half-past five
+of a foggy, gray afternoon in early October; it had rained the
+previous day and a part of the day before that and it looked
+extremely likely to rain again at any moment.  The road between
+Wellmouth Centre, the village in which Mr. Pulcifer had been
+spending the afternoon, and East Wellmouth, the community which he
+honored with his residence, was wet and sloppy; there were little
+puddles in the hollows of the macadam and the ruts and depressions
+in the sand on either side were miniature lakes.  The groves of
+pitch pines and the bare, brown fields and knolls dimly seen
+through the fog looked moist and forsaken and dismal.  There were
+no houses in sight; along the East Wellmouth road there are few
+dwellings, for no one but a misanthrope or a hermit would select
+that particular section as a place in which to live.  Night was
+coming on and, to accent the loneliness, from somewhere in the
+dusky dimness a great foghorn groaned at intervals.
+
+It was a sad and deserted outlook, that from the seat of Mr.
+Pulcifer's "flivver" as it bounced and squeaked and rattled and
+splashed its way along.  But Mr. Pulcifer himself was not sad, at
+least his appearance certainly was not.  Swinging jauntily, if a
+trifle ponderously, with the roll of the little car, his clutch
+upon the steering wheel expressed serene confidence and his manner
+self-satisfaction quite as serene.  His plaid cap was tilted
+carelessly down toward his right ear, the tilt being balanced by
+the upward cock of his cigar toward his left ear.  The light-
+colored topcoat with the soiled collar was open sufficiently at the
+throat to show its wearer's chins and a tasty section of tie and
+cameo scarf-pin below them.  And from the corner of Mr. Pulcifer's
+mouth opposite that occupied by the cigar came the words and some
+of the tune of a song which had been the hit of a "Follies" show
+two seasons before.  No, there was nothing dismal or gloomy in Mr.
+Horatio Pulcifer's appearance as he piloted his automobile toward
+home at the close of that October afternoon.
+
+And his outward seeming did not belie his feelings.  He had spent a
+pleasant day.  At South Wellmouth, his first port of call, he had
+strengthened his political fences by dropping in upon and chatting
+with several acquaintances who prided themselves upon being "in the
+know" concerning local political opinion and drift.  Mr. "Raish"
+Pulcifer--no one in Ostable county ever referred to him as Horatio--
+had already held the positions of town clerk, selectman, constable
+and postmaster.  Now, owing to an unfortunate shift in the party
+vote, the public was, temporarily, deprived of his services.
+However, it was rumored that he might be persuaded to accept the
+nomination for state representative if it were offered to him.  His
+acquaintances at South Wellmouth had that day assured him there was
+"a good, fair fightin' chance" that it might be.
+
+Then, after leaving South Wellmouth, he had dined at the Rogers'
+House in Wellmouth Centre, "matching" a friend for the dinners and
+"sticking" the said friend for them and for the cigars afterward.
+Following this he had joined other friends in a little game in
+Elmer Rogers' back room and had emerged from that room three
+dollars and seventy-two cents ahead.  No wonder he sang as he drove
+homeward.  No wonder he looked quite care free.  And, as a matter
+of fact, care free he was, that is, as care free as one is
+permitted to be in this care-ridden world.  Down underneath his
+bright exterior there were a few cankers which might have gnawed
+had he permitted himself to think of them, but he did not so
+permit.  Mr. Pulcifer's motto had always been:  "Let the other
+feller do the worryin'."  And, generally speaking, in a deal with
+Raish that, sooner or later, was what the other fellow did.
+
+The fog and dusk thickened, Mr. Pulcifer sang, and the flivver
+wheezed and rattled and splashed onward.  At a particularly dark
+spot, where the main road joined a cross country byroad, Raish drew
+up and climbed out to light the car lamps, which were of the old-
+fashioned type requiring a gas tank and matches.  He had lighted
+one and was bending forward with the match ready to light the other
+when a voice at his elbow said:
+
+"I beg your pardon, but--but will you kindly tell me where I am?"
+
+It was not a loud, aggressive voice; on the contrary, it was
+hesitating and almost timid, but when one is supposedly alone at
+twilight on the East Wellmouth road any sort of voice sounding
+unexpectedly just above one's head is startling.  Mr. Pulcifer's
+match went out, he started violently erect, bumping his head
+against the open door of the lamp compartment, and swung a red and
+agitated face toward his shoulder.
+
+"I--beg your pardon," said the voice.  "I'm afraid I startled you.
+I'm extremely sorry.  Really I am."
+
+"What the h-ll?" observed Raish, enthusiastically.
+
+"I'm very sorry, very--yes, indeed," said the voice once more.  Mr.
+Pulcifer, rubbing his bumped head and puffing from surprise and the
+exertion of stooping, stared wide-eyed at the speaker.
+
+The latter was no one he knew, so much was sure, to begin with.
+The first impression Raish gained was of an overcoat and a derby
+hat.  Then he caught the glitter of spectacles beneath the hat
+brim.  Next his attention centered upon a large and bright yellow
+suitcase which the stranger was carrying.  That suitcase settled
+it.  Mr. Pulcifer's keen mind had diagnosed the situation.
+
+"No," he said, quickly, "I don't want nothin'--nothin'; d'you get
+me?"
+
+"But--but--pardon me, I--"
+
+"Nothin'.  Nothin' at all.  I've got all I want."
+
+The stranger seemed to find this statement puzzling.
+
+"Excuse me," he faltered, after a moment's hesitation, during which
+Raish scratched another match.  "I--  You see--I fear--I'm sure you
+don't understand."
+
+Mr. Pulcifer bent and lighted the second lamp.  Then he straightened
+once more and turned toward his questioner.
+
+"_I_ understand, young feller," he said, "but you don't seem to.
+I don't want to buy nothin'.  I've got all I want.  That's plain
+enough, ain't it?"
+
+"But--but--  All you want?  Really, I--"
+
+"All I want of whatever 'tis you've got in that bag.  I never buy
+nothin' of peddlers.  So you're just wastin' your time hangin'
+around.  Trot along now, I'm on my way."
+
+He stepped to the side of the car, preparatory to climbing to the
+driver's seat, but the person with the suitcase followed him.
+
+"Pardon me," faltered that person, "but I'm not--ah--a peddler.
+I'm afraid I--that is, I appear to be lost.  I merely wish to ask
+the way to--ah--to Mr. Hall's residence--Mr. Hall of Wellmouth."
+
+Raish turned and looked, not at the suitcase this time, but at the
+face under the hat brim.  It was a mild, distinctly inoffensive
+face--an intellectual face, although that is not the term Mr.
+Pulcifer would have used in describing it.  It was not the face of
+a peddler, the ordinary kind of peddler, certainly--and the mild
+brown eyes, eyes a trifle nearsighted, behind the round, gold-
+rimmed spectacles, were not those of a sharp trader seeking a
+victim.  Also Raish saw that he had made a mistake in addressing
+this individual as "young feller."  He was of middle age, and the
+hair, worn a little longer than usual, above his ears was sprinkled
+with gray.
+
+"Mr. Hall, of--ah--of Wellmouth," repeated the stranger, seemingly
+embarrassed by the Pulcifer stare.  "I--I wish to find his house.
+Can you tell me how to find it?"
+
+Raish took the cigar, which even the bump against the lamp door had
+failed to dislodge, from the corner of his mouth, snapped the ash
+from its end, and then asked a question of his own.
+
+"Hall?" he repeated.  "Hall?  Why, he don't live in Wellmouth.
+East Wellmouth's where he lives."
+
+"Dear me!  Are you sure?"
+
+"Sure?  Course I'm sure.  Know him well."
+
+"Oh, dear me!  Why, the man at the station told me--"
+
+"What station?  The Wellmouth depot, do you mean?"
+
+"No, the--ah--the South Wellmouth station.  You see, I got off the
+train at South Wellmouth by mistake.  It was the first Wellmouth
+called, you know, and I--I suppose I caught the name and--ah--
+rushed out of the car.  I thought--it seemed to be a--a sort of
+lonely spot, you know--"
+
+"Haw, haw!  South Wellmouth depot?  It's worse'n lonesome, it's
+God-forsaken."
+
+"Yes--yes, it looked so.  I should scarcely conceive of the
+Almighty's wishing to remain there long."
+
+"Eh?"
+
+"Oh, it's not material.  Pardon me.  I inquired of the young man in
+charge of the--ah--station."
+
+"Nelse Howard?  Yes, sure."
+
+"You know him, then?"
+
+Mr. Pulcifer laughed.  "Say," he observed, patronizingly, "there's
+mighty few folks in this neighborhood I don't know.  You bet that's
+right!"
+
+"The young man--the station man--was very kind and obliging, very
+kind indeed.  He informed me that there was no direct conveyance
+from the South Wellmouth station to Wellmouth--ah--Centre, but he
+prevailed upon the driver of the station--ah--vehicle--"
+
+"Eh?  You mean Lem Lovett's express team?"
+
+"I believe the driver's name was Lovett--yes.  He prevailed upon
+him to take me in his wagon as far as a crossroads where I was to
+be left.  From there I was to follow another road--ah--on foot, you
+know--until I reached a second crossroad which would, he said,
+bring me directly into Wellmouth Middle--ah--Centre, I should say.
+He told me that Mr. Hall lived there."
+
+"Well, he told you wrong.  Hall lives up to East Wellmouth.  But
+what I can't get a-hold of is how you come to fetch up way off
+here.  The Centre's three mile or more astern of us; I've just come
+from there."
+
+"Oh, dear me!  I must have lost my way.  I was quite sure of it.
+It seemed to me I had been walking a very long time."
+
+Mr. Pulcifer laughed.  "Haw, haw!" he guffawed, "I should say you
+had!  I tell you what you done, Mister; you walked right past that
+crossroad Nelse told you to turn in at.  THAT would have fetched
+you to the Centre.  Instead of doin' it you kept on as you was
+goin' and here you be 'way out in the fag-end of nothin'.  The
+Centre's three mile astern and East Wellmouth's about two and a
+ha'f ahead.  Haw, haw! that's a good one, ain't it!"
+
+His companion's laugh was not enthusiastic.  It was as near a groan
+as a laugh could well be.  He put the yellow suitcase down in the
+mud and looked wearily up and down the fog-draped road.  There was
+little of it to be seen, but that little was not promising.
+
+"Dear me!" he exclaimed.  "Dear me!"  And then added, under his
+breath:  "Oh, dear!"
+
+Mr. Pulcifer regarded him intently.  A new idea was beginning to
+dawn beneath the plaid cap.
+
+"Say, Mister," he said, suddenly, "you're in a bad scrape, ain't
+you?"
+
+"I beg your pardon?  What?  Yes, I am--I fear I am.  Is it--is it a
+VERY long walk back to Wellmouth?"
+
+"To the Centre?  Three good long Cape Cod miles."
+
+"And is the-ah--the road good?"
+
+"'Bout as you see it most of the way.  Macadam ain't so bad, but if
+you step off it you're liable to go under for the third time."
+
+"Dear me!  Dear me!"
+
+"Dear me's right, I cal'late.  But what do you want to go to the
+Centre for?  Hall don't live there.  He lives on ahead here--at
+East Wellmouth."
+
+"Yes--that's true, that's true.  So you said.  But the South
+Wellmouth station man--"
+
+"Oh, never mind Nelse Howard.  He's a smart Aleck and talks too
+much, anyhow.  He made a mistake, that's all.  Now I tell you,
+Mister, I'm goin' to East Wellmouth myself.  Course I don't make a
+business of carryin' passengers and this trip is goin' to be some
+out of my way.  Gasoline and ile are pretty expensive these days,
+too, but--  Eh?  What say?"
+
+The pale face beneath the derby hat for the first time showed a ray
+of hope.  The eyes behind the spectacles were eager.
+
+"I--I didn't say anything, I believe," was the hurried answer, "but
+I should like to say that--that if you COULD find it possible to
+take me with you in your car--if you COULD do me so great a favor,
+I should be only too happy to pay for the privilege.  Pay--ah--
+almost anything.  I am--I have not been well and I fatigue easily.
+If you could--"
+
+Mr. Pulcifer's hand descended squarely upon the shoulder of the
+dark overcoat.
+
+"Don't say nothin' more," he ordered, heartily.  "I'm only too glad
+to do a feller a favor any time, if it's a possible thing.  That's
+me, that is.  I shouldn't think of chargin' you a cent, but of
+course this cruise is a little mite off my track and it's late and--
+er--well, suppose we call it three dollars?  That's fair, ain't
+it?"
+
+"Oh, yes, quite, quite.  It's very reasonable.  Very generous of
+you.  I'm extremely grateful, really."
+
+This prompt and enthusiastic acceptance of his offer was a bit
+disconcerting.  Raish was rather sorry that he had not said five.
+However, to do him justice, the transaction was more or less what
+he would have called "chicken-feed stuff."  Mr. Pulcifer was East
+Wellmouth's leading broker in real estate, in cranberry bog
+property, its leading promoter of deals of all kinds, its smartest
+trader.  Ordinarily he did not stoop to the carrying of passengers
+for profit.  But this particular passenger had been delivered into
+his hand and gasoline WAS expensive.
+
+"Jump right in, Mister," he said, blithely.  "All aboard!  Jump
+right in."
+
+His fare did not jump in, exactly.  He climbed in rather slowly and
+painfully.  Raish, stowing the suitcase between his feet, noticed
+that his shoes and trouser legs above them were spattered and
+daubed with yellow mud.
+
+"You HAVE had some rough travelin', ain't you, Mister?" he
+observed.  "Oh--er--what did you say your name was?  Mine's
+Pulcifer."
+
+"Oh, yes--yes.  Ah--how do you do, Mr. Pulcifer?  My name is
+Bangs."
+
+"Bangs, eh?  That's a good Cape name, or used to be.  You any
+relation to Sylvanus Bangs, over to Harniss?"
+
+"No--no, not that I am aware.  Ours is a Boston branch of the
+family."
+
+"Boston, eh?  Um-hm.  I see.  Yes, yes.  What's your first name?"
+
+"Mine?  Oh, my name is Galusha."
+
+"Eh?  Ga--  WHAT did you say 'twas?"
+
+"Galusha.  It IS an odd name."
+
+"Yes, I'd say 'twas.  Don't cal'late as I ever heard tell of it
+afore.  Ga--Ga--"
+
+"Galusha."
+
+"Galushy, eh?  I see.  Strange what names folks 'll christen onto
+children, ain't it?  There's lots of queer things in the world; did
+you ever stop to think about that, Mister--Mister Bangs?"
+
+Mr. Bangs, who was leaning back against the upholstered seat as if
+he found the position decidedly comforting, smiled faintly.
+
+"We have all thought that, I'm sure," he said.  "'There are more
+things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your
+philosophy.'"
+
+Mr. Pulcifer was not easily startled, but his jerk of surprise sent
+the car perilously near the side of the road.
+
+"How in the devil did you know my name?" he demanded.
+
+"Your name?  Why, you told me.  It is Pulcifer, isn't it?"
+
+"No, no.  My first name--Horatio.  I never told you that, I'll
+swear."
+
+Mr. Bangs smiled and the smile made his face look younger.
+
+"Now that's rather odd, isn't it?" he observed.  "Quite a
+coincidence."
+
+"A what?"
+
+"Oh, nothing, nothing.  I didn't know your name, Mr.--ah--Pulcifer.
+My using it was an accident.  I was quoting--ah--from Hamlet, you
+know."
+
+Mr. Pulcifer did not know, but he thought it not worth while
+advertising the fact.  Plainly this passenger of his was a queer
+bird, as queer within as in dress and appearance.  He turned his
+head slightly and looked him over.  It was growing too dark to see
+plainly, but one or two points were obvious.  For instance, the
+yellow leather suitcase was brand new and the overcoat was old.  It
+was shiny about the cuffs.  The derby hat--and in October, in
+Wellmouth, derby hats are seldom worn--the derby hat was new and of
+a peculiar shade of brown; it was a little too small for its
+wearer's head and, even as Raish looked, a gust of wind lifted it
+and would have sent it whirling from the car had not Mr. Bangs
+saved it by a sudden grab.  Raish chuckled.
+
+"Come pretty nigh losin' somethin' overboard that time, didn't
+you?" he observed.
+
+Mr. Bangs pulled the brown derby as far down upon his head as it
+would go.
+
+"I--I'm afraid I made a mistake in buying this hat," he confided.
+"I told the man I didn't think it fitted me as it should, but he
+said that was because I wasn't used to it.  I doubt if I ever
+become used to it.  And it really doesn't fit any better to-day
+than it did yesterday."
+
+"New one, ain't it?" inquired Raish.
+
+"Yes, quite new.  My other blew out of the car window.  I bought
+this one at a small shop near the station in Boston.  I'm afraid it
+wasn't a very good shop, but I was in a great hurry."
+
+"Where was you comin' from when your other one blew away?"
+
+"From the mountains."
+
+"White Mountains?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Raish said that he wanted to know and waited for his passenger to
+say something more.  This the passenger did not do.  Mr. Pulcifer
+whistled a bar or two of his "Follies" song and then asked another
+question.
+
+"You any relation to Josh?" he asked.
+
+"I beg your pardon?"
+
+"Eh?  Oh, that's all right.  I just asked you if you was a relation
+of Josh's--of Hall's, I mean, the folks you're goin' to see."
+
+"Oh, no, no.  We are not related.  Merely friends."
+
+"I see.  I thought there wan't any Bangses in that family.  His
+wife was a Cahoon, wan't she?"
+
+"I--I BEG your pardon?"
+
+"I asked you if she wan't a Cahoon; Cahoon was her name afore she
+married Hall, wan't it?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know, I'm sure. . . .  Now, really, that's very funny,
+very."
+
+"What's funny?"
+
+"Why, you see, I--"  Mr. Bangs had an odd little way of pausing in
+the middle of a sentence and then, so to speak, catching the train
+of his thought with a jerk and hurrying on again.  "I understood
+you to ask if she was a--a cocoon.  I could scarcely believe my
+ears.  It WAS funny, wasn't it?"
+
+Raish Pulcifer thought it was and said so between roars.  His
+conviction that his passenger was a queer bird was strengthening
+every minute.
+
+"What's your line of business, Mr. Bangs?" was his next question.
+
+"I am not a business man.  I am connected with the Archaeological
+Department of the National Institute at Washington."
+
+If he had said he was connected with the interior department of a
+Brontosaurus the statements would have conveyed an equal amount of
+understanding to the Pulcifer mind.  However, it was a fixed
+principle with Raish never to admit a lack of knowledge of any
+subject whatsoever.  So he said:
+
+"From Washin'ton, eh?  I see.  Yes, yes.  Cal'latin' to stay here
+on the Cape long, Mr. Bangs?"
+
+"Why, I don't know, I'm sure.  I have not been--ah--well of late.
+The doctors advise rest and--ah--outdoor air and all that.  I tried
+several places, but I didn't care for them.  The Halls invited me
+to visit them and so I--well, I came."
+
+"Never been here to the Cape afore, then?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Well, sir, you've come to the right place when you came to
+Wellmouth.  I was born right here in East Wellmouth and I've lived
+here for fifty-two year and if anybody should ask me what I thought
+of the place I'd tell 'em--"
+
+He proceeded to tell what he would tell 'em.  It was a favorite
+topic with him, especially in the summer and with visitors from the
+city.  Usually the discourse ended with a suggestion that if the
+listener should ever think of investing a little money in real
+estate "that'll be wuth gold dollars to you--yes, sir, gold
+dollars--" he, Horatio G. Pulcifer, would be willing to point out
+and exhibit just the particular bit of real estate to invest in.
+He did not reach the climax this time, however.  A gentle nasal
+sound at his shoulder caused Raish to turn his head.  Mr. Bangs had
+fallen asleep.  Awakened by a vigorous nudge, he apologized
+profusely.
+
+"Really," he declared, with much embarrassment, "I--I am quite
+ashamed of myself.  I--you see--I have, as I say, been somewhat
+unwell of late, and the fatigue of walking--I DO hope you will
+excuse me.  I was very much interested in what you were saying.
+What--ah--what was it?"
+
+Before Raish could have repeated his real estate sermon, even had
+he so desired, the car came to the top of a hill, emerged from the
+clumps of pines shutting in the road on both sides, and began to
+descend a long slope.  And through the fog and blackness at the
+foot of the slope there shone dimly first one and then several
+lights.  Mr. Bangs leaned forward and peered around the edge of the
+wet windshield.
+
+"Is that it?" he asked, in much the same tone that Mrs. Noah may
+have used when her husband announced that the lookout had sighted
+Ararat.
+
+Raish Pulcifer nodded.  "Yes, sir," he declared, proudly.  "Yes,
+sir, that's East Wellmouth."
+
+The fog in the valley was thicker even than that upon the hill and
+East Wellmouth was almost invisible.  Mr. Bangs made out a few
+houses, a crossroads, a small store, and that was about all.  From
+off to the right a tremendous bellow sounded.  The fog seemed to
+quiver with it.
+
+"WHAT is that?" asked Mr. Bangs, nervously.  "I've heard it ever
+since I left the train, I believe.  Some sort of a--ah--steam
+whistle, isn't it?"
+
+"Foghorn over to the light," replied Raish, briskly.  "Well, sir,
+here you be."
+
+The car rolled up to the side of the road and stopped.
+
+"Here you be, Mr. Bangs," repeated Mr. Pulcifer.  "Here's where
+Hall lives, right here."
+
+Mr. Bangs seemed somewhat astonished.  "Right here?" he asked.
+"Dear me, is it possible!"
+
+"Possible as anything ever you knew in your life.  Why not?  Ain't
+sorry, are you?"
+
+"Oh, no--no, indeed, I'm very glad.  I was--ah--a trifle surprised,
+that is all.  You said--I think you spoke of Mr. Hall's cottage as
+being--ah--off the track and so I--well I scarcely expected to
+reach his house so easily."
+
+Raish had forgotten his "off the track" statement, which was purely
+a commercial fiction invented on the spur of the moment to justify
+the high price he was charging for transportation.  He was somewhat
+taken aback, but before he could think of a good excuse his
+companion spoke again.  He was leaning forward, peering out at the
+house before which the car had stopped.  It was a small, gray-
+shingled dwelling, sitting back from the road in the shadow of two
+ancient "silver-leafs," and Mr. Bangs seemed to find its appearance
+surprising.
+
+"Are you--are you SURE this is the Hall cottage?" he stammered.
+
+"Am I sure?  Me?  Well, I ought to be.  I've lived in East
+Wellmouth all my life and Josh Hall's lived in this house ever
+since I can remember."
+
+This should have been reassuring, but it did not appear to be.  Mr.
+Pulcifer's passenger drew a startled breath.
+
+"What--WHAT is his Christian name?" he asked.  "The--the Mr. Hall
+who lives here?"
+
+"His name is--  Why?  What's the matter?"
+
+"I'm afraid there has been a mistake.  Is this Mr. Hall an
+entomologist?"
+
+"Eh?  He ain't nothin' in particular.  Don't go to meetin' much,
+Josh don't.  His wife's a Spiritu'list."
+
+"But--but, I mean--  Dear me, dear me!"  Mr. Bangs was fumbling in
+the inside pocket of his coat.  "If I--  Would you mind holding
+this for me?" he begged.  "I have a photograph here and--  Oh,
+thank you very much."
+
+He handed Pulcifer a small pocket electric lamp.  Raish held it and
+into its inch of light Mr. Bangs thrust a handful of cards and
+papers taken from a big and worn pocketbook.  One of the handful
+was a postcard with a photograph upon its back.  It was a
+photograph of a pretty, old-fashioned colonial house with a wide
+porch covered with climbing roses.  Beneath was written:  "This is
+our cottage.  Don't you think it attractive?"
+
+"Mrs. Hall sent me that--ah--last June--I think it was in June,"
+explained Mr. Bangs, hurriedly.  "But you SEE," he added, waving an
+agitated hand toward the gray-shingled dwelling beneath the silver-
+leafs, "that CAN'T be the house, not if"--with a wave of the
+photograph in the other hand--"if THIS is."
+
+Mr. Pulcifer took the postcard and stared at it.  His brows drew
+together in a frown.
+
+"Say," he said, turning toward his passenger, "is this the house
+you've been tryin' to find?  This is a picture of the old Parker
+place over to Wellmouth Centre.  I thought you told me you wanted
+to be took to Joshua Hall's house in East Wellmouth."
+
+"Joshua?  Oh, no, I'm sure I never could have said Joshua.  That
+isn't his name."
+
+"Then when I said 'Josh Hall' why didn't you say so?"
+
+"Oh, good gracious!  Did you say 'Josh?'  Oh, dear, that explains
+it; I thought you said 'George.'  My friend's name is George Hall.
+He is an entomologist at the New York Museum of Natural History.
+I--"
+
+"Say," broke in Raish, again, "is he a tall, bald-headed man with
+whiskers; red whiskers?"
+
+"Yes--yes, he is."
+
+"Humph!  Goes gallopin' round the fields chasin' bugs and
+grasshoppers like a young one?"
+
+"Why--why, entomology is his profession, so naturally he--"
+
+"Humph!  So THAT'S the feller!  Tut, tut, tut!  Well, if you'd only
+said you meant him 'twould have been all right.  I forgot there was
+a Hall livin' in the Parker place.  If you'd said you meant 'Old
+Bughouse' I'd have understood."
+
+"Bughouse?"
+
+"Oh, that's what the Wellmouth post-office gang call him.  Kind of
+a joke 'tis.  And say, this is kind of a joke, too, my luggin' you
+'way over here, ain't it, eh?  Haw, haw!"
+
+Mr. Bangs' attempt at a laugh was feeble.
+
+"But what shall I do now?" he asked, anxiously.
+
+"Well, that's the question, ain't it?  Hum . . . hum . . . let's
+see.  Sorry I can't take you back to the Centre myself.  Any other
+night I'd be glad to, but there's a beans and brown-bread supper
+and sociable up to the meetin' house this evenin' and I promised
+the old woman--Mrs. Pulcifer, I mean--that I'd be on hand.  I'm a
+little late as 'tis.  Hum . . . let's see . . .  Why, I tell you.
+See that store over on the corner there?  That's Erastus Beebe's
+store and Ras is a good friend of mine.  He's got an extry horse
+and team and he lets 'em out sometimes.  You step into the store
+and ask Ras to hitch up and drive you back to the Centre.  Tell him
+I sent you.  Say you're a friend of Raish Pulcifer's and that I
+said treat you right.  Don't forget:  'Raish says treat me right.'
+You say that to Ras and you'll be TREATED right.  Yes, SIR!  If Ras
+ain't in the store he'll be in his house right back of it.  Might
+as well get out here, Mr. Bangs, because there's a hill just ahead
+and I kind of like to get a runnin' start for it.  Shall I help you
+with the suitcase?  No, well, all right . . . Sorry you made the
+mistake, but we're all liable to make 'em some time or another.
+Eh?  haw, haw!"
+
+Poor Mr. Bangs clambered from the automobile almost as wearily and
+stiffly as he had climbed into it.  The engine of the Pulcifer car
+had not stopped running so Raish was not obliged to get out and
+crank.  He took a fresh grip on the steering wheel and looked down
+upon his late passenger.
+
+"Well, good-night, Mr. Bangs," he said.
+
+"Good-night--ah--good-night, Mr. Pulcifer.  I'm very much obliged
+to you, I am indeed.  I'm sorry my mistake made you so much
+trouble."
+
+"Oh, that's all right, that's all right.  Don't say a word . . .
+Well--er--good-night."
+
+"Good-night, sir . . . good-night."
+
+But still the little car did not start.  It's owner's next remark
+was explanatory of the delay.
+
+"Course I HOPE you and I'll meet again, Mr. Bangs," said Raish.
+"May see you in Wellmouth, you know.  Still, such things are--er--
+kind of uncertain and--er--sendin' bills is a nuisance, so perhaps
+'twould be better--er--easier for both of us--if we settled that
+little matter of ours right now.  Eh?"
+
+"I beg your pardon.  Little matter?  I'm afraid I don't quite--"
+
+"Oh, that little matter of the three dollars for fetchin' you over.
+Course it don't amount to nothin', but I kind of like to get them
+little things off my mind, don't you?  Eh?"
+
+Mr. Bangs was very much "fussed."  He hurriedly dragged forth the
+big pocketbook.
+
+"I beg your pardon--really I BEG your pardon," he stammered over
+and over again.  "I quite forgot.  It was inexcusable of me.  I'm
+SO sorry."
+
+Evidently he felt that he had committed a crime.  Mr. Pulcifer took
+the three one dollar bills and waved the apologies aside with them.
+
+"Don't say a word, Mr. Bangs," he called, cheerily, as the car
+began to move.  "Anybody's liable to forget.  Do it myself
+sometimes.  Well, so long.  Hope to see you again one of these
+days.  Good-night."
+
+The flivver moved rapidly away, gaining speed as it rushed for the
+hill.  Galusha Bangs watched its tail-light soar and dwindle until
+it disappeared over the crest.  Then, with a weary sigh, he picked
+up the heavy suitcase, plodded across the road and on until he
+reached the step and platform of Erastus Beebe's "General and
+Variety Store."  There was a kerosene lamp burning dimly upon the
+counter within, but the door was locked.  He pounded on the door
+and shook it, but no one answered.  Then, remembering Mr.
+Pulcifer's instructions, he entered the yard behind the store,
+found the door of Mr. Beebe's house and knocked upon that.  There
+was not even a light in the house.  The Beebes had gone--as most of
+East Wellmouth had gone--to the baked beans and brown-bread supper
+and sociable at the church.  Galusha Bangs was not aware of this,
+of course.  What he was aware of--painfully, distressingly aware--
+was the fact that he was alone and supperless, very, very weak and
+tired, and almost discouraged.
+
+However, there was no use in standing in the wet grass of the Beebe
+yard and giving way to his discouragement.  Galusha Bangs was a
+plucky little soul, although just now a weak and long-suffering
+one.  He waded and slopped back to the store platform, where he put
+down his suitcase and started on a short tour of exploration.
+Through the fog and darkness he could dimly perceive a signpost
+standing at the corner of the crossroad where the store was
+located.  He tramped over to look at it.
+
+There were two signs affixed to the post.  By the aid of the pocket
+flashlight he read them.  That at the top read thus:  "TO THE
+LIGHTHOUSE--1 1/2 MILES."  There was an arrow pointing along the
+crossroad and off to the right.  Galusha paid little attention to
+this sign; it was the other nailed beneath it which caught and held
+his attention.  It was a rather gaudy sign of red, white, and blue,
+and it read thus:  "THE RESTABIT INN AT GOULD'S BLUFFS--1 MILE."
+And the arrow pointed in the same direction as the other.
+
+Mr. Bangs uttered his favorite exclamation.
+
+"Dear me!  Why, dear me!"
+
+He read the sign again.  There was no mistake, his first reading
+had been correct.
+
+He trotted back to the platform of Mr. Beebe's store.  Then, once
+more dragging forth the big pocketbook, he fumbled in its various
+compartments.  After spilling a good many scraps of paper upon the
+platform and stopping to pick them up again, he at length found
+what he was looking for.  It was an advertisement torn from the
+Summer Resort advertising pages of a magazine.  Holding it so that
+the feeble light from Mr. Beebe's lamp fell upon it, Galusha read,
+as follows:
+
+
+THE RESTABIT INN at Beautiful Gould's Bluffs, East Wellmouth, Mass.
+Rest, sea air, and pleasant people:  Good food and plenty of it.
+Reasonable prices.  NO FRILLS.
+
+
+He had chanced upon the advertisement in a tattered, back number
+magazine which a fellow passenger had left beside him in a car seat
+a month before.  He had not quite understood the "NO FRILLS"
+portion.  Apparently it must be important because the advertiser
+had put it in capital letters, but Mr. Bangs was uncertain as to
+just what it meant.  But there was no uncertainty about the
+remainder of the "ad."
+
+Rest!  His weary muscles and aching joints seemed to relax at the
+very whisper of the word.  Food!  Well, he needed food, it would be
+welcome, of course--but rest!  Oh, rest!!
+
+And food and rest, not to mention reasonable prices and pleasant
+people and no frills, were all but a mile away at the Restabit Inn
+at Gould's Bluffs--beautiful Gould's Bluffs.  No wonder they called
+them beautiful.
+
+He returned the pocketbook to his inside pocket and the flashlight
+to an outside one, turned up his coat collar, pulled the brown
+derby down as tightly upon his brow as he could, picked up the
+heavy suitcase and started forth to tramp the mile which separated
+his tired self from food and rest--especially rest.
+
+The first hundred yards of that mile cut him off entirely from the
+world.  It was dark now, pitch dark, and the fog was so thick as to
+be almost a rain.  His coat and hat and suitcase dripped with it.
+The drops ran down his nose.  He felt as if there were almost as
+much water in the air as there was beneath him on the ground--not
+quite as much, for his feet were wetter than his body, but enough.
+
+And it was so still.  No sound of voices, no dogs barking, no
+murmur of the wind in trees.  There did not seem to be any trees.
+Occasionally he swept a circle of his immediate surroundings with
+the little flashlight, but all its feeble radiance showed was fog
+and puddles and wet weeds and ruts and grass--and more fog.
+
+Still!  Oh, yes, deadly still for a long minute's interval, and
+then out of the nowhere ahead, with a suddenness which each time
+caused his weakened nerves to vibrate like fiddle strings, would
+burst the bellow of the great foghorn.
+
+Silence, the splash and "sugg" of Galusha's sodden shoes moving up
+and down, up and down--and then:
+
+"OW--ooo--ooo---ooo--OOO!!"
+
+Once a minute the foghorn blew and once a minute Galusha Bangs
+jumped as if he were hearing it for the first time.
+
+The signboard had said "1 MILE."  One hundred miles, one thousand
+miles; that was what it should have said to be truthful.  Galusha
+plodded on and on, stopping to put down the suitcase, then lifting
+it and pounding on again.  He had had no luncheon; he had had no
+dinner.  He was weak from illness.  He was wet and chilled.  And--
+yes, it was beginning to rain.
+
+He put down the suitcase once more.
+
+"Oh, my soul!" he exclaimed, and not far away, close at hand, the
+word "soul" was repeated.
+
+"Oh, dear!" cried Galusha, startled.
+
+"Dear!" repeated the echo, for it was an echo.
+
+Galusha, brandishing the tiny flashlight, moved toward the sound.
+Something bulky, huge, loomed in the blackness, a building.  The
+flashlight's circle, growing dimmer now for the battery was almost
+exhausted, disclosed steps and a broad piazza.  Mr. Bangs climbed
+the steps, crossed the piazza, the boards of which creaked beneath
+him.  There were doors, but they were shut tight; there were
+windows, but they were shuttered.  Down the length of the long
+piazza tramped Galusha, his heart sinking.  Every window was
+shuttered, every door was boarded up.  Evidently this place,
+whatever it was, was closed.  It was uninhabited.
+
+He came back to the front door again.  Over it was a sign, he had
+not looked as high before.  Now he raised the dimming flashlight
+and read:
+
+"THE RESTABIT INN.  Open June 15 to September 15."
+
+September 15!!!  Why, September was past and gone.  This was the
+3rd of October.  The Restabit Inn was closed for the season.
+
+Slowly, Galusha, tugging the suitcase, stumbled to the edge of the
+piazza.  There he collapsed, rather than sat down, upon the upper
+step.  Above him, upon the piazza roof, the rain descended heavily.
+The flashlight dimmed and went out altogether.
+
+"OW--ooo---ooo--ooo--OOO!!" whooped the foghorn.
+
+Later, just how much later he never knew exactly, Mr. Bangs awoke
+from his faint or collapse or doze, whichever it may have been, to
+hear some one calling his name.
+
+"Loosh!  Loosh!  Loosh!"
+
+This was odd, very odd.  "Loosh" was what he had been called at
+college.  That is, some of the fellows had called him that, those
+he liked best.  The others had even more offensive nicknames.  He
+disliked "Loosh" very much, but he answered to it--then.
+
+"Loosh!  Loosh!  Loosh, where are you?"
+
+Queer that any one should be calling him "Loosh"--any one down here
+in . . .  Eh?  Where was he?  He couldn't remember much except that
+he was very tired--except--
+
+"Loosh!  Looshy!  Come Looshy!"
+
+He staggered to his feet and, leaving the suitcase where it was,
+stumbled away in the direction of the voice.  The rain, pouring
+down upon him, served to bring him back a little nearer to reality.
+Wasn't that a light over there, that bright yellow spot in the fog?
+
+It was a light, a lighted doorway, with a human figure standing in
+it.  The figure of a woman, a woman in a dark dress and a white
+apron.  It must be she who was calling him.  Yes, she was calling
+him again.
+
+"Loosh!  Loosh!  Looshy!  Oh, my sakes alive!  Why don't you come?"
+
+Mr. Bangs bumped into something.  It was a gate in a picket fence
+and the gate swung open.  He staggered up the path on the other
+side of that gate, the path which led to the doorway where the
+woman was standing.
+
+"Yes, madam," said Galusha, politely but shakily lifting the brown
+derby, "here I am."
+
+The woman started violently, but she did not run nor scream.
+
+"My heavens and earth!" she exclaimed.  Then, peering forward, she
+stared at the dripping apparition which had appeared to her from
+the fog and rain.
+
+"Here I am, madam," repeated Mr. Bangs.
+
+The woman nodded.  She was middle-aged, with a pleasant face and a
+figure of the sort which used to be called "comfortable."  Her
+manner of looking and speaking were quick and businesslike.
+
+"Yes," she said, promptly, "I can see you are there, so you needn't
+tell me again.  WHY are you there and who are you?"
+
+Galusha's head was spinning dizzily, but he tried to make matters
+clear.
+
+"My name is--is--  Dear me, how extraordinary!  I seem to have
+forgotten it.  Oh, yes, it is Bangs--that is it, Bangs.  I heard
+you calling me, so--"
+
+"Heard ME calling YOU?"
+
+"Yes.  I--I came down to the hotel--the rest--Rest--that hotel over
+there.  It was closed.  I sat down upon the porch, for I have been
+ill recently and I--ah--tire easily.  So, as I say--"
+
+The woman interrupted him.  She had been looking keenly at his face
+as he spoke.
+
+"Come in.  Come into the house," she commanded, briskly.
+
+Mr. Bangs took a step toward her.  Then he hesitated.
+
+"I--I am very wet, I'm afraid," he said.  "Really, I am not sure
+that--"
+
+"Rubbish!  It's because you are wet--wet as a drowned rat--that I'm
+askin' you to come in.  Come now--quick."
+
+Her tone was not unkind, but it was arbitrary.
+
+Galusha made no further protest.  She held the door open and he
+preceded her into a room, then into another, this last evidently a
+sitting room.  He was to know it well later; just now he was
+conscious of little except that it was a room--and light--and warm--
+and dry.
+
+"Sit down!" ordered his hostess.
+
+Galusha found himself standing beside a couch, an old-fashioned
+sofa.  It tempted him--oh, how it tempted him!--but he remembered
+the condition of his garments.
+
+"I am very wet indeed," he faltered.  "I'm afraid I may spoil your--
+your couch."
+
+"Sit DOWN!"
+
+Galusha sat.  The room was doing a whirling dervish dance about
+him, but he still felt it his duty to explain.
+
+"I fear you must think this--ah--very queer," he stammered.  "I
+realize that I must seem--ah--perhaps insane, to you.  But I have,
+as I say, been ill and I have walked several miles, owing to--ah--
+mistakes in locality, and not having eaten for some time, since
+breakfast, in fact, I--"
+
+"Not since BREAKFAST?  Didn't you have any dinner, for mercy
+sakes?"
+
+"No, madam.  Nor luncheon.  Oh, it is quite all right, no one's
+fault but my own.  Then, when I found the--the hotel closed, I--I
+sat down to rest and--and when I heard you call my name--"
+
+"Wait a minute.  What IS your name?"
+
+"My name is Bangs, Galusha Bangs.  It seems ridiculous now, as I
+tell it, but I certainly thought I heard you or some one call me by
+the name my relatives and friends used to use.  Of course--"
+
+"Wait.  What was that name?"
+
+Even now, dizzy and faint as he was, Mr. Bangs squirmed upon the
+sofa.
+
+"It was--well, it was Loosh--or--ah--Looshy" he admitted, guiltily.
+
+His hostess' face broke into smiles.  Her "comfortable" shoulders
+shook.
+
+"Well, if that doesn't beat everything!" she exclaimed.  "I was
+callin' my cat; his name is Lucy--Lucy Larcom; sometimes we call
+him 'Luce' for short. . . .  Eh?  Heavens and earth!  Don't do
+THAT!"
+
+But Galusha had already done it.  The dervish dance in his head had
+culminated in one grand merry-go-round blotting out consciousness
+altogether, and he had sunk down upon the sofa.
+
+The woman sprang from her chair, bent over him, felt his pulse, and
+loosened his collar.
+
+"Primmie," she called.  "Primmie, come here this minute, I want
+you!"
+
+There was the sound of scurrying feet, heavy feet, from the
+adjoining room, the door opened and a large, raw-boned female, of
+an age which might have been almost anything within the range of
+the late teens or early twenties, clumped in.  She had a saucer in
+one hand and a dishcloth in the other.
+
+"Yes'm," she said, "here I be."  Then, seeing the prone figure upon
+the sofa, she exclaimed fervently, "Oh, my Lord of Isrul!  Who's
+that?"
+
+"Now don't stand there swearin' and askin' questions, but do as I
+tell you.  You go to the--"
+
+"But--but what AILS him?  Is he drunk?"
+
+"Drunk?  What put such a notion as that in your head?  Of course he
+isn't drunk."
+
+"He ain't--he ain't dead?"
+
+"Don't be so silly.  He's fainted away, that's all.  He's tired out
+and half sick and half starved, I guess.  Here, where are you
+goin'?"
+
+"I'm a-goin' to fetch some water.  They always heave water on
+fainted folks."
+
+"Well, this one's had all the water he needs already.  The poor
+thing is soaked through.  You go to the pantry and in the blue soup
+tureen, the one we don't use, you'll find a bottle of that cherry
+rum Cap'n Hallet gave me three years ago.  Bring it right here and
+bring a tumbler and spoon with it.  After that you see if you can
+get Doctor Powers on the telephone and ask him to come right down
+here as quick as he can.  HURRY!  Primmie Cash, if you stop to ask
+one more question I--I don't know what I'll do to you.  Go ALONG!"
+
+Miss Cash went along, noisily along.  Her mistress bent over the
+wet, pitiful little figure upon the sofa.
+
+And thus, working by devious ways, did Fate bring about the meeting
+of Galusha Cabot Bangs, of the National Institute, Washington, D.
+C., and Miss Martha Phipps, of East Wellmouth, which, it may be
+said in passing, was something of an achievement, even for Fate.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+And in order to make clear the truth of the statement just made,
+namely, that Fate had achieved something when it brought Galusha
+Bangs to the door of Martha Phipps' home that rainy night in
+October--in order to emphasize the truth of that statement it may
+be well, without waiting further, to explain just who Galusha Cabot
+Bangs was, and who and what his family was, and how, although the
+Bangses were all very well in their way, the Cabots--his mother's
+family--were "the banking Cabots of Boston," and were, therefore,
+very great people indeed.
+
+"The banking Cabots" must not be confused with any other branch of
+the Cabots, of which there are many in Boston.  All Boston Cabots
+are "nice people," many are distinguished in some way or other, and
+all are distinctly worth while.  But "the banking Cabots" have been
+deep in finance from the very beginning, from the earliest of
+colonial times.  The salary of the Reverend Cotton Mather was paid
+to him by a Cabot, and another Cabot banked whatever portion of it
+he saved for a rainy day.  In the Revolution a certain Galusha
+Cabot, progenitor of the line of Galusha Cabots, assisted the
+struggling patriots of Beacon Hill to pay their troops in the
+Continental army.  During the Civil War his grandson, the Honorable
+Galusha Hancock Cabot, one of Boston's most famous bankers and
+financiers, was of great assistance to his state and nation in the
+sale of bonds and the floating of loans.  His youngest daughter,
+Dorothy Hancock Cabot, married--well, she should, of course, have
+married a financier or a banker or, at the very least, a millionaire
+stockbroker.  But she did not, she married John Capen Bangs, a
+thoroughly estimable man, a scholar, author of two or three
+scholarly books which few read and almost nobody bought, and
+librarian of the Acropolis, a library that Bostonians and the book
+world know and revere.
+
+The engagement came as a shock to the majority of "banking Cabots."
+John Bangs was all right, but he was not in the least "financial."
+He was respected and admired, but he was not the husband for
+Galusha Hancock Cabot's daughter.  She should have married a Kidder
+or a Higginson or some one high in the world of gold and securities.
+But she did not, she fell in love with John Bangs and she married
+him, and they were happy together for a time--a time all too brief.
+
+In the second year of their marriage a baby boy was born.  His
+mother named him, her admiring husband being quite convinced that
+whatever she did was sure to be exactly the right thing.  So, in
+order to keep up the family tradition and honors--"He has a perfect
+Cabot head.  You see it, don't you, John dear"--she named him
+Galusha Cabot Bangs.  And then, but three years afterward, she
+died.
+
+John Capen Bangs remained in Boston until his son was nine.  Then
+his health began to fail.  Years of pawing and paring over old
+volumes amid the dust and close air of book-lined rooms brought on
+a cough, a cough which made physicians who heard it look grave.  It
+was before the days of Adirondack Mountain sanitariums.  They told
+John Bangs to go South, to Florida.  He went there, leaving his son
+at school in Boston, but the warm air and sunshine did not help the
+cough.  Then they sent him to Colorado, where the boy Galusha
+joined him.  For five years he and the boy lived in Colorado.  Then
+John Capen Bangs died.
+
+Dorothy Hancock Cabot had a sister, an older sister, Clarissa
+Peabody Cabot.  Clarissa did not marry a librarian as her sister
+did, nor did she marry a financier, as was expected of her.  This
+was not her fault exactly; if the right financier had happened
+along and asked, it is quite probable that he would have been
+accepted.  He did not happen along; in fact, no one happened along
+until Clarissa was in her thirties and somewhat anxious.  Then came
+Joshua Bute of Chicago, and when wooed she accepted and married
+him.  More than that, she went with him to Chicago, where stood the
+great establishment which turned out "Bute's Banner Brand
+Butterine" and "Bute's Banner Brand Leaf Lard" and "Bute's Banner
+Brand Back-Home Sausage" and "Bute's Banner Brand Better Baked
+Beans."  Also there was a magnificent mansion on the Avenue.
+
+Aunt Clarissa had family and culture and a Boston manner.  Uncle
+Joshua had a kind heart, a hemispherical waistcoat and a tremendous
+deal of money.  Later on the kind heart stopped beating and Aunt
+Clarissa was left with the money, the mansion and--but of course
+the "manner" had been all her own all the time.
+
+So when John Bangs died, Aunt Clarissa Bute sent for the son,
+talked with the latter, and liked him.  She wrote to her relative,
+Augustus Adams Cabot, of Cabot, Bancroft and Cabot, in Boston, who,
+although still a young man, was already known as a financier, and
+looked out for her various investments, saying that she found young
+Galusha "a nice boy, though rather odd, like his father," and that
+she thought of taking his rearing and education into her own hands.
+"I have no children of my own, Augustus.  What do you think of the
+idea?"  Augustus thought it a good one; at least he wrote that he
+did.  So Aunt Clarissa took charge of Galusha Bangs.
+
+The boy was fourteen then, a dreamy, shy youngster, who wore
+spectacles and preferred curling up in a corner with a book to
+playing baseball.  It was early spring when he came to live with
+Aunt Clarissa and before the summer began he had already astonished
+his relative more than once.  On one occasion a visitor, admiring
+the Bute library, asked how many volumes it contained.  Aunt
+Clarissa replied that she did not know.  "I have added from time to
+time such books as I desired and have discarded others.  I really
+have no idea how many there are."  Then Galusha, from the recess by
+the window, looked up over the top of the huge first volume of
+Ancient Nineveh and Its Remains which he was reading and observed:
+"There were five thousand six hundred and seventeen yesterday,
+Auntie."
+
+Aunt Clarissa started so violently that her eyeglasses fell from
+her aquiline nose to the end of their chain.
+
+"Good heavens, child!  I didn't know you were there.  What did you
+say?"
+
+"I said there were five thousand six hundred and seventeen books on
+the shelves here yesterday."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"I counted them."
+
+"COUNTED them?  Mercy!  What for?"
+
+Galusha's spectacles gleamed.  "For fun," he said.
+
+On another occasion his aunt found him still poring over Ancient
+Nineveh and Its Remains; it was the fifth volume now, however.
+
+"Do you LIKE to read that?" she asked.
+
+"Yes, Auntie.  I've read four already and, counting this one, there
+are five more to read."
+
+Now Aunt Clarissa had never read Ancient Nineveh herself.  Her
+bookseller had assured her that it was a very remarkable set, quite
+rare and complete.  "We seldom pick one up nowadays, Mrs. Bute.
+You should buy it."  So Aunt Clarissa bought it, but she had never
+thought of reading it.
+
+She looked down over her nephew's shoulder at the broad page with
+its diagram of an ancient temple and its drawings of human-headed
+bulls in bas-relief.
+
+"Why do you find it so interesting?" she asked.
+
+Galusha looked up at her.  His eyes were alight with excitement.
+
+"They dig those things up over there," he said, pointing to one of
+the bulls.  "It's all sand and rocks--and everything, but they send
+an expedition and the people in it figure out where the city or the
+temple or whatever it is ought to be, and then they dig and--and
+find it.  And you can't tell WHAT you'll find, exactly.  And
+sometimes you don't find much of anything."
+
+"After all the digging and work?"
+
+"Yes, but that's where the fun comes in.  Then you figure all over
+again and keep on trying and trying.  And when you DO find 'em
+there are sculptures like this--oh, yards and yards of 'em--and all
+sort of queer, funny old inscriptions to be studied out.  Gee, it
+must be great!  Don't you think so, Auntie?"
+
+Aunt Clarissa's reply was noncommittal.  That evening she wrote a
+letter to Augustus Cabot in Boston.  "He is a good boy," she wrote,
+referring to Galusha, "but queer--oh, dreadfully queer.  It's his
+father's queerness cropping out, of course, but it shouldn't be
+permitted to develop.  I have set my heart on his becoming a
+financier like the other Galushas in our line.  Of course he will
+always be a Bangs--more's the pity--but his middle name is Cabot
+and his first IS Galusha.  I think he had best continue his
+schooling in or near Boston where you can influence him, Augustus.
+I wish him well grounded in mathematics and--oh, you understand,
+the financial branches.  Select a school, the right sort of school,
+for him, to oblige me, will you, Gus?"
+
+Augustus Cabot chose a school, a select, aristocratic and expensive
+school near the "Hub of the Universe."  Thither, in the fall, went
+Galusha and there he remained until he was eighteen, when he
+entered Harvard.  At college, as at school, he plugged away at his
+studies, and he managed to win sufficiently high marks in
+mathematics.  But his mathematical genius was of a queer twist.  In
+the practical dollars and cents sort of figuring he was almost
+worthless.  Money did not interest him at all.  What interested him
+was to estimate how many bricks there were in "Mem" and how many
+more there might have been if it had been built a story higher.
+
+"This room," he said to a classmate, referring to his study in old
+Thayer, "was built in ----" naming the year.  "Now allowing that a
+different fellow lived in it each year, which is fair enough
+because they almost always change, that means that at least so many
+fellows," giving the number, "have occupied this room since the
+beginning.  That is, provided there was but one fellow living in
+the room at a time.  Now we know that, for part of the time, this
+was a double room, so--"
+
+"Oh, for the love of Mike, Loosh!" exclaimed the classmate, "cut it
+out.  What do you waste your time doing crazy stunts like that
+for?"
+
+"But it's fun.  Say, if they had all cut their initials around on
+the door frames and the--ah--mop boards it would be great stuff to
+puzzle 'em out and make a list of 'em, wouldn't it?  I wish they
+had."
+
+"Well, I don't.  It would make the old rat hole look like blazes
+and it is bad enough as it is.  Come on down and watch the
+practice."
+
+One of young Bangs' peculiar enjoyments, developed during his
+senior year, was to visit every old cemetery in or about the city
+and examine and copy the ancient epitaphs and inscriptions.
+Pleasant spring afternoons, when normal-minded Harvard men were
+busy with baseball or track or tennis, or the hundred and one
+activities which help to keep young America employed in a great
+university, Galusha might have been, and was, seen hopping about
+some grass-grown graveyard, like a bespectacled ghoul, making
+tracings of winged death's-heads or lugubrious tombstone poetry.
+When they guyed him he merely grinned, blushed, and was silent.  To
+the few--the very few--in whom he confided he made explanations
+which were as curious as their cause.
+
+"It's great fun," he declared.  "It keeps you guessing, that's it.
+Now, for instance, here's one of those skull jiggers with wings on
+it.  See?  I traced this over at Copp's Hill last spring, a year
+ago.  But there are dozens of 'em all about, in all the old
+graveyards.  Nobody ever saw a skull with wings; it's a--a--ah--
+convention, of course.  But who made the first one?  And why did it
+become a convention?  And--and--why do some of 'em have wings like
+this, and some of 'em crossbones like a pirate's flag, and some of
+'em no wings or bones, and why--"
+
+"Oh, good Lord!  I don't know.  Forget it.  You make a noise like a
+hearse, Loosh."
+
+"Of course you don't know.  _I_ don't know.  I don't suppose
+anybody knows, exactly.  But isn't it great fun to study 'em up,
+and see the different kinds, and think about the old chaps who
+carved 'em, and wonder about 'em and--"
+
+"No, I'll be banged if it is!  It's crazy nonsense.  You've got
+pigeons in your loft, Loosh.  Come on out and give the birds an
+airing."
+
+This was the general opinion of the class of 19--, that old "Loosh
+had pigeons in his loft."  However, it was agreed that they were
+harmless fowl and that Galusha himself was a good old scout, in
+spite of his aviary.
+
+He graduated with high honors in the mathematical branches and in
+languages.  Then the no less firm because feminine hand of Aunt
+Clarissa grasped him, so to speak, by the collar and guided him to
+the portals of the banking house of Cabot, Bancroft and Cabot,
+where "Cousin Gussie" took him in charge with the instructions to
+make a financier of him.
+
+"Cousin Gussie," junior member of the firm, then in his early
+thirties, thrust his hands into the pockets of his smart tweed
+trousers, tilted from heels to toes of his stylish and very shiny
+shoes and whistled beneath his trim mustache.  He had met Galusha
+often before, but that fact did not make him more optimistic,
+rather the contrary.
+
+"So you want to be a banker, do you, Loosh?" he asked.
+
+Galusha regarded him sadly through the spectacles.
+
+"Auntie wants me to be one," he said.
+
+The experiment lasted a trifle over six months.  At the end of that
+time the junior partner of Cabot, Bancroft and Cabot had another
+interview with his firm's most recent addition to its list of
+employees.
+
+"You're simply no good at the job, that's the plain truth," said
+the banker, with the candor of exasperation.  "You've cost us a
+thousand dollars more than your salary already by mistakes and
+forgetfulness and all the rest of it.  You'll never make your salt
+at this game in a million years.  Don't you know it, yourself?"
+
+Galusha nodded.
+
+"Yes," he said, simply.
+
+"Eh?  Oh, you do!  Well, that's something."
+
+"I knew it when I came here."
+
+"Knew you would be no good at the job?"
+
+"At this job, yes."
+
+"Then for heaven's sake why did you take it?"
+
+"I told you.  Aunt Clarissa wanted me to."
+
+"Well, you can't stay here, that's all.  I'm sorry."
+
+"So am I, for Auntie's sake and yours.  I realize I have made you a
+lot of--ah--trouble."
+
+"Oh, that's all right, that's all right.  Hang it all, I feel like
+a beast to chuck you out this way, but I have partners, you know.
+What will you do now?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+Cousin Gussie reflected.  "I think perhaps you'd better go back to
+Aunt Clarissa," he said.  "Possibly she will tell you what to do.
+Don't you think she will?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Humph!  You seem to be mighty sure of it.  How do you know she
+will?"
+
+For the first time a gleam, a very slight and almost pathetic
+gleam, of humor shone behind Galusha's spectacles.
+
+"Because she always does," he said.  And thus ended his connection
+with the banking profession.
+
+Aunt Clarissa was disgusted and disappointed, of course.  She
+expressed her feelings without reservation.  However, she laid most
+of the blame upon heredity.
+
+"You got it from that impractical librarian," she declared.  "Why
+did Dorothy marry him?  She might have known what the result would
+be."
+
+Galusha was more downcast even than his relative.
+
+"I'm awfully sorry, Aunt Clarissa," he said.  "I realize I am a
+dreadful disappointment to you.  I tried, I honestly did, but--"
+
+And here he coughed, coughed lengthily and in a manner which caused
+his aunt to look alarmed and anxious.  She had heard John Capen
+Bangs cough like that.  That very afternoon the Bute family
+physician saw, questioned and examined Galusha.  The following day
+an eminent specialist did the same things.  And both doctors looked
+gravely at each other and at their patient.
+
+Within a week Galusha was on his way to an Arizona ranch, a place
+where he was to find sunshine and dry climate.  He was to be out of
+doors as much as possible, he was to ride and walk much, he was to
+do all sorts of distasteful things, but he promised faithfully to
+do them, for his aunt's sake.  As a matter of fact, he took little
+interest in the matter for his own.  His was a sensitive spirit,
+although a quiet, shy and "queer" one, and to find that he was "no
+good" at any particular employment, even though he had felt fairly
+certain of that fact beforehand, hurt more than he acknowledged to
+others.  Galusha went to Arizona because his aunt, to whose
+kindness and generosity he owed so much, wished him to do so.  For
+himself he did not care where he went or what became of him.
+
+But his feelings changed a few months later, when health began to
+return and the cough to diminish in frequency and violence.  And
+then came to the ranch where he lodged and boarded an expedition
+from an eastern museum.  It was an expedition sent to explore the
+near-by canyon for trace of the ancient "cliff dwellers," to find
+and, if need be, excavate the villages of this strange people and
+to do research work among them.  The expedition was in charge of an
+eminent scientist.  Galusha met and talked with the scientist and
+liked him at once, a liking which was to grow into adoration as the
+acquaintanceship between the two warmed into friendship.  The young
+man was invited to accompany the expedition upon one of its
+exploring trips.  He accepted and, although he did not then realize
+it, upon that trip he discovered, not only an ancient cliff
+village, but the life work of Galusha Cabot Bangs.
+
+For Galusha was wild with enthusiasm.  Scrambling amid the rocks,
+wading or tumbling into the frigid waters of mountain streams,
+sleeping anywhere or not sleeping, all these hardships were of no
+consequence whatever compared with the thrill which came with the
+first glimpse of, high up under the bulging brow of an overhanging
+cliff, a rude wall and a cluster of half ruined dwellings sticking
+to the side of the precipice as barn swallows' nests are plastered
+beneath eaves.  Then the climb and the glorious burrowing into the
+homes of these long dead folk, the hallelujahs when a bit of broken
+pottery was found, and the delightfully arduous labor of
+painstakingly uncovering and cleaning a bit of rude carving.  The
+average man would have tired of it in two days, a week of it would
+have bored him to distraction.  But the longer it lasted and the
+harder the labor, the brighter Galusha's eyes sparkled behind his
+spectacles.  Years before, when his aunt had asked him concerning
+his interest in the books about ancient Nineveh, he had described
+to her the work of the explorers and had cried:  "Gee, it must be
+great!"  Well, now he was, in a very humble way, helping to do
+something of the sort himself, and--gee, it WAS great!
+
+Such enthusiasm as his and such marked aptitude, amounting almost
+to genius, could not help but make an impression.  The distinguished
+savant at the head of the expedition returned the young man's
+liking.  Before returning East, he said:
+
+"Bangs, next fall I am planning an expedition to Ecuador.  I'd like
+to have you go with me.  Oh, this isn't offered merely for your
+sake, it is quite as much for mine.  You're worth at least three of
+the average young fellows who have trained for this sort of thing.
+There will be a salary for you, of course, but it won't be large.
+On the other hand, there will be no personal expense and some
+experience.  Will you go?"
+
+Would he GO?  Why--
+
+"Yes, I know.  But there is your health to be considered.  I can't
+afford to have a sick man along.  You stay here for the present and
+put in your time getting absolutely fit."
+
+"But--but I AM fit."
+
+"Um--yes; well, then, get fitter."
+
+Galusha went to Ecuador.  Aunt Clarissa protested, scolded,
+declared him insane--and capitulated only when she found that he
+was going anyhow.  He returned from the expedition higher than ever
+in favor with his chief.  He was offered a position in the
+archeological department of the museum.  He accepted first and then
+told Aunt Clarissa.
+
+That was the real beginning.  After that the years rolled placidly
+along.  He went to Egypt, under his beloved chief, and there found
+exactly what he had dreamed.  The desert, the pyramids, the
+sculptures, the ancient writings, the buried tombs and temples--all
+those Galusha saw and took, figuratively speaking, for his own.  On
+his return he settled down to the study of Egyptology, its
+writings, its history, its every detail.  He made another trip to
+the beloved land and distinguished himself and his museum by his
+discoveries.  His chief died and Galusha was offered the post left
+vacant.  He accepted.  Later--some years later--he was called to
+the National Institute at Washington.
+
+When he was thirty-seven his Aunt Clarissa died.  She left all her
+property to her nephew.  But she left it in trust, in trust with
+Cousin Gussie.  There was a letter to the latter in the envelope
+with the will.  "He is to have only the income, the income,
+understand--until he is forty-five," Aunt Clarissa had written.
+"Heaven knows, I am afraid even THAT is too young for a child such
+as he is in everything except pyramids."
+
+Cousin Gussie, now the dignified and highly respected senior
+partner of Cabot, Bancroft and Cabot, took charge of the Bute--now
+the Bangs--property.  There was not as much of it as most people
+had supposed; since Uncle Joshua passed on certain investments had
+gone wrong, but there was income enough to furnish any mortal of
+ordinary tastes with the means of gratifying them and still have a
+substantial residue left.  Galusha understood this, in a vague sort
+of way, but he did not care.  Outside of his beloved profession he
+had no tastes and no desires.  Life for him was, as Cousin Gussie
+unfeelingly put it, "one damned mummy after the other."  In fact,
+after the arrival of the first installment of income, he traveled
+posthaste to the office of his Boston relative and entered a
+protest.
+
+"You--you mustn't send any more, really you mustn't," he declared,
+anxiously.  "I don't know what to do with it."
+
+"DO with it?  Do with the money, you mean?"
+
+"Yes--yes, that's it."
+
+"But don't you need it to live on?"
+
+"Oh, dear me, no!"
+
+"What DO you live on?"
+
+"Why, my salary."
+
+"How much is your salary, if you don't mind telling us?"
+
+Galusha did not in the least mind.  The figure he named seemed a
+small one to his banking relative, used to big sums.
+
+"Humph!" grunted the latter; "well, that isn't so tremendous.  They
+don't overpay you mummy-dusters, do they?  And you really don't
+want me to send you any more?"
+
+"No, not if you're sure you don't mind."
+
+"Oh, I don't mind.  Then you want me to keep it and reinvest it for
+you; is that it?"
+
+"I--I think so.  Yes, reinvest it or--ah--something."
+
+"But you may need some of it occasionally.  If you do you will
+notify me, of course."
+
+"Oh, yes; yes, indeed.  Thank you very much.  It's quite a weight
+off my mind, really it is."
+
+Cabot could not help laughing.  Then a thought struck him.
+
+"Did you bring back the check I sent you?" he asked.  Galusha
+looked somewhat confused.
+
+"Why, why, no, I didn't," he admitted.  "I had intended to, but you
+see--  Dear me, dear me, I hope you will feel that I did right.
+You see, our paleontological department had been hoping to fit out
+an expedition to the Wyoming fossil fields, but it was lamentably
+short of funds, appropriations--ah--and so on.  Hambridge and I
+were talking of the matter.  A very adequate man indeed, Hambridge.
+Possibly you've read some of his writings.  He wrote Lesser
+Reptilian Life in the Jurassio.  Are you acquainted with that?"
+
+Cousin Gussie shook his head.  "Never have been introduced," he
+observed, with a chuckle.  Galusha noted the chuckle and smiled.
+
+"I imagine not," he observed.  "I fear it isn't what is called a--
+ah--best seller.  Well--ah--  Dear me, where was I?  Oh, yes!
+Hambridge, poor fellow, was very much upset at the prospect of
+abandoning his expedition and I, knowing from experience what such
+a disappointment means, sympathized with him.  Your check was at
+that moment lying on my desk.  So--so--  It was rather on the spur
+of the moment, I confess--I--"
+
+The banker interrupted.
+
+"Are you trying to tell me," he demanded, "that you handed that
+check over to that other--that other--"
+
+He seemed rather at a loss for the word.
+
+Galusha nodded.
+
+"To finance Hambridge's expedition?  Yes," he said.
+
+"ALL of it?"
+
+"Yes--ah--yes."
+
+"Well, by George!"
+
+"Perhaps it was impulsive on my part.  But, you see, Hambridge DID
+need the money.  And of course I didn't.  The only thing that
+troubles me is the fact that, after all, it was money Aunt Clarissa
+left to me and I should prefer to do what she would have liked with
+it.  I fear she might not have liked this."
+
+Cabot nodded, grimly.  He had known Aunt Clarissa very, very well.
+
+"You bet she wouldn't," he declared.
+
+"Yes.  So don't send me any more, will you?  Ah--not unless I ask
+for it."
+
+"No, I won't."  Then he added, "And not then unless I know WHY you
+ask for it, you can bet on that."
+
+Galusha was as grateful as if he had been granted a great favor.
+As they walked through the outer office together he endeavored to
+express his feelings.
+
+"Thank you, thank you very much, Cousin Gussie," he said,
+earnestly.  His relative glanced about at the desks where rows of
+overjoyed clerks were trying to suppress delighted grins and
+pretend not to have heard.
+
+"You're welcome, Loosh," he said, as they parted at the door, "but
+don't you ever dare call me 'Cousin Gussie' again in public as long
+as you live."
+
+Galusha Bangs returned to his beloved work at the National
+Institute and his income was reinvested for him by the senior
+partner of Cabot, Bancroft and Cabot.  Occasionally Galusha
+requested that a portion of it be sent him, usually for donation to
+this department or that or to assist in fitting out an expedition
+of his own, but, generally speaking, he was quite content with his
+modest salary.  He unwrapped his mummies and deciphered his
+moldering papyri, living far more in ancient Egypt than in modern
+Washington.  The Great War and its demands upon the youth of the
+world left the Institute short-handed and he labored harder than
+ever, doing the work of two assistants as well as his own.  It was
+the only thing he could do for his country, the only thing that
+country would permit him to do, but he tried to do that well.  Then
+the Hindenburg line was broken, the armistice was signed and the
+civilized world rejoiced.
+
+But Galusha Bangs did not rejoice, for his health had broken, like
+the enemy's resistance, and the doctors told him that he was to go
+away at once.
+
+"You must leave all this," commanded the doctor; "forget it.  You
+must get away, get out of doors and stay out."
+
+For a moment Galusha was downcast.  Then he brightened.
+
+"There is an expedition from the New York museum about to start for
+Syria," he said.  "I am quite sure I would be permitted to
+accompany it.  I'll write at once and--"
+
+"Here, here!  Wait!  You'll do nothing of the sort.  I said forget
+that sort of thing.  You can't go wandering off to dig in the
+desert; you might as well stay in this place and dig here.  Get
+away from it all.  Go where there are people."
+
+"But, Doctor Raymond, there are people in Syria, a great many of
+them, and most interesting people.  I have--"
+
+"No.  You are to forget Syria and Egypt and your work altogether.
+Keep out of doors, meet people, exercise--play golf, perhaps.  The
+main trouble with you just now is nerve weariness and lack of
+strength.  Eat, sleep, rest, build up.  Eat regular meals at
+regular times.  Go to bed at a regular hour.  I would suggest your
+going to some resort, either in the mountains or at the seashore.
+Enjoy yourself."
+
+"But, doctor, I DON'T enjoy myself at such places.  I am quite
+wretched.  Really I am."
+
+"Look here, you must do precisely as I tell you.  Your lungs are
+quite all right at present, but, as you know, they have a tendency
+to become all wrong with very little provocation.  I tell you to go
+away at once, at once.  And STAY away, for a year at least.  If you
+don't, my friend, you are going to die.  Is that plain?"
+
+It was plain, certainly.  Galusha took off his spectacles and
+rubbed them, absently.
+
+"Dear me! . . .  Dear me!--ah--  Oh, dear!" he observed.
+
+A resort?  Galusha knew precious little about resorts; they were
+places he had hitherto tried to avoid.  He asked his stenographer
+to name a resort where one would be likely to meet--ah--a good many
+people and find--ah--air and--ah--that sort of thing.  The
+stenographer suggested Atlantic City.  She had no idea why he asked
+the question.
+
+Galusha went to Atlantic City.  Atlantic City in August!  Two days
+of crowds and noise were sufficient.  A crumpled, perspiring wreck,
+he boarded the train bound for the mountains.  The White Mountains
+were his destination.  He had never visited them, but he knew them
+by reputation.
+
+The White Mountains were not so bad.  The crowds at the hotels were
+not pleasant, but one could get away into the woods and walk, and
+there was an occasional old cemetery to be visited.  But as the
+fall season drew on the crowds grew greater.  People persisted in
+talking to Galusha when he did not care to be talked to.  They
+asked questions.  And one had to dress--or most DID dress--for
+dinner.  He tired of the mountains; there were too many people
+there, they made him feel "queerer" than ever.
+
+On his way from Atlantic City to the mountains he happened upon the
+discarded magazine with the advertisement of the Restabit Inn in
+it.  Just why he had torn out that "ad" and kept it he was himself,
+perhaps, not quite sure.  The "rest" and "sea air" and "pleasant
+people" were exactly what the doctor had prescribed for him, but
+that was not the whole reason for the advertisement's retention.
+An association of ideas was the real reason.  Just before he found
+the magazine he had received Mrs. Hall's postcard with its renewal
+of the invitation to visit the Hall cottage at Wellmouth.  And the
+Restabit Inn was at East Wellmouth.
+
+His determination to accept the Hall invitation and make the visit
+was as sudden as it was belated.  The postcard came in August, but
+it was not until October that Galusha made up his mind.  His
+decision was brought to a focus by the help of Mrs. Worth Buckley.
+Mrs. Buckley's help had not been solicited, but was volunteered,
+and, as a matter of fact, its effect was the reverse of that which
+the lady intended.  Nevertheless, had it not been for Mrs. Buckley
+it is doubtful if Galusha would have started for Wellmouth.
+
+She came upon him first one brilliant afternoon when he was sitting
+upon a rock, resting his weary legs--they wearied so easily
+nowadays--and looking off at the mountain-side ablaze with autumn
+coloring.  She was large and commanding, and she spoke with a
+manner, a very decided manner.  She asked him if--he would pardon
+her for asking, wouldn't he?--but had she, by any chance, the honor
+of addressing Doctor Bangs, the Egyptologist.  Oh, really?  How
+very wonderful!  She was quite certain that it was he.  She had
+heard him deliver a series of lectures--oh, the most WONDERFUL
+things, they were, really--at the museum some years before.  She
+had been introduced to him at that time, but he had forgotten her,
+of course.  Quite natural that he should.  "You meet so many
+people, Doctor Bangs--or should I say 'Professor'?"
+
+He hoped she would say neither.  He had an odd prejudice of his own
+against titles, and to be called "Mister" Bangs was the short road
+to his favor.  He tried to tell this woman so, but it was of no
+use.  In a little while he found it quite as useless to attempt
+telling her anything.  The simplest way, apparently, was silently
+and patiently to endure while she talked--and talked--and talked.
+
+Memories of her monologues, if they could have been taken in
+shorthand from Galusha's mind, would have been merely a succession
+of "I" and "I" and "I" and "Oh, do you really think so, Doctor
+Bangs?" and "Oh, Professor!" and "wonderful" and "amazing" and
+"quite thrilling" and much more of the same.
+
+She followed him when he went to walk; that is, apparently she did,
+for he was continually encountering her.  She came and sat next him
+on the hotel veranda.  She bowed and smiled to him when she swept
+into the dining room at meal times.  Worst of all, she told others,
+many others, who he was, and he was aware of being stared at, a
+knowledge which made him acutely self-conscious and correspondingly
+miserable.  There was a Mr. Worth Buckley trotting in her wake, but
+he was mild and inoffensive.  His wife, however--Galusha exclaimed,
+"Oh, dear me!" inwardly or aloud whenever he thought of her.
+
+And she WOULD talk of Egypt.  She and her husband had visited Cairo
+once upon a time, so she felt herself as familiar with the whole
+Nile basin as with the goldfish tank in the hotel lounge.  To
+Galusha Egypt was an enchanted land, a sort of paradise to which
+fortunate explorers might eventually be permitted to go if they
+were very, very good.  To have this sacrilegious female patting the
+Sphinx on the head was more than he could stand.
+
+So he determined to stand it no longer; he ran away.  One evening
+Mrs. Buckley informed him that she and a little group--"a really
+select group, Professor Bangs"--of the hotel inmates were to picnic
+somewhere or other the following day.  "And you are to come with
+us, Doctor, and tell us about those wonderful temples you and I
+were discussing yesterday.  I have told the others something of
+what you told me and they are quite WILD to hear you."
+
+Galusha was quite wild also.  He went to his room and, pawing amid
+the chaos of his bureau drawer for a clean collar, chanced upon the
+postcard from Mrs. Hall.  The postcard reminded him of the
+advertisement of the Restabit Inn, which was in his pocketbook.
+Then the idea came to him.  He would go to the Hall cottage and
+make a visit of a day or two.  If he liked the Cape and Wellmouth
+he would take lodgings at the Restabit Inn and stay as long as he
+wished.  The suspicion that the inn might be closed did not occur
+to him.  The season was at its height in the mountains, and
+Atlantic City, so they had told him there, ran at full blast all
+the year.  So much he knew, and the rest he did not think about.
+
+He spent most of that night packing his trunk and his suitcase.
+He left word for the former to be sent to him by express and the
+latter he took with him.  He tiptoed downstairs, ate a hasty
+breakfast, and took the earliest train for Boston, The following
+afternoon he started upon his Cape Cod pilgrimage, a pilgrimage
+which was to end in a fainting fit upon the sofa in Miss Martha
+Phipps' sitting room.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+The fainting fit did not last long.  When Galusha again became
+interested in the affairs of this world it was to become aware that
+a glass containing something not unpleasantly fragrant was held
+directly beneath his nose and that some one was commanding him to
+drink.
+
+So he drank, and the fragrant liquid in the tumbler descended to
+his stomach and thence, apparently, to his fingers and toes; at all
+events those chilled members began to tingle agreeably.  Mr. Bangs
+attempted to sit up.
+
+"No, no, you stay right where you are," said the voice, the same
+voice which had urged him to drink.
+
+"But really I--I am quite well now.  And your sofa--"
+
+"Never mind the sofa.  You aren't the first soakin' wet mortal that
+has been on it.  No, you mind me and stay still. . . .  Primmie!"
+
+"Yes'm.  Here I be."
+
+"Did you get the doctor on the 'phone?"
+
+"Yes'm.  He said he'd be right down soon's ever he could.  He was
+kind of fussy 'long at fust; said he hadn't had no supper and was
+wet through, and all such talk's that.  But I headed HIM off, my
+savin' soul, yes!  Says I, 'There's a man here that's more'n wet
+through; he ain't had a thing but rum since I don't know when.'"
+
+"Heavens and earth!  WHAT did you tell him that for?"
+
+"Why, it's so, ain't it, Miss Marthy?  You said yourself he was
+starved."
+
+"But what did you tell him about the rum for?  Never mind, never
+mind.  Don't stop to argue about it.  You go out and make some tea,
+hot tea, and toast some bread.  And hurry, Primmie--HURRY!"
+
+"Yes'm, but--"
+
+"HURRY! . . .  And Primmie Cash, if you scorch that toast-bread
+I'll scrape off the burned part and make you eat it, I declare I
+will.  Now you lie right still, Mr.--er--Bangs, did you say your
+name was?"
+
+"Yes, but really, madam--"
+
+"My name is Phipps, Martha Phipps."
+
+"Really.  Mrs. Phipps--"
+
+"Miss, not Mrs."
+
+"I beg your pardon.  Really, Miss Phipps, I cannot permit you to
+take so much trouble.  I must go on, back to the village--or--or
+somewhere.  I--  Dear me?"
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"Nothing, nothing, my head is rather confused--dizzy.  I shall be
+all right again, shortly.  I am ashamed of myself."
+
+"You needn't be.  Anybody that has walked 'way down here, a night
+like this, on an empty stomach--"  She paused, laughed, and
+exclaimed, "Of course, I don't mean you walked on your stomach,
+exactly, Mr. Bangs."
+
+Galusha smiled, feebly.  "There were times when I began to think I
+should be forced to," he said.
+
+"I don't doubt it.  There, there! now don't try to talk any more
+till you've had something to eat.  Doctor Powers will be here
+pretty soon; it isn't very far--in an automobile.  I'm afraid he's
+liable to have a queer notion of what's the matter with you.  The
+idea of that Primmie tellin' him you hadn't had anything but rum
+for she didn't know how long!  My, my!  Well, 'twas the truth, but
+it bears out what my father used to say, that a little truth was
+like a little learnin', an awfully dangerous thing. . . .  There,
+there! don't talk.  I'll talk for both of us.  I have a faculty
+that way--father used to say THAT, too," she added, with a broad
+smile.
+
+When Doctor Powers did arrive, which was about fifteen minutes
+later, he found the patient he had come to see drinking hot tea and
+eating buttered toast.  He was sitting in a big rocker with his
+steaming shoes propped against the stove.  Miss Phipps introduced
+the pair and explained matters to the extent of her knowledge.
+Galusha added the lacking details.
+
+The doctor felt the Bangs' pulse and took the Bangs temperature.
+The owner of the pulse and temperature made feeble protests,
+declaring himself to be "perfectly all right, really" and that he
+must be going back to the village.  He couldn't think of putting
+every one to so much trouble.
+
+"And where will you go when you get back to the village?" asked
+Doctor Powers.
+
+"Why, to the--ah--hotel.  I presume there is a hotel."
+
+"No, there isn't.  The Inn across the road here is the only hotel
+in East Wellmouth, and that is closed for the season."
+
+"Dear me, doctor!  Dear me!  Well, perhaps I may be able to hire
+a--ah--car or wagon or something to take me to Wellmouth.  I have
+friends in Wellmouth; I intended visiting them.  Do you know
+Professor Hall--ah--George Hall, of New York?"
+
+"Yes, I know him well.  He and his family are patients of mine.
+But the Halls are not in Wellmouth now."
+
+"They are not?"
+
+"No, they went back to New York two weeks or more ago.  Their
+cottage is closed."
+
+"Dear me! . . .  Oh, dear! . . .  Why, but--but there IS a hotel at
+Wellmouth?"
+
+"Yes, a kind of hotel, but you mustn't think of going there to-
+night."  Then, with a motion of his hand, he indicated to Miss
+Phipps that he wished to speak with her alone.  She led the way to
+the kitchen and he followed.
+
+"Martha," he said, when the door closed, "to be absolutely honest
+with you, that man in there shouldn't go out again to-night.  He
+has been half sick for some time, I judge from what he has told me,
+and he is weak and worn out from his tramp and wetting."
+
+Miss Phipps shook her head impatiently.
+
+"The idea of Raish Pulcifer's cartin' him 'way over here and then
+leavin' him in the middle of the road," she said.  "It's just like
+Raish, but that doesn't help it any; nothin' that's like Raish
+helps anything--much," she added.
+
+The doctor laughed.
+
+"I'm beginning to believe you're right, Martha," he agreed.
+
+"I'm pretty sure I am.  I think I know Raish Pulcifer by this time;
+I almost wish I didn't.  Father used to say that if ignorance was
+bliss the home for feeble-minded folks ought to be a paradise.  But
+I don't know; sometimes I wish I wasn't so wise about some things;
+I might be happier."
+
+Her pleasant, comely face had clouded over.  Doctor Powers thought
+he understood why.
+
+"Haven't heard anything hopeful about the Wellmouth Development
+Company, have you?" he asked.
+
+"Not a word.  I've almost given up expectin' to.  How about you?"
+
+"Oh, I've heard nothing new.  Well, I've got only ten shares, so
+the loss, if it is a loss, won't break me.  But Cap'n Jethro went
+in rather heavily, so they say."
+
+"I believe he did."
+
+"Yes.  Well, it may be all right, after all.  Raish says all we
+need is time."
+
+"Um-hm.  And that's all the Lord needed when He made the world.  He
+made it in six days.  Sometimes when I'm out of sorts I wonder if
+one more week wouldn't have given us a better job. . . .  But
+there, that's irreverent, isn't it, and off the track besides?  Now
+about this little Bangs man.  What ought to be done with him?"
+
+"Well, as I say, he shouldn't go out to-night.  Of course he'll
+have to."
+
+"Why will he have to?"
+
+"Because he needs to go to bed and sleep.  I thought perhaps I
+could get him down to the light and Cap'n Jethro and Lulie could
+give him a room."
+
+"There's a room here.  Two or three of 'em, as far as that goes.
+He isn't very big; he won't need more than one."
+
+"But, Martha, I didn't know how you would feel about taking a
+strange man into your house, at night, and--"
+
+Miss Phipps interrupted him.
+
+"Heavens and earth, doctor!" she exclaimed, "what DO you think I
+am?  I'm forty-one years old next August and I weigh--  Well, I
+won't tell you what I weigh, but I blush every time I see the
+scales.  If you think I'm afraid of a little, meek creature like
+the one in the sittin' room you never made a bigger mistake.  And
+there's Primmie to help me, in case I need help, which I shan't.
+Besides he doesn't look as if he would run off with the spoons, now
+does he?"
+
+Doctor Powers laughed heartily.  "Why, no, he doesn't," he
+admitted.  "I think you'll find him a quiet little chap."
+
+"Yes.  And he isn't able to half look after himself when he's well,
+to say nothin' of when he's sick.  Anybody--any woman, anyhow--
+could tell that just by lookin' at him.  And I've brought up a
+father, so I've had experience.  He'll stay right here in the spare
+bedroom to-night--yes, and to-morrow night, too, if you think he'd
+better.  Now don't talk any more rubbish, but go in and tell him
+so."
+
+Her hand was on the latch of the sitting room door when the doctor
+asked one more question.
+
+"Say, Martha," he asked, "this is not my business, but as a friend
+of yours I--  Tell me: Cap'n Jim--your father, I mean--didn't put
+more money than he could spare in that Development scheme, did he?
+I mean you, yourself, aren't--er--likely to be embarrassed in case--
+in case--"
+
+Miss Phipps interrupted hastily, almost too hastily, so Doctor
+Powers thought.
+
+"No, no, of course not," she said.
+
+"Truly, Martha?  I'm only asking as a friend, you know."
+
+"Why, of course.  There now, doctor, don't you worry about me.  You
+know what father and I were to each other; is it likely he would
+leave me in trouble of any kind?  Now come in and see if Primmie
+has talked this little sick man of ours into another faintin' fit."
+
+Primmie had not, but the "little sick man" came, apparently, very
+near to fainting when told that he was to occupy the Phipps' spare
+bedroom overnight.  Oh, he could not possibly do such a thing,
+really he couldn't think of it!  "Dear me, Miss Phipps, I--"
+
+Miss Phipps paid absolutely no heed to his protests.  Neither did
+the doctor, who was giving her directions concerning some tablets.
+"One to be taken now and another in the morning.  Perhaps he had
+better stay in bed until I come, Martha.  I'll be down after
+breakfast."
+
+"All right, doctor.  Do you think he's had enough to eat?"
+
+"Enough for to-night, yes.  Now, Mr. Bangs," turning to the still
+protesting Galusha, "you and I will go upstairs and see that you
+get to bed."
+
+"But, really, doctor, I--"
+
+"What's troublin' me, doctor," broke in Miss Phipps, "is what on
+earth to give him to sleep in.  There may be a nightshirt of
+father's around in one of the trunks somewhere, but I doubt it, for
+I gave away almost everything of that kind when he died.  I suppose
+he might use one of Primmie's nightgowns, or mine, but either one
+would swallow him whole, I'm afraid."
+
+Doctor Powers, catching a glimpse of the expression on his
+patient's face, was obliged to wait an instant before venturing to
+reply.  Galusha himself took advantage of the interval.
+
+"Why--why--" he cried, "I--  Dear me, dear me, I must have
+forgotten it entirely.  My suitcase!  I--ah--it must be on the
+veranda of that hotel.  I left it there."
+
+"What hotel?  The Restabit Inn?"
+
+"Yes.  I--"
+
+He got no further.  His hostess began issuing orders.  A few
+minutes later, Primmie, adequately if not beautifully attired in a
+man's oilskin "slicker," sou'wester, and rubber boots, clumped
+forth in search of the suitcase.  She returned dripping but
+grinning with the missing property.  Its owner regarded it with
+profound thankfulness.  He could at least retire for the night
+robed as a man and a brother.
+
+"Everything in there you need, Mr. Bangs?" asked Doctor Powers,
+briskly.
+
+"Oh, yes, quite, quite--ah--thank you.  But really--"
+
+"Then you and I will go aloft, as old Cap'n Jim would have said.
+Cap'n Jim Phipps was Miss Martha's father, Mr. Bangs, and there may
+have been finer men, but I never met any of 'em.  All ready?  Good!
+Here, here, don't hurry!  Take it easy.  Those stairs are steep."
+
+They were steep, and narrow as well.  Galusha went first but before
+he reached the top he was extremely thankful that the sturdy
+physician was behind to steady him.  Miss Martha called to say that
+she had left a lighted lamp in the bedroom.  Beyond the fact that
+the room itself was of good size Galusha noticed little concerning
+it, little except the bed, which was large and patchwork-quilted
+and tremendously inviting.
+
+Doctor Powers briskly helped him to undress.  The soaked shoes and
+stockings made the physician shake his head.
+
+"Your feet are as cold as ice, I suppose, eh?" he inquired.
+
+"Why, a trifle chilled, but nothing--really nothing."
+
+Miss Martha called up the stairs.
+
+"Doctor," she called, "here's a hot-water bag.  I thought probably
+'twould feel comfortable."
+
+Doctor Powers accepted the bag and returned to the room, shaking
+his head.
+
+"That woman's got more sense than a--than a barn full of owls," he
+declared, solemnly.  "There, Mr. Bangs, that'll warm up your
+underpinning.  Anything more you want?  All right, are you?"
+
+"Oh, yes, quite, quite.  But really, doctor, I shouldn't permit
+this.  I feel like a tresspasser, like--a--a--"
+
+"You feel like going to sleep, that's what I want you to feel like.
+Lucky the rain has driven off the fog or the foghorn would keep you
+awake.  It sounds like the crack of doom down here.  Perhaps you
+noticed it?"
+
+"Yes, I did--ah--at least that."
+
+"I shouldn't wonder.  Anybody but a graven image would notice the
+Gould's Bluffs foghorn.  Matches right there by the lamp, in case
+you want 'em.  If you feel mean in the night sing out; Martha'll
+hear you and come in.  I'll be on hand in the morning.  Good-night,
+Mr. Bangs."
+
+He blew out the lamp and departed, closing the door behind him.
+The rain poured upon the roof overhead and splashed against the
+panes of the two little windows beneath the eaves.  Galusha Bangs,
+warm and dry for the first time in hours, sank comfortably to
+sleep.
+
+He woke early, at least he felt sure it was early until he looked
+at his watch.  Then he discovered it was almost nine o'clock.  He
+had had a wonderful night's rest and he felt quite himself, quite
+well again, he--
+
+Whew!  That shoulder WAS a trifle stiff.  Yes, and there was a
+little more lameness in his ankles and knees than he could have
+wished.  Perhaps, after all, he would not get up immediately.  He
+would lie there a little longer and perhaps have the hotel people
+send up his breakfast, and--  Then he remembered that he was not at
+the hotel; he was occupying a room in the house of a total
+stranger.  No doubt they were waiting breakfast for him.  Dear me,
+dear me!
+
+He climbed stiffly out of bed and began to dress.  This statement
+is not quite correct; he prepared to begin to dress.  Just as he
+reached the important point where it was time to put something on
+he made a startling discovery:  His clothes were gone!
+
+It was true, they were gone, every last item of them with the
+unimportant exceptions of crumpled collar and tie.  Galusha looked
+helplessly about the room and shivered.
+
+"Oh, dear me!" he cried, aloud.  "Oh, dear!"
+
+A voice outside his chamber door made answer.
+
+"Be you awake, Mr. Bangs?" asked Primmie.  "Here's your things.
+Doctor Powers he come up and got 'em last night after you'd fell
+asleep and me and Miss Martha we hung 'em alongside the kitchen
+stove.  They're dried out fine.  Miss Martha says you ain't to get
+up, though, till the doctor comes.  I'll leave your things right
+here on the floor. . . .  Or shall I put 'em inside?"
+
+"Oh, no, no!  Don't, don't!  I mean put them on the floor--ah--
+outside.  Thank you, thank you."
+
+"Miss Martha said if you was awake to ask you if you felt better."
+
+"Oh, yes--yes, much better, thank you.  Thank you--yes."
+
+He waited in some trepidation, until he heard Primmie clump
+downstairs.  Then he opened the door a crack and retrieved his
+"things."  They were not only dry, but clean, and the majority of
+the wrinkles had been pressed from his trousers and coat.  The mud
+had even been brushed from his shoes.  Not that Galusha noticed all
+this just then.  He was busy dressing, having a nervous dread that
+the unconventional Primmie might find she had forgotten something
+and come back to bring it.
+
+When he came downstairs there was no one in the sitting room and he
+had an opportunity to look about.  It was a pleasant apartment,
+that sitting room, especially on a morning like this, with the
+sunshine streaming in through the eastern windows, windows full of
+potted plants set upon wire frames, with hanging baskets of
+trailing vines and a canary in a cage about them.  There were more
+plants in the western windows also, for the sitting room occupied
+the whole width of the house at that point.  The pictures upon the
+wall were almost all of the sea, paintings of schooners, and one of
+the "Barkentine Hawkeye, of Boston.  Captain James Phipps, leaving
+Surinam, August 12, 1872."  The only variations from the sea
+pictures were a "crayon-enlarged" portrait of a sturdy man with an
+abundance of unruly gray hair and a chin beard, and a chromo
+labeled "Sunset at Niagara Falls."  The portrait bore sufficient
+resemblance to Miss Martha Phipps to warrant Galusha's guess that
+it was intended to portray her father, the "Cap'n Jim" of whom the
+doctor had spoken.  The chromo of "Sunset at Niagara Falls" was
+remarkable chiefly for its lack of resemblance either to Niagara or
+a sunset.
+
+He was inspecting this work of art when Miss Phipps entered the
+room.  She was surprised to see him.
+
+"Mercy on us!" she exclaimed.  "WHAT in the world are you doin'
+downstairs here?"
+
+Galusha blushed guiltily and hastened to explain that he was
+feeling quite himself, really, and so had, of course, risen and--
+ah--dressed.
+
+"But I do hope, Miss Phipps," he added, "that I haven't kept you
+waiting breakfast.  I'm afraid I have."
+
+She laughed at the idea.  "Indeed you haven't," she declared.  "If
+you don't mind my sayin' so, Mr. Bangs, the angel Gabriel couldn't
+keep me waitin' breakfast till half past nine on a Saturday
+mornin'.  Primmie and I were up at half-past six sharp.  That is, I
+got up then and Primmie was helped up about five minutes afterward.
+But what I want to know," she went on, "is why you got up at all.
+Didn't the doctor say you were to stay abed until he came?"
+
+"Why--why, yes, I believe he did, but you see--you see--"
+
+"Never mind.  The main thing is that you ARE up and must be pretty
+nearly starved.  Sit right down, Mr. Bangs.  Your breakfast will be
+ready in two shakes."
+
+"But Miss Phipps, I wish you wouldn't trouble about my breakfast.
+I feel--"
+
+"I know how you feel; that is, I know how _I_ should feel if I
+hadn't eaten a thing but toast-bread since yesterday mornin'.  Sit
+down, Mr. Bangs."
+
+She hastened from the room.  Galusha, the guilty feeling even more
+pronounced, sat down as requested.  Five minutes afterward she
+returned to tell him that breakfast was ready.  He followed her to
+the dining room, another comfortable, sunshiny apartment, where
+Primmie, grinning broadly, served him with oatmeal and boiled eggs
+and hot biscuits and coffee.  He was eating when Doctor Powers'
+runabout drove up.
+
+The doctor, after scolding his patient for disobeying orders, gave
+the said patient a pretty thorough examination.
+
+"You are in better shape than you deserve to be," he said, "but you
+are not out of the woods yet.  What you need is to gain strength,
+and that means a few days' rest and quiet and good food.  If your
+friends, the Halls, were at their cottage at the Centre I'd take
+you there, Mr. Bangs, but they're not.  I would take you over to my
+house, but my wife's sister and her children are with us and I
+haven't any place to put you."
+
+Galusha, who had been fidgeting in his chair, interrupted.  "Now,
+Doctor Powers," he begged, "please don't think of such a thing.  I
+am quite well enough to travel."
+
+"Excuse me, but you are not."
+
+"But you said yourself you would take me to Wellmouth if the Halls
+were there."
+
+"I did, but they're not there."
+
+"I know, but there is a hotel there, Mr.--ah--Pulcifer said so."
+
+The doctor and Miss Phipps looked at each other.
+
+"He said there was a hotel there," went on Galusha.  "Now if you
+would be so kind as to--ah--take me to that hotel--"
+
+Dr. Powers rubbed his chin.
+
+"I should like to have you under my eye for a day or two," he said.
+
+"Yes--yes, of course.  Well, couldn't you motor over and see me
+occasionally?  It is not so very far, is it? . . .   As to the
+additional expense, of course I should expect to reimburse you for
+that."
+
+Still the physician looked doubtful.
+
+"It isn't the expense, exactly, Mr. Bangs," he said.
+
+"I promise you I will not attempt to travel until you give your
+permission.  I realize that I am still--ah--a trifle weak--weak in
+the knees," he added, with his slight smile.  "I know you must
+consider me to have been weak in the head to begin with, otherwise
+I shouldn't have gotten into this scrape."
+
+The doctor laughed, but he still looked doubtful.
+
+"The fact is, Mr. Bangs," he began--and stopped.  "The fact is--the
+fact--"
+
+Martha Phipps finished the sentence for him.
+
+"The fact is," she said, briskly, "that Doctor Powers knows, just
+as I or any other sane person in Ostable County knows, that Elmer
+Rogers' hotel at the Centre isn't fit to furnish board and lodgin'
+for a healthy pig, to say nothin' of a half sick man.  You think he
+hadn't ought to go there, don't you, doctor?"
+
+"Well, Martha, to be honest with you--yes.  Although I shouldn't
+want Elmer to know I said it."
+
+"Well, you needn't worry; he shan't know as far as I am concerned.
+Now of course there's just one sensible thing for Mr. Bangs here to
+do, and you know what that is, doctor, as well as I do.  Now don't
+you?"
+
+Powers smiled.  "Perhaps," he admitted, "but I'd rather you said
+it, Martha."
+
+"All right, I'm goin' to say it.  Mr. Bangs," turning to the
+nervous Galusha, "the thing for you to do is to stay right here in
+this house, stay right here till you're well enough to go somewhere
+else."
+
+Galusha rose from his chair.  "Oh, really," he cried, in great
+agitation, "I can't do that.  I can't, really, Miss Phipps."
+
+"Of course I realize you won't be as comfortable here as you would
+be in a hotel, in a GOOD hotel--you'd be more comfortable in a
+pigsty than you would at Elmer's.  But--"
+
+"Miss Phipps--Miss Phipps, please!   I AM comfortable.  You have
+made me very comfortable.  I think I never slept better in my life
+than I did last night.  Or ate a better breakfast than this one.
+But I cannot permit you to go to this trouble."
+
+"It isn't any trouble."
+
+"Excuse me, I feel that it is.  No, doctor, I must go--if not to
+the Wellmouth hotel, then somewhere else."
+
+Doctor Powers whistled.  Miss Martha looked at Galusha.   Galusha,
+whose knees were trembling, sat down in the chair again.  Suddenly
+the lady spoke.
+
+"If this was a hotel you would be willin' to stay here, wouldn't
+you, Mr. Bangs?" she asked.
+
+"Why, yes, certainly.  But, you see, it--ah--isn't one."
+
+"No, but we might make it one for three or four days.  Doctor, what
+does Elmer Rogers charge his inmates--his boarders, I mean--a day?"
+
+"Why, from three to five dollars, I believe."
+
+"Tut, tut, tut!  The robber!  Well, I presume likely he'd rob Mr.
+Bangs here as hard as he'd rob anybody.  Mr. Bangs, I take it that
+what troubles you mostly is that you don't want to visit a person
+you've never met until last night.  You've never met Elmer Rogers
+at all, but you would be perfectly willin' to visit him if you
+could pay for the privilege."
+
+"Why--why, yes, of course, Miss Phipps.  You have been very kind,
+so kind that I don't know how to express my gratitude, but I can't
+accept any more of your hospitality.  To board at a hotel is quite
+a different thing."
+
+"Certainly it is.  I appreciate how you feel.  I should probably
+feel just the same way.  This house of mine isn't a hotel and
+doesn't pretend to be, but if you think you can be comfortable here
+for the next few days and it will make you feel happier to pay--
+say, three dollars a day for the privilege, why--well, I'm
+satisfied if you are."
+
+Galusha gazed at her in amazement.  The doctor slapped his knee.
+
+"Splendid!" he exclaimed.  "Martha, as usual you've said and done
+just the right thing.  Now, Mr. Bangs, I'll see you again to-morrow
+morning.  Take the tablets as directed.  You may go out for an hour
+or so by and by if the weather is good, but DON'T walk much or get
+in the least tired.  Good-morning."
+
+He was at the door before his patient realized what he was about.
+
+"But, doctor," cried Galusha, "I--I--really I--  Oh, dear!"
+
+The door closed.  He turned to Miss Phipps in bewildered
+consternation.  She smiled at him reassuringly.
+
+"So THAT'S all settled," she said.  "Now sit right down again, Mr.
+Bangs, and finish your breakfast. . . .  Primmie, bring Mr. Bangs
+some hot coffee.  HOT coffee I said, remember."
+
+Later, perhaps ten minutes later, Galusha ventured another
+statement.
+
+"Miss Phipps," he said, "I--I--  Well, since you insist upon doing
+this for me, for a person whom you never met until yesterday, I
+think the very least I can do is to tell you who--or--ah--what I
+am.  Of course if the Halls were here they would vouch for me, but
+as they are not, I--  Well, in a case of this kind it is--ah--
+customary, isn't it, to give references?"
+
+"References?  As to your bein' able to pay the three dollars a day,
+do you mean?"
+
+"Why, no, perhaps that sort of reference may not be necessary.  I
+shall be glad to pay each day's board in advance."
+
+"Then what sort of references did you mean, references about your
+character?"
+
+"Why--why, yes, something of the sort."
+
+Her eyes twinkled.
+
+"Mr. Bangs," she asked, "do you really think I ought to have 'em?"
+
+Galusha smiled.  "For all you know to the contrary," he said, "I
+may be a desperate ruffian."
+
+"You don't look desperate.  Do you feel that way?"
+
+"Not now, but I did last--ah--evening."
+
+"When you were camped out on that Inn piazza in a pourin' rain, you
+mean?  I don't blame you for feelin' desperate then. . . .  Well,
+Mr. Bangs, suppose we don't worry about the references on either
+side of this bargain of ours.  I'll take you on trust for the next
+two or three days, if you'll take me.  And no questions asked, as
+they say in the advertisements for stolen property.  Will that suit
+you?"
+
+"Perfectly, except that I think you are taking all the risk.  I,
+certainly, am not taking any."
+
+"Hum, don't be too sure.  You haven't tried much of Primmie's
+cookin' yet. . . .  Oh, by the way, what IS your business, Mr.
+Bangs?"
+
+"I am an archaeologist."
+
+"Yes--oh--yes. . . .  A--a what, did you say?"
+
+"An archaeologist.  I specialize principally in Egyptology."
+
+"Oh. . . .  Oh, yes."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Yes. . . .  Well, I must run out to the kitchen now.  Make
+yourself right at home, Mr. Bangs."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+Galusha Cabot Bangs' first day in East Wellmouth was spent for the
+most part indoors.  He was willing that it should he; the stiffness
+and lameness in various parts of his body, together with the
+shakiness at the knees which he experienced when he tried to walk,
+warned him that a trip abroad would not be a judicious undertaking.
+The doctor having granted him permission, however, he did go out
+into the yard for a brief period.
+
+Gould's Bluffs and their surroundings were more attractive on this
+pleasant October afternoon than on the previous evening.  The
+Phipps house was a story and a half cottage, of the regulation Cape
+Cod type, with a long "L" and sheds connecting it with a barn and
+chicken yards.  The house was spotlessly white, with blinds
+conventionally green, as most New England houses are.  There was a
+white fence shutting it off from the road, the winding, narrow road
+which even yet held puddles and pools of mud in its hollows,
+souvenirs of the downpour of the night before.  Across the road,
+perhaps a hundred yards away, was the long, brown--and now of
+course bleak--broadside of the Restabit Inn, its veranda looking
+lonesome and forsaken even in the brilliant light of day.  Behind
+it and beyond it were rolling hills, brown and bare, except for the
+scattered clumps of beach-plum and bayberry bushes.  There were no
+trees, except a grove of scrub pine perhaps a mile away.  Between
+the higher hills and over the tops of the lower ones Galusha caught
+glimpses of the sea.  In the opposite direction lay a little
+cluster of roofs, with a church spire rising above them.  He judged
+this to be East Wellmouth village.
+
+The road, leading from the village, wound in and out between the
+hills, past the Restabit Inn and the Phipps homestead until it
+ended at another clump of buildings; a house, with ells and
+extensions, several other buildings and sheds, and a sturdy white
+and black lighthouse.  He was leaning upon the fence rail peering
+through his spectacles when Primmie came up behind him.
+
+"That's a lighthouse you're lookin' at, Mr. Bangs," she observed,
+with the air of one imparting valuable information.
+
+Galusha started; he had not heard her coming.
+
+"Eh?  Oh!  Yes, so I--ah--surmised," he said.
+
+"Hey?  What did you do?"
+
+"I say I thought it was a lighthouse."
+
+"'Tis.  Ever see one afore, have you?"
+
+Galusha admitted that he had seen a lighthouse before.  "Kind of
+interestin' things, ain't they?  You know I never realized till I
+come down here to live what interestin' things lighthouses was.
+There's so much TO 'em, you know, ain't there?"
+
+"Why--ah--is there?"
+
+"I should say there was.  I don't mean the tower part, though
+that's interestin' of itself, with them round and round steps--
+What is it Miss Martha said folks called 'em?  Oh, yes, spinal
+stairs, that's it.  I never see any spinal stairs till I come here.
+They don't have 'em up to North Mashpaug.  That's where I used to
+live, up to North Mashpaug.  Ever been to North Mashpaug, Mr.
+Bangs?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Well, a good many folks ain't, far's that goes.  Where _I_ lived
+was way off in the woods, anyhow.  My family was Indian, way back.
+Not all Indian, but some, you know; the rest was white, though Pa
+he used to cal'late there might be a little Portygee strung along
+in somewhere.  It's kind of funny to be all mixed up that way,
+ain't it?  Hello, there's Cap'n Jethro!  See him?  See him?"
+
+Bangs saw the figure of a man emerge from the door of the white
+house by the light and stand upon the platform.  There was nothing
+particularly exciting about the man's appearance, but Primmie
+seemed to be excited.
+
+"See him, Mr. Bangs?" she repeated.
+
+"Yes, I see him.  Who is he?"
+
+"Don't you know?  No, course you don't; why should you?  He's Cap'n
+Jethro Hallett, keeps the lighthouse, he does--him and Lulie and
+Zach."
+
+"Oh, he is the light keeper, is he?  What has he got his head tied
+up for?"
+
+"Hey?  HEAD tied up?"
+
+"Why, yes.  Isn't there something gray--a--ah--scarf or something
+tied about his head?  I think I see it flutter in the wind."
+
+"That?  That ain't no scarf, them's his whiskers.  He wears 'em
+long and they blow consider'ble.  Say, what do you think?"  Primmie
+leaned forward and whispered mysteriously.  "He sees his wife."
+
+Galusha turned to look at her.  Her expression was a combination of
+awe and excitement.
+
+"I--I beg your pardon," he stammered, "but really I--  What did you
+say he did?"
+
+"I said he sees his wife.  Anyhow, he thinks he does.  She comes to
+him nights and stands alongside of his bed and they talk.  Ain't
+that awful?"
+
+Galusha took off his spectacles and rubbed them.
+
+"Ain't it awful, Mr. Bangs?" repeated Primmie.
+
+Galusha's faint smile twitched the corners of his lips.  "We-ll,"
+he observed, "I--really I can't say.  I never met the lady."
+
+"What difference does that make?  If a dead woman come and stood
+alongside of MY bed 'twouldn't make no difference to me whether I'd
+MET her or not.  Meetin' of her then would be enough.  My Lord of
+Isrul!"
+
+"Oh--oh, I beg your pardon.  Do I understand you to say that this--
+ah--gentleman's wife is dead?"
+
+"Um-hm.  Been dead seven year, so Miss Martha says.  That's what I
+mean when I say it's awful.  Wouldn't you think 'twas awful if a
+woman that had been dead seven year come and stood alongside of
+you?"
+
+Galusha smiled again.  "Yes," he admitted, "I am inclined to think
+I--ah--should."
+
+"You bet you would!  So'd anybody but Jethro Hallet.  He likes it.
+Yes, sir!  And he goes to every medium place from here to Boston,
+seems so, so's to have more talks with them that's over the river."
+
+"Eh?  Over the--  Oh, yes, I comprehend.  Dead, you mean.  Then
+this Mr. Hallet is a Spiritualist, I take it."
+
+"Um-hm.  Rankest kind of a one.  Course everybody believes in
+Spiritulism SOME, can't help it.  Miss Martha says she don't much
+and Zach Bloomer he says he cal'lates his doubts keep so close
+astern of his beliefs that it's hard to tell which'll round the
+stake boat first.  But there ain't no doubt about Cap'n Jethro's
+believin', he's rank."
+
+"I see.  Well, is he--is he rational in other ways?  It seems odd
+to have a--ah--an insane man in charge of--"
+
+"Insane?  My savin' soul, what put that idea in your head?  He
+ain't crazy, Jethro Hallet ain't.  He's smart.  Wuth consider'ble
+money, so they say, and hangs on to it, too.  Used to be cap'n of a
+four-masted schooner, till he hurt his back and had to stay ashore.
+His back's got to hurtin' him worse lately and Zach and Miss Martha
+they cal'late that's why Lulie give up her teachin' school up to
+Ostable and come down here to live along with him.  I heard 'em
+talkin' about it t'other day and that's what they cal'late.  Miss
+Martha she thinks a sight of Lulie."
+
+"And--ah--this Miss Lulie is the light keeper's daughter?"  Bangs
+was not especially interested in the Hallett family, but he found
+Primmie amusing.
+
+"Uh-hm.  All the child he's got.  Some diff'rent from our tribe;
+there was thirteen young ones in our family.  Pa used to say he
+didn't care long's we didn't get so thick he'd step on ary one of
+us.  He didn't care about a good many things, Pa didn't.  Ma had to
+do the carin' and most of the work, too.  Yes, Lulie's Jethro's
+daughter and he just bows down and worships her."
+
+"I see.  I see.  And is--ah--Miss Hallett as spookily inclined as
+her parent?"
+
+"Hey?"
+
+"Is she a Spiritualist, too?"
+
+"No, no.  Course she don't say much on her pa's account, but Zach
+says she don't take no stock in it.  Lulie has to be pretty
+careful, 'cause ever since Cap'n Jethro found out about Nelse he--
+Hey?  Yes'm, I'm a-comin'."
+
+Miss Phipps had called to her from the kitchen door.  Galusha stood
+by the fence a while longer.  Then he went in to supper.  Before he
+went to his room that night he asked his landlady a question.
+
+"That--ah--maid of yours has a peculiar name, hasn't she?" he
+observed.  "Primmie.  I think I never heard it before."
+
+Miss Martha laughed.
+
+"I should say it was peculiar!" she exclaimed.  "Her Christian name
+is Primrose, if you can call such a name Christian.  I almost died
+when I heard it first.  She's a queer blossom, Primmie is, a little
+too much tar in her upper riggin', as father used to say, but
+faithful and willin' as a person could be.  I put up with her
+tongue and her--queerness on that account.  Some friends of mine
+over at Falmouth sent her to me; they knew I needed somebody in the
+house after father died.  Her name is Primrose Annabel Cash and she
+comes from a nest of such sort of folks in the Mashpaug woods.  She
+provokes me sometimes, but I have a good deal of fun with her on
+the whole.  You ought to see her and Zacheus Bloomer together and
+hear 'em talk; THEN you would think it was funny."
+
+"Is this Mr.--ah--Bloomer queer also?"
+
+"Why, yes, I presume likely he is.  Not foolish, you understand, or
+even a little bit soft like Primmie.  He's shrewd enough, Zach is,
+but he's peculiar, that's about it.  Has a queer way of talkin' and
+walkin'--yes, and thinkin'.  He's put in the most of his life in
+out-of-the-way places, boat-fishin' all alone off on the cod banks,
+or attendin' to lobster pots way down in the South Channel, or
+aboard lightships two miles from nowhere.  That's enough to make
+any man queer, bein' off by himself so.  Why, this place of
+assistant light keeper here at Gould's Bluffs is the most sociable
+job Zach Bloomer has had for ten years, I shouldn't wonder.  And
+Gould's Bluffs isn't Washington Street, exactly," she added, with a
+smile.
+
+"Have you lived here long, Miss Phipps?" inquired Galusha.
+
+"Pretty nearly all my life, and that's long enough, goodness knows.
+Father bought this place in 1893, I think it was.  He was goin'
+coastin' voyages then.  Mother died in 1900 and he gave up goin' to
+sea that year.  He and I lived here together until two years ago
+next August; then he died.  I have been here since, with Primmie to
+help.  I suppose likely I shall stay here now until I die--or dry
+up with old age and blow away, or somethin'.  That is, I shall stay
+provided I--I can."
+
+There was a change in her tone as she spoke the last words.
+Galusha, glancing up, saw that she was gazing out of the window.
+He waited for her to go on, but she did not.  He looked out of the
+window also, but there was nothing to be seen, nothing except the
+fields and hills, cold and bleak in the gathering dusk.  After an
+interval she stirred and rose from her chair.
+
+"Ah, well," she said, with a shrug, and a return to her usual brisk
+manner, "there isn't a bit of use in makin' today to-morrow, is
+there, Mr. Bangs?  And today's been nice and pleasant, and they
+can't take it from us."
+
+Galusha looked very much surprised.  "Why, dear me, dear me!" he
+exclaimed.  "That's extremely odd, now really."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Why, your--ah--remark about making to-day to-morrow.  Almost
+precisely the same thing was said to me at one time by another
+person.  It is quite extraordinary."
+
+"Oh, not so very, I guess.  A million folks must have thought it
+and said it since Adam.  Who said it to you, Mr. Bangs?"
+
+"A--ah--person in Abyssinia.  He had stolen my--ah--shirt and I
+warned him that he should be punished on the following day.  He
+laughed and I asked him what there was to laugh at.  Then he made
+the remark about to-morrow's being afar off and that today the sun
+shone, or words to that effect.  It seems strange that you should
+say it.  Quite a coincidence, Miss Phipps, don't you think so?"
+
+"Why--why, I suppose you might call it that.  But WHAT did you say
+this man had stolen?"
+
+"My--ah--shirt.  I had another, of course; in fact I was wearing
+it, but the one he took was the only whole one remaining in my kit.
+I was quite provoked."
+
+"I should think you might have been.  What sort of creature was he,
+for goodness sakes?"
+
+"Oh, he was an Arab camel driver.  A very good man, too."
+
+"Yes, he must have been.  Did you get your shirt back?"
+
+"No--ah--no.  The fact is, he had put it on and--as he was rather--
+well, soiled, so to speak, I let him keep it.  And he really was a
+very good man, I mean a good camel driver."
+
+Miss Martha regarded her guest thoughtfully.
+
+"Where did you say this was, Mr. Bangs?"
+
+"In the Abyssinian desert.  We were there at the time."
+
+"Abyssinia?  Abyssinia?  That's in Africa, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes, northern Africa."
+
+"Mercy me, that's a long way off."
+
+"Oh, not so very, when one becomes accustomed to the journey.  The
+first time I found it rather tiring, but not afterward."
+
+"Not afterward.  You mean you've been there more than once?"
+
+"Yes--ah--yes.  Three times."
+
+"But why in the world do you go to such an outlandish place as that
+three times?"
+
+"Oh, on research work, connected with my--ah--profession.  There
+are some very interesting remains in that section."
+
+"What did you say your business--your profession was, Mr. Bangs?"
+
+"I am an archaeologist, Miss Phipps."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+He went to his room soon afterwards.  Martha went into the dining
+room.  A suspicious rustle as she turned the door knob caused her
+to frown.  Primmie was seated close to the wall on the opposite
+side of the room industriously peeling apples.  Her mistress
+regarded her intently, a regard which caused its object to squirm
+in her chair.
+
+"It's--it's a kind of nice night, ain't it, Miss Martha?" she
+observed.
+
+Miss Martha did not answer.  "Primmie Cash," she said, severely,
+"you've been listen in' again.  Don't deny it."
+
+"Now--now Miss Martha, I didn't mean to, really, but--"
+
+"Do you want to go back to the Mashpaug poorhouse again?"
+
+"No'm.  You know I don't, Miss Martha.  I didn't mean to do it, but
+I heard him talkin' and it was SO interestin'.  That about the
+camel stealin' his shirt--my soul!  And--"
+
+"If you listen again I WILL send you back; I mean it."
+
+"I won't, ma'am.  I won't.  Now--"
+
+"Be still.  Where is our dictionary?  It isn't in the closet with
+the other books where it ought to be.  Do you know where it is?"
+
+"No'm. . . .  Yes'm, come to think of it, I do.  Lulie Hallet
+borrowed it the other day.  Her and Zach Bloomer was havin' a lot
+of talk about how to spell somethin' and Lulie she got our
+dictionary so's to settle it--and Zach.  I'll fetch it back to-
+morrow mornin'. . . .  But what do you want the dictionary for,
+Miss Martha?"
+
+Martha shook her head, with the air of one annoyed by a puzzle the
+answer to which should be familiar.
+
+"I'm goin' to find out what an archaeologist is," she declared.  "I
+ought to know, but I declare I don't."
+
+"An arky-what?  Oh, that's what that little Mr. Bangs said he was,
+didn't he?  You know what _I_ think he is, Miss Martha?"
+
+"No, I don't.  You go to bed, Primmie."
+
+"_I_ think he's an undertaker."
+
+"Undertaker!  Good heavens and earth, what put that in your head?"
+
+"Everything.  Look at them clothes he wears, black tail-coat and
+white shirt and stand-up collar and all.  Just exactly same as
+Emulous Dodd wears when he's runnin' a funeral.  Yes, and more'n
+that--more'n that, Miss Martha.  Didn't you hear what he said just
+now about 'remains'?"
+
+"WHAT?"
+
+"Didn't you ask him what he went traipsin' off to that--that camel
+place for?  And didn't he say there was some interestin' remains
+there.  Uh-hm! that's what he said--'remains.'  If he ain't an
+undertaker what--"
+
+Martha burst out laughing.  "Primmie," she said, "go to bed.  And
+don't forget to get that dictionary to-morrow mornin'."
+
+The next day was Sunday and the weather still fine.  Galusha Bangs
+was by this time feeling very much stronger.  Miss Phipps commented
+upon his appearance at breakfast time.
+
+"I declare," she exclaimed, "you look as if you'd really had a good
+night's rest, Mr. Bangs.  Now you'll have another biscuit and
+another egg, won't you?"
+
+Galusha, who had already eaten one egg and two biscuits, was
+obliged to decline.  His hostess seemed to think his appetite still
+asleep.
+
+After breakfast he went out for a walk.  There was a brisk, cool
+wind blowing and Miss Martha cautioned him against catching cold.
+She insisted upon his wrapping a scarf of her own, muffler fashion,
+about his neck beneath his coat collar and lent him a pair of
+mittens--they were Primmie's property--to put on in case his hands
+were cold.  He had one kid glove in his pocket, but only one.
+
+"Dear me!" he said.  "I can't think what became of the other.  I'm
+quite certain I had two to begin with."
+
+Martha laughed.  "I'm certain of that myself," she said.  "I never
+heard of anybody's buying gloves one at a time."
+
+Her guest smiled.  "It might be well for me to buy them that way,"
+he observed.  "My brain doesn't seem equal to the strain of taking
+care of more than one."
+
+Primmie and her mistress watched him from the window as he
+meandered out of the yard.  Primmie made the first remark.
+
+"There now, Miss Martha," she said, "DON'T he look like an
+undertaker?  Them black clothes and that standin' collar and--and--
+the kind of still way he walks--and talks.  Wouldn't you expect him
+to be sayin':  'The friends of the diseased will now have a chanct
+to--'"
+
+"Oh, be still, Primmie, for mercy sakes!"
+
+"Yes'm.  What thin little legs he's got, ain't he?"  Miss Phipps
+did not reply to her housemaid's criticism of the Bangs limbs.
+Instead, she made an observation of her own.
+
+"Where in the world did he get that ugly, brown, stiff hat?" she
+demanded.  "It doesn't look like anything that ever grew on land or
+sea."
+
+Primmie hitched up her apron strings, a habit she had.
+
+"'Twould have been a better job," she observed, "if that camel
+thing he was tellin' you about had stole that hat instead of his
+other shirt.  Don't you think so, Miss Martha?"
+
+Meanwhile Galusha, ignorant of the comments concerning his
+appearance, was strolling blithely along the road.  His first idea
+had been to visit the lighthouse, his next to walk to the village.
+He had gone but a short distance, however, when another road
+branching off to the right suggested itself as a compromise.  He
+took the branch road.
+
+It wound in and out among the little hills which he had noticed
+from the windows and from the yard of the Phipps' house.  It led
+past a little pond, hidden between two of those hills.  Then it led
+to the top of another hill, the highest so far, and from that point
+Galusha paused to look about him.
+
+From the hilltop the view was much the same, but more extensive.
+The ocean filled the whole eastern horizon, a shimmering, moving
+expanse of blue and white, with lateral stretches of light and dark
+green.  To the south were higher hills, thickly wooded.  Between
+his own hill and those others was a small grove of pines and,
+partially hidden by it, a weather-beaten building with a steeple,
+its upper half broken off.  The building, Galusha guessed, was an
+abandoned church.  Now an old church in the country suggested,
+naturally, an old churchyard.  Toward the building with half a
+steeple Mr. Bangs started forthwith.
+
+There WAS a churchyard, an ancient, grass-grown burying ground,
+with slate gravestones and weather-worn tombs.  There were a few
+new stones, gleaming white and conspicuous, but only a few.
+Galusha's trained eye, trained by his unusual pastime of college
+days, saw at once that the oldest stones must date from early
+colonial times.  Very likely there might be some odd variations of
+the conventional carvings, almost certainly some quaint and
+interesting inscriptions.  It would, of course, be but tame sport
+for one of the world's leading Egyptologists, but to Galusha Cabot
+Bangs research was research, and while some varieties were better
+than others, none was bad.  A moment later he was on his knees
+before the nearest gravestone.  It was an old stone and the
+inscription and carving were interesting.  Time paused there and
+then for Galusha.
+
+What brought him from the dead past to the living present was the
+fact that his hat blew off.  The particular stone which he was
+examining at the moment was on the top of a little knoll and, as
+Galusha clambered up and stooped, the breeze, which had increased
+in force until it was a young gale, caught the brown derby beneath
+its brim and sent it flying.  He scrambled after it, but it dodged
+his clutch and rolled and bounded on.  He bounded also, but the hat
+gained.  It caught for an instant on the weather side of a
+tombstone, but just as he was about to pick it up, a fresh gust
+sent it sailing over the obstacle.  It was dashed against the side
+of the old church and then carried around the end of the building
+and out of sight.  Its owner plunged after it and, a moment later,
+found himself at the foot of a grass-covered bank, a good deal
+disheveled and very much surprised.  Also, close at hand some one
+screamed, in a feminine voice, and another voice, this one
+masculine, uttered an emphatically masculine exclamation.
+
+Galusha sat up.  The old church was placed upon a side-hill, its
+rear toward the cemetery which he had just been exploring, and its
+front door on a level at least six feet lower.  He, in his wild
+dash after the brown derby, had not noticed this and, rushing
+around the corner, had been precipitated down the bank.  He was not
+hurt, but he was rumpled and astonished.  No more astonished,
+however, than were the young couple who had been sitting upon the
+church steps and were now standing, staring down at him.
+
+Galusha spoke first.
+
+"Oh, dear!" he observed.  "Dear me!"  Then he added, by way of
+making the situation quite clear, "I must have fallen, I think."
+
+Neither of the pair upon the church steps seemed to have recovered
+sufficiently to speak, so Mr. Bangs went on.
+
+"I--I came after my hat," he explained.  "You see--  Oh, there it
+is!"
+
+The brown derby was stuck fast in the bare branches of an ancient
+lilac bush which some worshiper of former time had planted by the
+church door.  Galusha rose and limped over to rescue his truant
+property.
+
+"It blew off," he began, but the masculine half of the pair who had
+witnessed his flight from the top to the bottom of the bank, came
+forward.  He was a dark-haired young man, with a sunburned,
+pleasant face.
+
+"Say, that was a tumble!" he declared.  "I hope you didn't hurt
+yourself.  No bones broken, or anything like that?"
+
+Galusha shook his head.  "No-o," he replied, somewhat doubtfully.
+"No, I think not.  But, dear me, what a foolish thing for me to
+do!"
+
+The young man spoke again.
+
+"Sure you're not hurt?" he asked.  "Let me brush you off; you
+picked up a little mud on the way down."
+
+Galusha looked at the knees of his trousers.
+
+"So I did, so I did," he said.  "I don't remember striking at all
+on the way, but I could scarcely have accumulated all that at the
+bottom.  Thank you, thank you! . . . Why, dear me, your face is
+quite familiar!  Haven't we met before?"
+
+The young fellow smiled.  "I guess we have," he said.  "I put you
+aboard Lovetts' express wagon Friday afternoon and started you for
+Wellmouth Centre.  I didn't expect to see you over here in East
+Wellmouth."
+
+Galusha adjusted his spectacles--fortunately they were not broken--
+and looked at the speaker.
+
+"Why, of course!" he cried.  "You are the young man who was so kind
+to me when I got off at the wrong station.  You are the station man
+at--ah--at South Wellmouth, isn't it?"
+
+"That's right."
+
+"Dear me!  Dear me!  Well, I don't wonder you were surprised to
+have me--ah--alight at your feet just now.  We-ll," with his quiet
+smile, "I seem to have a habit of making unexpected appearances.  I
+surprised Miss Phipps on Friday evening almost as greatly."
+
+"Miss Phipps?  Martha Phipps, Cap'n Jim's daughter; lives over here
+by the light, do you mean?"
+
+"Why--why, yes her name is Martha, I believe."
+
+"But how in the world did you get--"
+
+His companion interrupted him.  "Why, Nelson," she cried, "he must
+be the one--the man who is staying at Martha's.  Don't you know I
+told you Primmie said there was some one there who was sick?"
+
+Galusha looked at her.  She was young, not more than nineteen or
+twenty, slender, brown-haired and pretty.  The young man spoke
+again.
+
+"But Lulie," he said, "he isn't sick.  You aren't sick, are you?"
+addressing Galusha.
+
+"My health has not been good of late," replied the latter, "and
+after my long walk on Friday evening I was rather done up.  But I'm
+not ill at present, although," with a return of his faint smile, "I
+probably shall be if I continue to--ah--fly, as I did just now."
+
+The young woman broke into an irresistible trill of laughter.  The
+South Wellmouth station agent joined her.  Galusha smiled in a
+fatherly fashion upon them both.
+
+"I had quite a series of adventures after leaving you," he went on.
+"Quite a series--yes."
+
+He told briefly of his losing his way, of his meeting with Raish
+Pulcifer, of his tramp in the rain, and of his collapse in the
+Phipps' sitting room.
+
+"So that is--ah--my Odyssey," he concluded.  "You see, we--ah--I
+beg your pardon, but I don't know that I learned your name when we
+met the other day.  Mine is Bangs."
+
+"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Bangs.  My name is Howard--Nelson Howard.
+And this is--"
+
+He paused.  The young woman was regarding him in a troubled way.
+
+"Nelson," she said, "don't you think, perhaps, we had better not--"
+
+They were both embarrassed.  Galusha noticed the embarrassment.
+
+"Dear me!  Dear me!" he said, hastily.  "Please don't trouble.
+Ah--good-morning.  I must go--really--yes."
+
+He was on his way toward the bank, but the young woman called his
+name.
+
+"Mr. Bangs," she said.
+
+He turned.  "Did you--did you wish to speak to me?" he asked.
+
+"Why--why, yes, I--  Mr. Bangs, I--I want to ask a favor of you.  I
+know, Nelson, but what is the use, after all?  We've done nothing
+to be ashamed of.  Mr. Bangs, my name is Hallett.  My father is the
+keeper of the lighthouse."
+
+Galusha bowed.  He had guessed her identity.  Primmie had spoken of
+Lulie Hallett in their conversation by the fence the day before.
+
+"I am Lulie Hallett," she went on, "and--and Mr. Howard and I are--
+are--"
+
+"We're engaged to be married," broke in Howard.  "The fact is, Mr.
+Bangs, I came over on my bicycle this morning to meet Lulie here
+where--where no one would see us.  You see--well, Cap'n Jethro--her
+father, you know--is prejudiced against me and--and so to save her
+trouble and--and unpleasantness we--well, we--"
+
+He was red and confused and stammering.  Galusha was almost as much
+embarrassed.
+
+"Oh--oh, all right--ah--dear me, yes, of course," he said, hastily.
+"I am very sorry I--I interrupted.  I beg your pardon.  Ah--good-
+morning."
+
+"But, Mr. Bangs," Lulie pleaded, earnestly, "you won't misunderstand
+this, will you?  We meet in this way on my father's account.  He
+is--you see, he is not very well, and rather prejudiced and--and
+stubborn, I'm afraid.  Please don't think that--that--"
+
+"Of course he won't," declared Howard.  "Mr. Bangs won't think
+anything that he shouldn't."
+
+"Oh, no--no," stammered Galusha, nervously.  "I am--I am SO sorry I
+interrupted.  I BEG your pardon."
+
+"And Mr. Bangs," said Lulie, again, "I wonder if you will be kind
+enough not to tell any one you saw us?  This is a small place, East
+Wellmouth, and people do talk--oh, dreadfully.  If it got to
+father's ears he--  PLEASE don't speak of it, will you, Mr. Bangs?"
+
+"Oh, no; no, indeed, Miss Hallett.  You may depend upon me."
+
+"I shall tell Martha Phipps myself the next time I see her.  She is
+my best friend, except--" with a becoming blush--"Nelson, and
+father, of course--and she understands.  I never have any secrets
+from her."
+
+Galusha began to climb the bank.  As his head rose above its upper
+edge he stopped.
+
+"Ah--dear me, there's some one coming in this direction," he said.
+
+Howard started forward.  "Coming?  Coming here?" he cried.  He
+sprang up the bank beside Mr. Bangs and peered over its top.
+
+"Oh, confound it!" he exclaimed.  "Lulie, it's your father."
+
+"Father?  Coming here?  Why, he started for church.  He never comes
+to the cemetery on Sunday MORNING."
+
+"I can't help it, he's coming now.  And there's some one with him,
+or coming after him.  It looks like--  Yes, it's Raish Pulcifer."
+
+Miss Hallett was very much distressed.  "Oh, dear, dear, dear!" she
+cried.  "If father finds us there will be another dreadful time.
+And I wouldn't have Raish Pulcifer see and hear it, of all people
+in the world.  Oh, WHAT made father come?  Nelson, can't we run
+away before he gets here?  Into the pines, or somewhere?"
+
+"No chance, Lulie.  He would see us sure.  If he should stop at the
+other end of the cemetery it might give us a chance, but he
+probably won't.  He'll come to your mother's grave and that is
+close by here.  Oh, hang the luck!"
+
+Galusha looked at the young people; he was almost as distressed as
+they were.  He liked young Howard; the latter had been very kind to
+him on the fateful Friday afternoon when he had alighted at South
+Wellmouth.  He liked Lulie, also--had fancied her at first sight.
+He wished he might help them.  And then he had an idea.
+
+"I wouldn't--ah--interfere in your affairs for the world, Miss
+Hallett," he faltered, "but if I might--ah--offer a suggestion,
+suppose I--ah--meet your father and talk with him for a few
+moments.  Then you might--so to speak--ah--go, you know."
+
+"Yes, of course, of course.  Oh, WILL you, Mr. Bangs?  Thank you so
+much."
+
+Galusha climbed the bank.  There was no one in sight, but he heard
+masculine voices from the hollow beyond the farther end of the
+cemetery.  He hastened to that end and, stooping, began to examine
+the inscription upon a tomb.
+
+The voices drew nearer as the men climbed the hill.  The breeze now
+was stronger than ever and was blowing more from the west.  The
+conversation, borne by the gusts, came to Galusha's ears clearly
+and distinctly.  One of the speakers seemed to be explaining,
+urging, the other peremptorily refusing to listen.
+
+"But, Cap'n Jeth," urged the first voice, and Mr. Bangs recognized
+it as belonging to his obliging guide and pilot of the fateful
+Friday evening, Mr. Horatio Pulcifer.  "But, Cap'n Jeth," said Mr.
+Pulcifer, "don't fly off the handle for nothin'.  I ain't tryin' to
+put nothin' over on you.  I'm just--"
+
+"I don't want to hear you," broke in the second voice, gruffly.
+"This is the Lord's Day and I don't want to talk business with you
+or nobody else--especially with you."
+
+For some reason this seemed to irritate Mr. Pulcifer.  His tone had
+lost a little of its urbanity when he answered.
+
+"Oh, especially with me, eh?" he repeated.  "Well, what's the
+'especially with me' for?  If you think I'm any more to blame than
+the rest, you're mistaken.  I tell you when you and me and Cap'n
+Jim and all hands of us got the Wellmouth Development Company goin'
+it looked like a cinch.  How was I to know?"
+
+"I tell you, Raish, I don't want to talk about it."
+
+"And I tell you, Jeth Hallett, I DO want to.  You've hove in that
+'especially with me' and I don't like it.  Look here, what are you
+pickin' on me for?  How was I to--  No, now you wait a minute,
+Cap'n Jeth, and answer me.  I've chased you 'way over here and you
+can give me five minutes even if 'tis Sunday.  Come, Cap'n, come,
+just answer me and then I won't bother you any more."
+
+There was silence for a brief interval.  Galusha, crouching behind
+the tomb and wondering if the time had come for him to show
+himself, waited anxiously.  But Captain Hallett's answer, when at
+last he did reply, sounded no nearer.  Apparently the men were now
+standing still.
+
+"Well," grunted the light keeper, "I'll listen to you for the five
+minutes, Raish, but no more.  I hadn't ought to do that.  This is
+Sabbath day and I make it a p'int never--"
+
+"I know," hastily, "I know.  Well, I tell you, Cap'n Jeth, all's I
+wanted to say was this:  What are we goin' to do with this
+Development stock of ours?"
+
+"Do with it?  Why, nothin' at present.  CAN'T do anything with it,
+can we?  All we can do is wait.  It may be one year or three, but
+some day somebody will have to come to us.  There ain't a better
+place for a cold storage fish house on this coast and the Wellmouth
+Development Company owns that place."
+
+"Yes, that's so, that's so.  But some of us can afford to wait and
+some can't.  Now I've got more of the Development Company stock
+than anybody else.  I've got five hundred shares, Cap'n Jeth; five
+hundred shares at twenty dollars a share.  A poor man like me can't
+afford to have ten thousand dollars tied up as long's this is
+liable to be.  Can he now?  Eh?  Can he, Cap'n?"
+
+"Humph!  Well, I've got eight thousand tied up there myself."
+
+"Ye-es, but it don't make so much difference to you.  You can
+afford to wait.  You've got a gov'ment job."
+
+"Ye-es, and from what I hear you may be havin' a state job pretty
+soon yourself, Raish.  Well, never mind that.  What is it you're
+drivin' at, anyhow?"
+
+"Why, I tell you, Jeth.  Course you know and I know that this is a
+perfectly sure investment to anybody that'll wait.  I can't afford
+to wait, that's what's the matter.  It kind of run acrost my mind
+that maybe you'd like to have my holdin's, my five hundred shares.
+I'll sell 'em to you reasonable."
+
+"Humph!  I want to know!  What do you call reasonable?"
+
+"I'll sell 'em to you for--for--well, say nineteen dollars a
+share."
+
+"Humph!  Don't bother me any more, Raish."
+
+"Well, say eighteen dollars a share.  Lord sakes, that's reasonable
+enough, ain't it?"
+
+"Cruise along towards home, Raish.  I've talked all the business I
+want to on Sunday.  Good-by."
+
+"Look here, Jethro, I--I'm hard up, I'm desp'rate, pretty nigh.
+I'll let you have my five hundred shares of Wellmouth Development
+Company for just half what I paid for it--ten dollars a share.  If
+you wasn't my friend, I wouldn't--  What are you laughin' at?"
+
+Galusha Bangs, hiding behind the tomb, understanding nothing of
+this conversation, yet feeling like an eavesdropper, wished this
+provoking pair would stop talking and go away.  He heard the light
+keeper laugh sardonically.
+
+"Ho, ho, ho," chuckled Hallett.  "You're a slick article, ain't
+you, Raish?  Why, you wooden-headed swab, did you cal'late you was
+the only one that had heard about the directors' meetin' over to
+the Denboro Trust Company yesterday?  _I_ knew the Trust Company
+folks had decided not to go ahead with the fish storage business
+just as well as you did, and I heard it just as soon, too. _I_ know
+they've decided to put the twelve hundred shares of Wellmouth
+Development stock into profit and loss, or to just hang on and see
+if it ever does come to anything.  But you cal'lated I didn't know
+it and that maybe you could unload your five hundred shares on to
+me at cut rates, eh?  Raish, you're slick--but you ain't bright,
+not very."
+
+He chuckled again.  Mr. Pulcifer whistled, apparently expressing
+resignation.
+
+"ALL right, Cap'n," he observed, cheerfully, "just as you say.  No
+harm in tryin', was there?  Never catch a fish without heavin' over
+a hook, as the feller said.  Maybe somebody else that ain't heard
+will buy that stock, you can't tell."
+
+"Maybe so, but--  See here, Raish, don't you go tryin' anything
+like this on--on--"
+
+"I know who you mean.  No danger.  There ain't money enough there
+to buy anything, if what I hear's true."
+
+"What's that?"
+
+"Oh, nothin', nothin'.  Just talk, I guess.  Well, Jeth, I won't
+keep you any longer.  Goin' to hang on to YOUR four hundred
+Development stock, I presume likely?"
+
+"Yes.  I shall sell that at a profit.  Not a big profit, but a
+profit."
+
+"Sho!  Is that so?  Who told you?"
+
+"It was," the gruff voice became solemn, "it was revealed to me."
+
+"Revealed to you?  Oh, from up yonder, up aloft, eh?"
+
+"Raish," sharply, "don't you dare be sacrilegious in my presence."
+
+"No, no, not for nothin', Cap'n.  So you had a message from the
+sperit world about that stock, eh?"
+
+"Yes.  It bade me be of good cheer and hold for a small profit.
+When that profit comes, no matter how small it may be, I'll sell
+and sell quick, but not sooner. . . .  But there, I've profaned the
+Lord's day long enough.  I came over here this mornin' to visit
+Julia's grave.  There was a scoffer in our pulpit, that young
+whippersnapper from Wapatomac had exchanged with our minister and I
+didn't care to hear him."
+
+"Oh, I see.  So you come over to your wife's grave, eh?"
+
+"Yes.  What are you lookin' like that for?"
+
+"Oh, nothin'.  I thought maybe you was chasin' after Lulie.  I see
+her meanderin' over this way a little while ago."
+
+"LULIE?"
+
+"Um-hm.  Looked like her."
+
+"Was there--was there anybody else?"
+
+"We-ll, I wouldn't swear to that, Cap'n Jeth.  I didn't SEE nobody,
+but--  Godfreys mighty!  What's that thing?"
+
+The thing was the brown derby.  Galusha, crouching behind the tomb,
+had been holding it fast to his head with one hand.  Now, startled
+by Pulcifer's statement that he had seen Miss Hallett, he let go
+his hold.  And a playful gust lifted the hat from his head, whirled
+it like an aerial teetotum and sent it rolling and tumbling to the
+feet of the pair by the cemetery gate.
+
+Jethro Hallett jumped aside.
+
+"Good Lord!  What is it?" he shouted.
+
+"It's a--a hat, ain't it?" cried Raish.
+
+From around the tomb hastened Mr. Bangs.
+
+"Will you gentlemen be good enough to--to stop that hat for me?" he
+asked, anxiously.
+
+The light keeper and his companion started at the apparition in
+speechless astonishment.
+
+"It's--it's my hat," explained Galusha.  "If you will be kind
+enough to pick it up before--  Oh, DEAR me!  There it GOES!  Stop
+it, stop it!"
+
+Another gust had set the hat rolling again.  Captain Jethro made a
+grab at it but his attempt only lifted it higher into the air,
+where the wind caught it underneath and sent it soaring.
+
+"Oh, dear!" piped the exasperated Galusha, and ran after it.
+
+"Who in tunket IS he?" demanded Jethro.
+
+Mr. Pulcifer gazed at the thin little figure hopping after the hat.
+The light of recognition dawned in his face.
+
+"_I_ know who he is!" he exclaimed.  "I fetched him over t'other
+night in my car.  But what in blazes is he doin' here NOW? . . .
+Hi, look out, Mister!  Don't let it blow that way.  If you do
+you'll--  Head it OFF!"
+
+The hat was following an air line due east.  Galusha was following
+a terrestrial route in the same direction.  Now Raish followed
+Galusha and after him rolled Captain Jethro Hallett.  As they say
+in hunting stories, the chase was on.
+
+It was not a long chase, of course.  It ended unexpectedly--
+unexpectedly for Galusha, that is--at a point where a spur of the
+pine grove jutted out upon the crest of a little hill beyond the
+eastern border of the cemetery.  The hat rolled, bounced, dipped
+and soared up the hill and just clear of the branches of the
+endmost pine.  Then it disappeared from sight.  Its owner
+breathlessly panted after it.  He reached the crest of the little
+hill and stopped short--stopped for the very good reason that he
+could go no further.
+
+The hill was but half a hill.  Its other half, the half invisible
+from the churchyard, was a sheer sand and clay bluff dropping at a
+dizzy angle down to the beach a hundred and thirty feet below.
+This beach was the shore of a pretty little harbor, fed by a stream
+which flowed into it from the southwest.  On the opposite side of
+the stream was another stretch of beach, more sand bluffs, pines
+and scrub oaks.  To the east the little harbor opened a clear
+channel between lines of creaming breakers to the deep blue and
+green of the ocean.
+
+Galusha Bangs saw most of this in detail upon subsequent visits.
+Just now he looked first for his hat.  He saw it.  Below, upon the
+sand of the beach, a round object bounced and rolled.  As he gazed
+a gust whirled along the shore and pitched the brown object into
+the sparkling waters of the little harbor.  It splashed, floated
+and then sailed jauntily out upon the tide.  The brown derby had
+started on its last voyage.
+
+Galusha gazed down at his lost headgear.  He rubbed his chin
+thoughtfully.  Then he turned and looked back toward the hollow by
+the front door of the old church.  From the knoll where he stood he
+could see every inch of that hollow and it was untenanted.  There
+was no sign of either human being or of a bicycle belonging to a
+human being.
+
+Mr. Bangs sighed thankfully.  The sacrifice of the brown derby had
+not been in vain.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+An hour or so later when Martha Phipps, looking out of her dining
+room window, saw her boarder enter the front gate, his personal
+appearance caused her to utter a startled exclamation.  Primmie
+came running from the kitchen.
+
+"What's the matter, Miss Martha?" she demanded.  "Eh!  My savin'
+soul!"
+
+Mr. Bangs' head was enveloped in the scarf which his hostess had
+lent him when he set forth upon his walk.  It--the scarf--was tied
+under his chin and the fringed ends flapped in the wind.  His round
+face, surrounded by the yarn folds, looked like that of the small
+boy in the pictures advertising somebody-or-other's toothache cure.
+
+"My savin' soul!" cried Primmie, again.  She was rushing to the
+door, but her mistress intervened.
+
+"Primmie," she ordered, briskly, "stay where you are!"
+
+She opened the door herself.
+
+"Come right in, Mr. Bangs," she said.  "No, don't stop to tell me
+about it, but come right in and sit down."
+
+Galusha looked up at her.  His face was speckled with greenish
+brown spots, giving it the appearance of a mammoth bird's egg.
+Primmie saw the spots and squealed.
+
+"Lord of Isrul!" she cried, "he's all broke out with it, whatever
+'tis!  Shall I--shall I 'phone for the doctor, Miss Martha?"
+
+"Be still, Primmie.  Come in, Mr. Bangs."
+
+"Why, yes, thank you.  I--ah--WAS coming in," began Galusha,
+mildly.  "I--"
+
+"You mustn't talk.  Sit right down here on the lounge.  Primmie,
+get that rum bottle.  Don't talk, Mr. Bangs."
+
+"But, really, Miss Phipps, I--"
+
+"Don't TALK. . . .  There, drink that."
+
+Galusha obediently drank the rum.  Martha tenderly untied the
+scarf.
+
+"Tell me if it hurts," she said.  Her patient looked at her in
+surprise.
+
+"Why, no, it--ah--it is very nice," he said.  "I--ah--quite like
+the taste, really."
+
+"Heavens and earth, I don't mean the rum.  I hope that won't HURT
+anybody, to say the least.  I mean--  Why, there isn't anything the
+matter with it!"
+
+"Matter with it?  I don't quite--"
+
+"Matter with your head."
+
+Galusha raised a hand in bewildered fashion and felt of his
+cranium.
+
+"Why--ah--no, there is nothing the matter with my head, so far as I
+am aware," he replied.  "Does it look as if it were--ah--softening
+or something?"
+
+Miss Martha ignored the pleasantry.  "What have you got it tied up
+for?" she demanded.
+
+"Tied up?" Galusha's smile broadened.  "Oh, I see," he observed.
+"Well, I lost my hat.  It blew off into the--ah--sea.  It was
+rather too cold to be about bareheaded, so I used the scarf you so
+kindly lent me."
+
+Martha gazed at him for an instant and then burst into a hearty
+laugh.
+
+"Mercy on me!" she cried.  "WHAT an idiot I am!  When I saw you
+come into the yard with your head bandaged--at least I thought it
+was bandaged--and your face--  But what IS the matter with your
+face?"
+
+"My face?  Why, nothing."
+
+"Nonsense!  It's a sight to see.  You look the way Erastus Beebe's
+boy did when the cannon-cracker went off too soon.  Primmie, hand
+me that little lookin'-glass."
+
+Primmie snatched the small mirror from the wall.
+
+"See, Mr. Bangs," she cried, holding the mirror an inch from his
+nose.  "Look at yourself.  You're all broke out with a crash--rash,
+I mean.  Ain't he, Miss Martha?"
+
+Galusha regarded his reflection in the mirror with astonishment.
+
+"Why, I--I seem to be--ah--polka-dotted," he said.  "I never saw
+anything so--  Dear me, dear me!"
+
+He drew his fingers down his cheek.  The speckles promptly became
+streaks.  He smiled in relief.
+
+"I see, I see," he said.  "It is the lichen."
+
+This explanation was not as satisfying as he evidently meant it to
+be.  Martha looked more puzzled than ever.  Primmie looked
+frightened.
+
+"WHAT did he say 'twas?" she whispered.  "'Tain't catchin', is it,
+Miss Martha?"
+
+"It is the lichen from the tombstones," went on Galusha.  "Most of
+them were covered with it.  In order to read the inscriptions I was
+obliged to scrape it off with my pocketknife, and the particles
+must have blown in my face and--ah--adhered.  Perhaps--ah--some
+soap and water might improve my personal appearance, Miss Phipps.
+If you will excuse me I think I will try the experiment."
+
+He rose briskly from the sofa.  Primmie stared at him open-mouthed.
+
+"Ain't there NOTHIN' the matter with you, Mr. Bangs?" she asked.
+"Is the way your face is tittered up just dirt?"
+
+"Just dirt, that's all.  It came from the old tombstones in the
+cemetery."
+
+Primmie's mouth was open to ask another question, but Miss Phipps
+closed it.
+
+"Stop, Primmie," she said.  Then, turning to Galusha who was on his
+way to the stairs, she asked:
+
+"Excuse me, Mr. Bangs, but have you been spendin' this lovely
+forenoon in the graveyard?"
+
+"Eh?  Oh, yes, yes.  In the old cemetery over--ah--yonder."
+
+"Humph! . . . Well, I hope you had a nice time."
+
+"Oh, I did, I did, thank you.  I enjoyed myself very much indeed."
+
+"Yes, I should think you must have. . . .  Well, come down right
+away because dinner's ready when you are."
+
+Galusha hastened up the stairs.  His hostess gazed after him and
+slowly shook her head.
+
+"Miss Martha, Miss Martha."
+
+Martha turned, to find Primmie excitedly gesticulating.  "Didn't I
+tell you?  Didn't I tell you?" whispered Primmie.
+
+"Didn't you tell me what?  Stop wigglin'."
+
+"Yes'm.  Didn't I tell you 'undertaker'?"
+
+"WHAT?"
+
+"Undertaker.  Him, the Bangs one.  Yesterday 'twas remains, to-day
+it's graveyards.  My savin' soul, I--"
+
+"Hush, hush!  Have you thought to get that dictionary from Lulie
+yet?"
+
+"Oh, now, ma'am, I snum if I didn't forget it.  I'll go right over
+this minute."
+
+"No, you won't.  I'll go myself after dinner."
+
+That Sunday dinner was a bountiful repast and Galusha ate more than
+he had eaten in three meals at his mountain hotel.  He was a trifle
+tired from his morning's stroll and so decided to remain indoors
+until the following day.  After the table was cleared Miss Phipps,
+leaving Primmie to wash the dishes, went over to the light keeper's
+house.
+
+"I'll be back soon, Mr. Bangs," she said.  "If you get lonesome go
+out into the kitchen and Primmie'll talk to you.  Goodness
+gracious!" she added, laughing, "that's a dreadful choice I'm
+leavin' you--lonesomeness or Primmie.  Well, I won't leave you to
+either long."
+
+During the meal he had told them of his chance discovery of the old
+church and graveyard and of the loss of the brown derby.  Primmie
+plainly regarded the catastrophe to the hat as a serious matter.
+
+"Well, now, if that ain't too bad!" she exclaimed.  "Blowed right
+out to sea, and 'most brand-new, too.  My savin' soul, Miss Martha,
+folks ought to be careful what they say, hadn't they? . . .  Eh,
+hadn't they?"
+
+"Oh, I guess so, Primmie.  I don't know what you're talkin' about.
+Can't I help you to a little more of the chicken pie, Mr. Bangs?
+Just a little BIT more?"
+
+Galusha had scarcely time to decline the third helping of chicken
+pie when Primmie plunged again into the conversation.
+
+"Why, I mean folks ought to be careful what they say about--about
+things.  Now you and me hadn't no notion Mr. Bangs was goin' to
+lose his hat when we was talkin' about it this mornin', had we?"
+
+Miss Phipps was much embarrassed.
+
+"Have a--a--  Oh, do have a little potato or cranberry sauce or
+somethin', Mr. Bangs," she stammered.  "A--a spoonful, that's all.
+Primmie, be STILL."
+
+"Yes'm.  But you know you and me WAS talkin' about that hat when
+Mr. Bangs started out walkin'.  Don't you know we was, Miss
+Martha?"
+
+This was the final straw.  Martha, looking about in desperation,
+trying to look anywhere but into her guest's face, caught one
+transitory glimpse of that face.  There was a twinkle in Galusha's
+eye.
+
+"I never liked that hat myself," he observed, dryly.
+
+Again their glances met and this time he smiled.  Martha gave it
+up.
+
+"Oh, dear!" she exclaimed, with a laugh.  "You know what they say
+about children and--other folks, Mr. Bangs.  Primmie, if you say
+another word while we're at this table I'll--I don't know what I'll
+do to you.  STOP!  You've said plenty and plenty more, as father
+used to say.  Truly, Mr. Bangs, it wasn't as bad as it sounds.  I
+honestly DIDN'T think the hat was becomin', that's all."
+
+"Neither did I, Miss Phipps.  I didn't think so when I bought it."
+
+"You didn't?  Then for mercy sakes why did you buy it?"
+
+"Well, the man said it was just the hat for me and--ah--I didn't
+wish to argue, that's all.  Besides, I thought perhaps he knew
+best; selling hats was his--ah--profession, you see."
+
+"Yes, SELLIN' 'em was.  Do you always let folks like that pick out
+what they want to sell you?"
+
+"No-o, not always.  Often I do.  It saves--ah--conversation, don't
+you think?"
+
+He said nothing concerning his meeting with Miss Hallett and the
+South Wellmouth station agent, but he did mention encountering
+Captain Jethro and Mr. Pulcifer.  Martha seemed much interested.
+
+"Humph!" she exclaimed.  "I wonder what possessed Cap'n Jeth to go
+over to the cemetery in the mornin'.  He almost always goes there
+Sunday afternoons--his wife's buried there--but he generally goes
+to church in the mornin'."
+
+Galusha remembered having heard the light keeper refer to the
+exchange of preachers.  Miss Phipps nodded.
+
+"Oh, yes," she said, "that explains it, of course.  He's down on
+the Wapatomac minister because he preaches against spiritualism.
+But what was Raish Pulcifer doin' in that cemetery?  He didn't have
+anybody's grave to go to, and he wouldn't go to it if he had.
+There's precious little chance of doin' business with a person
+after he's buried."
+
+"But I think it was business which brought Mr. Pulcifer there,"
+said Galusha.  "He and--ah--Captain Hallett, is it?  Yes--ah--thank
+you.  He and the captain seemed to be having a lengthy argument
+about--about--well, I'm not exactly certain what it was about.  You
+see, I was examining a--ah--tomb"--here Primmie shivered--"and paid
+little attention.  It seemed to be something about some--ah--stock
+they both owned.  Mr. Pulcifer wished to sell and Captain Hallett
+did not care to buy."
+
+Martha's interest increased.  "Stock?" she repeated.  "What sort of
+stock was it, Mr. Bangs?"
+
+"I didn't catch the name.  And yet, as I remember, I did catch some
+portion of it.  Ah--let me see--  Could there be such a thing as a--
+ah--'ornamenting' stock?  A Wellmouth ornamenting or decorating
+stock, you know?"
+
+Miss Phipps leaned forward.  "Was it Wellmouth Development Company
+stock?" she asked.
+
+"Eh?  Oh, yes--yes, I'm quite certain that was it.  Yes, I think it
+was, really."
+
+"And Raish wanted Cap'n Jeth to buy some of it?"
+
+"That was what I gathered, Miss Phipps.  As I say, I was more
+interested at the time in my--ah--pet tomb."
+
+Primmie shivered again.  Miss Martha looked very serious.  She was
+preoccupied during the rest of the dinner and, immediately
+afterward, went, as has been told, over to the Hallett house,
+leaving her guest the alternative of loneliness or Primmie.
+
+At first he chose the loneliness.  As a matter of fact, his
+morning's exercise had fatigued him somewhat and he went up to his
+room with the intention of taking a nap.  But, before lying down, he
+seated himself in the rocker by the window and looked out over the
+prospect of hills and hollows, the little village, the pine groves,
+the shimmering, tumbling sea, and the blue sky with its swiftly
+moving white clouds, the latter like bunches of cotton fluff.  The
+landscape was bare enough, perhaps, but somehow it appealed to him.
+It seemed characteristically plain and substantial and essential,
+like--well, like the old Cape Cod captains of bygone days who had
+spent the dry land portion of their lives there and had loved to
+call it home.  It was American, as they were, American in the
+old-fashioned meaning of the word, bluff, honest, rugged, real.
+Galusha Bangs had traveled much, he loved the out of the way, the
+unusual.  It surprised him therefore to find how strongly this
+commonplace, 'longshore spot appealed to his imagination.  He liked
+it and wondered why.
+
+Of course the liking might come from the contrast between the rest
+and freedom he was now experiencing and the fevered chase led him
+at the mountain hotel where Mrs. Worth Buckley and her lion-hunting
+sisters had their habitat.  Thought of the pestilential Buckley
+female set him to contrasting her affectations with the kind-
+hearted and wholehearted simplicity of his present hostess, Miss
+Martha Phipps.  It was something of a contrast.  Mrs. Buckley was
+rich and sophisticated and--in her own opinion--cultured to the
+highest degree.  Now Miss Phipps was, in all probability, not rich
+and she would not claim wide culture.  As to her sophistication--
+well, Galusha gave little thought to that, in most worldly matters
+he himself was unsophisticated.  However, he was sure that he liked
+Miss Phipps and that he loathed Mrs. Buckley.  And he liked East
+Wellmouth, bareness and bleakness and lonesomeness and all.  He
+rather wished he were going to stay there for a long time--weeks
+perhaps, months it might be; that is, of course, provided he could
+occupy his present quarters and eat at the Phipps' table.  If he
+could do that why--why . . . humph!
+
+Instead of lying down he sat by that window for more than half an
+hour thinking.  He came out of his reverie slowly, gradually
+becoming conscious of a high-pitched conversation carried on
+downstairs.  He had left his chamber door open and fragments of
+this conversation came up the staircase.  It was Primmie's voice
+which he heard most frequently and whatever words he caught were
+hers.  There was a masculine grumble at intervals but this was not
+understandable on the second floor.
+
+"Now I know better. . . .  My savin' soul, how you do talk, Zach
+Bloomer! . . .  And I says to her, says I, 'Miss Martha,' I
+says. . . .  My Lord of Isrul! . . ."
+
+These were some of the "Primmieisms" which came up the staircase.
+Galusha rose to close his door but before he could accomplish this
+feat his own name was called.
+
+"Mr. Bangs!" screamed Primmie.  "Mr. Bangs, be you layin' down?
+You ain't asleep, be you, Mr. Bangs?"
+
+If he had been as sound asleep as Rip Van Winkle that whoop would
+have aroused him.  He hastened to assure the whooper that he was
+awake and afoot.
+
+"Um-hm," said Primmie, "I'm glad of that.  If you'd been layin'
+down I wouldn't have woke you up for nothin'.  But I want to ask
+you somethin', Mr. Bangs.  Had you just as soon answer me somethin'
+if I ask it of you, had you, Mr. Bangs?"
+
+"Yes, Primmie."
+
+"Just as soon's not, had you?"
+
+"Yes, quite as soon."
+
+"All right.  Then I--I . . .  Let me see now, what was it I was
+goin' to ask?  Zach Bloomer, stop your makin' faces, you put it all
+out of my head.  It's all right, Mr. Bangs, I'll think of it in a
+minute.  Oh, you're comin' down, be you?"
+
+Galusha was coming down.  It seemed to be the advisable thing to
+do.  Miss Cash was doing her "thinking" at the top of her lungs and
+the process was trying to one with uneasy nerves.  He entered the
+sitting room.  Primmie was there, of course, and with her was a
+little, thin man, with a face sunburned to a bright, "boiled-
+lobster" red, and a bald head which looked amazingly white by
+contrast, a yellowish wisp of mustache, and an expression of
+intense solemnity, amounting almost to gloom.  He was dressed in
+the blue uniform of the lighthouse service and a blue cap lay on
+the table beside him.
+
+"Mr. Bangs," announced Primmie, "this is Mr. Zach Bloomer.  Zach,
+make you acquainted with Mr. Bangs, the one I was tellin' you
+about.  Mr.--Mr.--  Oh, my savin' soul, what IS your first name,
+Mr. Bangs?"
+
+"Galusha, Primmie.  How do you do, Mr. Bloomer?"
+
+The little man rose upon a pair of emphatically bowed legs and
+shook hands.  "I'm pretty smart," he observed, in a husky voice.
+Then he sat down again.  Galusha, after waiting a moment, sat down
+also.  Primmie seemed to be wrestling with a mental problem, but
+characteristically she could not wrestle in silence.
+
+"What was it I wanted to ask you, Mr. Bangs?" she said.  "I snum I
+can't think!  Zach, what was it I wanted to ask Mr. Bangs?"
+
+Mr. Bloomer paid not the slightest attention to the question.  His
+sad blue eye was fixed upon vacancy.
+
+"Galushy--Galushy," he said, huskily.  "Huh!"
+
+Galusha was, naturally, rather startled.
+
+"Eh?  I--ah--beg your pardon," he observed.
+
+"I was thinkin' about names," explained Mr. Bloomer.  "Queer things,
+names are, ain't they?  Zacheus and Galushy. . . . Godfreys!"
+
+He paused a moment and then added:
+
+
+     "'Zacheus he
+       Did climb a tree
+       His Lord to see.'
+
+
+Well, if he wan't any taller'n I be he showed good jedgment. . . .
+Zacheus and Galushy and Primrose! . . .  Godfreys!"
+
+Primmie was shocked.  "Why, Zach Bloomer!" she exclaimed.  "The
+idea of your talkin' so about a person's name you never met but
+just now in your lifetime."
+
+Zacheus regarded the owner of the name.
+
+"No offense meant and none given, Mr. Bangs," he observed.  "Eh?
+That's right, ain't it?"
+
+"Certainly, certainly, Mr. Bloomer.  I'm not in the least offended."
+
+"Um-hm.  Didn't cal'late you would be.  Can't help our names, can
+we?  If my folks had asked me aforehand I'd a-been named plain
+John.  As 'tis, my name's like my legs, growed that way and it's
+too late to change."
+
+Galusha smiled.
+
+"You're a philosopher, I see, Mr. Bloomer," he said.
+
+"He's assistant keeper over to the lighthouse," explained Primmie.
+As before, Zach paid no heed.
+
+"I don't know as I'd go so far as to call myself that," he said.
+"When I went to school the teacher told us one time about an old
+critter who lived in a--in a tub, seem's if 'twas.  HE was one of
+them philosophers, wan't he?"
+
+"Yes.  Diogenes."
+
+"That's the cuss.  Well, I ain't never lived in a tub, but I've
+spent consider'ble time ON one; I was aboard a lightship for five
+or six year.  Ever lived aboard a lightship, Mr. Bangs?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Humph! . . .  Don't feel disapp'inted on that account, do you?"
+
+"Why--ah--no, I don't know that I do."
+
+"Ain't no occasion.  'Bout the same as bein' in jail, 'tis--only a
+jail don't keep heavin' up and down.  First week or so you talk.
+By the second week the talk's all run out of you, like molasses out
+of a hogshead.  Then you set and think."
+
+"I see.  And so much thinking tends to bring out--ah--philosophy, I
+suppose."
+
+"Huh!  Maybe so.  So much settin' wears out overalls, I know that."
+
+Primmie interrupted.
+
+"I've got it!" she cried, enthusiastically.  "_I_ know now!"
+
+Galusha started nervously.  Primmie's explosiveness was disturbing.
+It did not disturb Mr. Bloomer, however.
+
+"Posy here'd be a good hand aboard a lightship," he observed.  "Her
+talk'd NEVER run out."
+
+Primmie sniffed disgust.  "I wish you wouldn't keep callin' me
+'Posy' and such names, Zach Bloomer," she snapped.  "Yesterday he
+called me 'Old Bouquet,' Mr. Bangs.  My name's Primrose and he
+knows it."
+
+The phlegmatic Zacheus, whose left leg had been crossed above his
+right, now reversed the crossing.
+
+"A-ll right--er Pansy Blossom," he drawled.  "What is it you're
+trying to tell us you know?  Heave it overboard."
+
+"Hey? . . .  Oh, I mean I've remembered what 'twas I wanted to ask
+you, Mr. Bangs.  Me and Zach was talkin' about Miss Martha.  I said
+it seemed to me she had somethin' on her mind, was sort of worried
+and troubled about somethin', and Zach--"
+
+For the first time the assistant light keeper seemed a trifle less
+composed.
+
+"There, there, Primmie," he began.  "I wouldn't--"
+
+"Be still, Zach Bloomer.  You know you want to find out just as
+much as I do.  Well, Zach, he cal'lated maybe 'twas money matters,
+cal'lated maybe she was in debt or somethin'."
+
+Mr. Bloomer's discomfiture was so intense as to cause him actually
+to uncross his legs.
+
+"Godfreys, Prim!" he exclaimed.  "Give you a shingle and a pocket-
+handkercher and you'll brag to all hands you've got a full-rigged
+ship.  I never said Martha was in debt.  I did say she acted worried
+to me and I was afraid it might be account of some money business.
+She was over to the light just now askin' for Cap'n Jeth, and he's
+the one her dad, Cap'n Jim Phipps, used to talk such things with.
+They went into a good many trades together, them too. . . .  But
+there, 'tain't any of your affairs, is it, Mr. Bangs--and 'tain't
+any of Primmie's and my business, so we'd better shut up.  Don't say
+nothin' to Martha about it, Mr. Bangs, if you'd just as soon.  But
+course you wouldn't anyhow."
+
+This was a tremendously long speech for Mr. Bloomer.  He sighed at
+its end, as if from exhaustion; then he crossed his legs again.
+Galusha hastened to assure him that he would keep silent.  Primmie,
+however, had more to say.
+
+"Why, Zach Bloomer," she declared, "you know that wan't only part
+of what you and me was sayin'.  That wan't what I wanted to ask Mr.
+Bangs.  YOU said if 'twas money matters or business Miss Martha
+went to see Cap'n Jeth about you cal'lated the cap'n would be
+cruisin' up to Boston to see a medium pretty soon."
+
+"The old man's Speritu'list," exclaimed Zach.  "Always goes to one
+of them Speritu'list mediums for sailin' orders."
+
+"Now you let me tell it, Zach.  Well, then _I_ said I wondered if
+you wan't a kind of medium, Mr. Bangs.  And Zach, he--"
+
+Galusha interrupted this time.
+
+"_I_--a medium!" he gasped.  "Well, really, I--ah--oh, dear!  Dear
+me!"
+
+"AIN'T you a kind of medium, Mr. Bangs?"
+
+"Certainly not."
+
+"Well, I thought undertakin' was your trade till Miss Martha put
+her foot down on the notion and shut me right up.  You AIN'T an
+undertaker, be you?"
+
+"An undertaker? . . .  Dear me, Primmie, you--ah--well, you
+surprise me.  Just why did you think me an undertaker, may I ask?"
+
+"Why, you see, 'cause--'cause--well, you was talkin' yesterday
+about interestin' remains and--and all this forenoon you was over
+in the cemetery and said you had such a good time there and . . .
+and I couldn't see why anybody, unless he was an undertaker, or--or
+a medium maybe, would call bein' around with dead folks havin' a
+good time . . .  Quit your laughin', Zach Bloomer; you didn't know
+what Mr. Bangs' trade was any more'n I did."
+
+Mr. Bloomer cleared his throat.  "Mr. Bangs," he observed sadly,
+"didn't I tell you she'd make a ship out of a shingle?  If you'd
+puffed smoke, and whistled once in a while, she'd have cal'lated
+you must be a tugboat."
+
+Galusha smiled.
+
+"I am an archaeologist," he said.  "I think I told you that,
+Primmie."
+
+Primmie looked blank.  "Yes," she admitted, "you did, but--"
+
+Zacheus finished the sentence.
+
+"But you didn't tell TOO much when you told it," he said.  "What
+kind of an ark did you say?"
+
+And then Galusha explained.  The fact that any one in creation
+should not know what an archaeologist was seemed unbelievable, but
+a fact it evidently was.  So he explained and the explanation,
+under questioning, became lengthy.  Primmie's exclamations, "My
+savin' soul" and "My Lord of Isrul" became more and more frequent.
+Mr. Bloomer interjected a remark here and there.  At length a sound
+outside caused him to look out of the window.
+
+"Here comes the old man and Martha," he said.  "Cal'late I'd better
+be gettin' back aboard.  Can't leave Lulie to tend light all the
+time.  Much obliged to you, Mr. Bangs.  You've cruised around
+more'n I give you credit for.  Um-hm.  Any time you want to know
+about a lightship or--or lobsterin' or anything, I'd be pleased to
+tell you.  Good-day, sir.  So long--er--Sweet William.  See you
+later."
+
+The "Sweet William" was addressed to Primmie, of course.  The bow-
+legged little man, rolling from side to side like the lightship of
+which he talked so much, walked out of the room.  A moment later
+Martha Phipps and Captain Jethro Hallett entered it.
+
+Both Miss Phipps and the light keeper seemed preoccupied.  The
+former's round, wholesome face was clouded over and the captain was
+tugging at his thick beard and drawing his bushy eyebrows together
+in a frown.  He was a burly, broad-shouldered man, with a thin-
+lipped mouth, and a sharp gray eye.  He looked like one hard to
+drive and equally hard to turn, the sort from which fanatics are
+made.
+
+Primmie scuttled away to the dining room.  Galusha rose.
+
+"Good-afternoon, Captain Hallett," he said.
+
+Jethro regarded him from beneath the heavy brows.
+
+"You know Mr. Bangs, Cap'n Jeth," said Martha.  "You met this
+mornin', didn't you?"
+
+The light keeper nodded.
+
+"We run afoul of each other over to the graveyard," he grunted.
+"Well, Martha, I don't know what more there is to say about--about
+that thing.  I've told you all I know, I cal'late."
+
+"But I want to talk a little more about it, Cap'n Jeth.  If Mr.
+Bangs will excuse us we'll go out into the dinin' room.  Primmie's
+up in her room by this time.  You will excuse us, won't you, Mr.
+Bangs?  There was a little business matter the cap'n and I were
+talkin' about."
+
+Galusha hastened to say that he himself had been on the point of
+going to his own room--really he was.
+
+Miss Martha asked if he was sure.
+
+"You needn't go on our account," she protested.  "We can talk in
+the dinin' room just as well as not, can't we Cap'n Jeth?"
+
+The captain bowed his head.  "We ain't cal'latin' to talk very long
+anyhow," he said, solemnly.  "This is the Lord's day, Mr. Bangs."
+
+Galusha hastily admitted that he was aware of the fact.  He hurried
+into the hall and up the stairs.  As he reached the upper landing
+he heard the ponderous boom of the light keeper's voice saying,
+"Martha, I tell you again there's no use frettin' yourself.  We've
+to wait on the Lord.  Then that wait will be provided for; it's
+been so revealed to me."
+
+Miss Phipps sighed heavily.  "Maybe so, Jethro," she said, "but
+what will some of us live on while we're waitin'?  THAT hasn't been
+revealed to you, has it?"
+
+For the rest of that afternoon Galusha sat by his bedroom window,
+thinking.  His thoughts were along the line of those interrupted by
+Primmie's summons.  When, at supper time, he again descended the
+stairs, his mind was made up.  He was going to make a suggestion, a
+suggestion which seemed to him somewhat delicate.  In one sense of
+the term it was a business proposition, in another--well, he was
+not precisely certain that it might not be considered presuming and
+perhaps intrusive.  Galusha Cabot Bangs was not a presuming person
+and he was troubled.
+
+After the supper dishes were washed and Primmie sent to bed--"sent"
+is the exact word, for Miss Cash, having had a taste of Egypt and
+the Orient, was eagerly hoping for more--Miss Phipps and Galusha
+were together in the sitting room.  Doctor Powers had paid a brief
+visit.  He found his patient so much improved that he announced him
+well enough to travel if he wished.
+
+"If it is really necessary for you to go to-morrow, Mr. Bangs," he
+said, "I think you're strong enough to risk it."
+
+"Thank you, Doctor," said Galusha.  Then he added, with his little
+smile, "I couldn't go before to-morrow.  You see, I--ah--haven't
+any hat."
+
+In the sitting room, after supper, Galusha was idly turning the
+pages of Camp, Battlefield and Hospital, a worn book of Civil War
+sketches, printed immediately after that war, which he had found
+upon the shelf of the closet in his room, along with another volume
+labeled Friendship's Garland, a Nosegay of Verse.  Of the two,
+although a peace-loving individual, he preferred the camp and
+battlefield to the Nosegay; the latter's fragrance was a trifle too
+sweet.
+
+Suddenly Martha, who had been sitting quiet in the rocker, spoke.
+
+"Mr. Bangs," she said, "I saw Lulie Hallett when I was over at the
+light this afternoon.  We had a good talk together before Cap'n
+Jethro came back.  She told me about your bein' so kind to her and
+Nelson over by the old church this mornin'.  She was real grateful
+to you and she says she shall thank you herself when she sees you.
+She asked me to do it for her now."
+
+Galusha was confused.  "Oh, it was nothing, really," he hastened to
+explain.  "I--ah--  Well, I intruded upon them somewhat suddenly.
+I see she told you of that."
+
+Miss Phipps was smiling to herself.  She looked a little guilty.
+
+"Well," she admitted, "Lulie did say that you kind of--er--flew
+over the bank.  She said no one was ever quite so surprised as she
+was at that minute."
+
+Mr. Bangs thoughtfully shook his head.
+
+"Except myself, perhaps," he observed.
+
+Martha's smile became a laugh.  "Probably that's so," she admitted.
+"But, Mr. Bangs, Lulie is awfully anxious that you shouldn't think
+there was anything wrong about her meetin' Nelson Howard in that
+way.  There isn't.  She's a splendid girl and he's a fine young
+man.  I think the world of Lulie and I like Nelson, too."
+
+She paused a moment and then went on.
+
+"It's Cap'n Jethro that makes all the trouble," she said.  "There's
+no reason in the world--that is, no sensible reason--why Lulie and
+Nelson shouldn't be engaged to be married.  Of course he isn't
+doin' very well in a business way just now, but that's partly from
+choice on Lulie's account.  Nelse was a telegraph operator up in
+Brockton before the war.  When the war came he went right into the
+Navy and started in at the Radio School studyin' to be a wireless
+operator.  Then he was taken down with the 'flu' and had to give up
+study.  Soon as he got well he went into the transport service.
+Lulie, you see, was teachin' school at Ostable, but her father's
+health isn't what it used to be and then, besides, I think she was
+a little worried about his spiritualism.  Jethro isn't crazy about
+it, exactly, but he isn't on an even keel on that subject, there's
+no doubt about that.  So Lulie gave up teachin' and came here to
+live with him.  When Nelson was mustered out he took the station
+agent's job at South Wellmouth so as to be near her.  I think he
+doesn't feel right to have her here alone with her father."
+
+"But--ah--she isn't alone, is she?  I gathered that Mr.--ah--
+Bloomer--"
+
+"Zach Bloomer?  Yes, he's there, but Zach isn't lively company,
+especially for a girl like Lulie.  If Jethro was taken--well, with
+a fit or somethin', Zach would probably sit down and cross those
+bow legs of his and moralize for an hour or so before he got ready
+to help pick the old man up.  Nelson knows that and so he refused
+two real good offers he had and took the position at the South
+Wellmouth depot.  But he's studyin' at his wireless all the time
+and some day--but I'm afraid that day will be a long way off.
+Cap'n Jeth is as set as the side of a stone wharf and you'd have to
+take him to pieces to move him.  That was another of father's
+sayin's," she added, "that about the stone wharf."
+
+"Why, why is the--ah--why is Captain Hallet so opposed to young
+Howard?" asked Galusha.
+
+"Spiritualism.  Foolishness, that's all.  Before his wife died he
+was as sensible and shrewd a man as you'd care to see.  He and
+father were old chums and father used to ask his advice about
+investments and all such things.  They went into lots of deals
+together and generally made 'em pay, though Jethro usually made the
+most because he took more chances.  He must be worth twenty or
+thirty thousand dollars, Cap'n Jeth Hallett is."
+
+She spoke as if these were enormous sums.  Galusha, to whom all
+sums--sums of money, that is--were more or less alike, nodded
+gravely.
+
+"His wife's death broke Jethro dreadfully," continued Martha.  "For
+six months or so he hardly spoke to anybody except Lulie.  Then
+some Spiritualist or other--I think it was Ophelia Beebe or some
+rattlehead like her--got him to go to see a medium who was boardin'
+here at the Restabit Inn.  He got--or thinks he got--a communication
+direct from Julia--his wife.  After that he kept goin' to the
+Spiritualist camp meetin's and to Boston and to mediums from Dan to
+Beersheba, so to speak.  A while ago one medium creature--and I wish
+she had been struck dumb before she could say it--told him that he
+must beware of a dark man who was tryin' to work evil upon his
+daughter.  As luck would have it, Nelson Howard was home on leave
+and callin' on Lulie when her father got back from seein' that very
+medium.  You can imagine what happened.  And Jethro has been growin'
+more rabid on the subject ever since."
+
+She stopped.  Her guest said nothing.  He was thinking that if he
+were to make the suggestion--the proposition which he had
+determined upon before he came down to supper, he must make it
+soon.  And he did not know how to begin.
+
+Martha went on talking.  She apparently did not notice his silence.
+It was more as if she were thinking aloud.
+
+"If it wasn't for Lulie's bein' here," she said, slowly, "I don't
+know what I should do sometimes, I get so lonesome.  When father
+lived it was all so different.  He was bright and cheerful and he
+and I were just as if we were the same age, as you might say.  He
+never was cross and he didn't fret and if he worried he didn't let
+me know it.  He just loved this place.  It was near the salt water,
+and he loved that, and he had his garden and his hens and he was
+interested in town affairs and all.  We didn't have much money, but
+we had enough, seemed so.  Before he died he told me he hoped he'd
+left me well enough off to get along.  'The only thing that
+troubles me, Martha,' he said, 'is that some of the things I've put
+money into shouldn't turn out as I hoped.  I've tried to be
+careful, but you can't always tell.  If you want advice,' he said,
+'go to Jethro Hallett.  Jeth's a shrewd business man.'  Ah, well,
+he didn't know that the spirits were goin' to run Cap'n Jeth.
+About the last words he said to me, father, I mean, was, 'Martha,
+hang on to the old place if you can.  I hate to think of your
+sellin' it.'  Of course I told him I never should sell it."
+
+"Well--ah--well--"  Galusha felt that he ought to say something,
+"you don't intend selling it, do you, Miss Phipps?"
+
+Martha did not answer immediately.  And when she did speak it was
+not a reply.
+
+"You must think we're a queer lot down here by the Bluffs, Mr.
+Bangs," she said.  "Primmie--you've seen what she is--and Zach
+Bloomer and Cap'n Jethro with his 'spirit revelations.'  As I say,
+if it wasn't for Lulie I don't know what I should do.  Get to be
+cracked myself, I presume likely. . . .  But there," she added,
+brightening, "do let's change the subject, for mercy sakes!  Mr.
+Bangs, what do you suppose I did when I was over at the light this
+afternoon?  Besides talkin' with Lulie, I mean."
+
+"Why--why, I don't know, I'm sure."
+
+"I don't believe you could guess, either.  I looked up
+'archaeologist' in the dictionary."
+
+Mr. Bangs blinked surprise behind the spectacles.
+
+"In the--in the dictionary?" he repeated.  "Oh--ah--dear me!
+Really!"
+
+"Yes.  I'm afraid you'll think I am awfully ignorant, but to save
+my soul I couldn't think what an archaeologist did, what sort of a
+business it was, I mean.  Of course, I knew I OUGHT to know, and
+that I did know once, but it seemed to be perfectly certain that I
+didn't know THEN.  So I looked it up.  It fits in with what you
+told Primmie and me about travelin'--that camel driver creature and
+all--and yet--and yet, you know, I was surprised."
+
+"Surprised?  Really?  Yes, of course, but--but why?"
+
+"Well, because somehow you don't look like that kind of man.  I
+mean the kind of man who travels in all sorts of wild places and
+does dangerous things, you know, and--"
+
+Galusha's desire to protest overcame his politeness.  He broke in
+hurriedly.
+
+"Oh, but I'm not, you know," he cried.  "I'm not really.  Dear me,
+no!"
+
+"But you said you had been to--to Africa, was it?--three or four
+times."
+
+"Oh, but those were my Abyssinian trips.  Abyssinia isn't wild, or
+dangerous, any more than Egypt."
+
+"Oh, isn't it?"
+
+"No, not in the least, really.  Oh, dear me, no!"
+
+"Not with darky camel drivers stealin' your--er--underclothes and
+goodness knows what?  It sounds a little wild to ME."
+
+"Oh, but it isn't, I assure you.  And Egypt--ah--Egypt is a
+wonderful country.  On my most recent trip I. . . .  May I tell
+you?"
+
+He began to tell her without waiting for permission.  For the next
+hour Martha Phipps journeyed afar, under an African sun, over
+desert sands, beside a river she had read of in her geography when
+a girl, under palm trees, amid pyramids and temples and the buried
+cities of a buried people.  And before her skipped, figuratively
+speaking, the diminutive figure of Galusha Bangs, guiding,
+pointing, declaiming, describing, the incarnation of enthusiastic
+energy, as different as anything could be from the mild, dreamy
+little person who had sat opposite her at the supper table so short
+a time before.
+
+The wooden clock on the mantel--it had wooden works and Martha
+wound it each night before she went to bed--banged its gong ten
+times.  Mr. Bangs descended from Egypt as if he had fallen from a
+palm tree, alighting upon reality and Cape Cod with startled
+suddenness.
+
+"Oh, dear me!" he cried.  "What was that?  Goodness me, it CAN'T be
+ten o'clock, can it?  Oh, I must have talked you almost to death,
+Miss Phipps.  I must have bored you to distraction, I must really.
+Oh, I'm SO sorry!"
+
+Miss Martha also seemed to be coming out of a dream, or trance.
+She stirred in her chair.
+
+"You haven't bored me, Mr. Bangs," she said,
+
+"Oh, but I must have, really.  I should know better.  You see. . . .
+Well, it's quite extraordinary my talking to you in this way, isn't
+it?  I don't do it often--ah--except to other members of my
+profession.  Why, up there in the mountains--at the place where I
+spent the past month or two, I scarcely talked of--ah--my work at
+all.  And I was constantly being asked to do so.  There was a
+dreadful--ah--that is, there was a woman who. . . .  But I promise
+you I won't go on in this way again, Miss Phipps, really I won't."
+
+Martha drew a long breath and shook her head.
+
+"I hope you won't promise any such thing," she declared.  "I feel
+as if I had been readin' the most interestin' storybook that ever
+was. . . .  My, my!" she added, with a sigh.  "What a curious thing
+life is, isn't it?  There's nothin' new in that thought, of course,
+but it comes to us all every little while, I suppose.  Just think
+of the difference there has been in our two lives, for instance.
+Here are you, Mr. Bangs, you've been everywhere, pretty nearly, and
+yet you're--well, you're not so very big or strong-lookin'.  The
+average person would say I was the one best fitted to trot around
+the world, and all my life--or nearly all--I've been keepin' house
+in this little corner of East Wellmouth.  That's curious, isn't it?
+Of course I can't see myself doin' the things you do--ridin' a
+camel, for instance."
+
+"Oh, but it is quite easy, quite," Galusha hastened to assure her.
+"You could do it very well, I'm sure, Miss Phipps."
+
+"Maybe so, but I'm afraid I'm a little bit doubtful.  I should want
+my camel on wheels, with a railin' around his hump.  But YOU must
+feel lost enough down in this tame place, Mr. Bangs.  The wildest
+thing around here is a woodchuck."
+
+She laughed.  Galusha smiled, but he answered promptly.
+
+"I like it here, Miss Phipps," he said, earnestly.  "I do, really.
+I like it very much indeed.  In fact--in fact--Miss Phipps, would
+you mind answering a question or two? . . .  Oh, they're not
+personal questions, personal to you, I mean.  Really they are not.
+May I ask them?"
+
+She was puzzled and looked so.
+
+"Why, of course," she said.
+
+"Well . . . well, they're foolish questions, I suppose, for I think
+I know the answers already.  But, you see, I want my conscience to
+be quite clear before making a decision. . . .  That is, the
+decision is already made, but you see . . . oh, no, you don't see,
+of course, do you?"
+
+"Why not ask your questions, Mr. Bangs?" she suggested.
+
+"Yes--ah--thank you; yes, I will.  The first one is about--ah--
+rest.  This is a good spot for one to--ah--rest in, isn't it?"
+
+She laughed.  "Are you jokin', Mr. Bangs?" she asked.  "Rest!  I
+should say the average person would find it easier to rest here
+than to do anything else.  But you are jokin', of course?"
+
+"No; no, indeed, I am quite serious.  Second, the air about here
+is--ah--good and--and fresh?"
+
+"GOOD!  Well, considerin' that most of it is blown over three or
+four thousand miles of salt water before it gets here it ought to
+be fairly good, I should say.  As to its bein' fresh--well, if you
+were here when a February no'theaster was blowin' I'm afraid you
+might find it a little TOO fresh."
+
+"That is satisfactory, that is very satisfactory indeed.  Now what
+was the third thing the doctor said I must have?  Oh, yes, people.
+And I know there are people here because I have met them.  And very
+nice people, indeed. . . .  Oh, this is VERY satisfactory, Miss
+Phipps.  Now my conscience is quite clear concerning my promise to
+the doctor and I can go on to my proposal to you."
+
+"Your--your WHAT?"
+
+"My proposal--the--ah--proposition I want to make you, Miss Phipps.
+And I DO hope you will consider it favorably.  You see, I like East
+Wellmouth VERY much.  My doctor told me I must go where I could
+find fresh air, rest, and people.  They are all here in East
+Wellmouth.  And he said I must have exercise, and behold my daily
+walks to that most interesting old cemetery of yours.  Now, you
+have been VERY kind to me already, Miss Phipps; could you be still
+more kind?  Would you--ah--could you let me continue our present
+arrangement indefinitely--for a few months, let us say?  Might I be
+permitted to board here with you until--well, until spring,
+perhaps?"
+
+Martha Phipps leaned back in her chair.  She regarded him keenly.
+
+"Mr. Bangs," she said, slowly, "has some one been tellin' you that
+I needed money and are you makin' me this offer out of--well, out
+of charity?"
+
+Galusha jumped violently.  He turned quite pale.
+
+"Oh, dear, dear, dear!" he cried, in a great agitation.  "Oh, dear
+me, dear me!  No, INDEED, Miss Phipps!  I am VERY sorry you should
+so misunderstand me.  I--I--  Of course I know nothing of your
+money affairs, nor should I presume to--to--  Oh, I--I--  Oh,
+dear!"
+
+His distress was so keen that she was obliged to recognize it.
+
+"All right, all right, Mr. Bangs," she said.  "It wasn't charity, I
+can see that.  But what was it?  Do I understand you to say that
+you like--actually like this lonesome place well enough to want to
+stay here all WINTER?"
+
+"Yes--ah--yes.  And it doesn't seem lonesome to me."
+
+"Doesn't it?  Well, wait a little while. . . .  And you really mean
+you want to keep on boardin' here--with me, with us?"
+
+"Yes, if--if you will be so very kind as to permit me to do so.  If
+you will be so good."
+
+"Good!  To what?  My soul and body!"
+
+"No--ah--good to mine," said Galusha.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+It was not settled that evening.  Martha declared she must have at
+least a few hours in which to think it over and Galusha, of course,
+agreed.
+
+"It won't take too long," she said.  "Naturally, you want to know
+so that you can make your plans."
+
+Galusha smiled.  "Please take as much time as you need, Miss
+Phipps," he urged.  "If you permit me to remain here while you are--
+ah--endeavoring to reach a decision I shall be quite satisfied,
+really.  In that case, you know, I should be willing to wait for
+the decision until spring.  Dear me, yes--even until summer."
+
+Martha laughed and declared she should decide long before that.  "I
+think breakfast time to-morrow will settle it," she added.
+
+It did.  After breakfast she informed him that he might stay if he
+wished.
+
+"Though WHY you want to I can't understand," she said.  "And of
+course it is part of the agreement that you'll feel free to give it
+up and go any time you wish; as soon as you begin to get tired of
+the place and us, I mean."
+
+He beamed satisfaction.  "I shall not be the one to tire first," he
+declared.  Then he added, earnestly, "Of course, Miss Phipps, you
+will be perfectly frank and tell me at once if you change YOUR
+mind.  And if I should become a--ah--well, a sort of nuisance, be
+irregular at meals, or noisy or--  What is it?  I beg your pardon?"
+
+She had laughed outright.  She was still smiling when she
+apologized.
+
+"Please excuse me for laughin', Mr. Bangs," she said, "but don't
+you think yourself that that is funny?  The idea of your bein'
+noisy, I mean."
+
+He stroked his chin.
+
+"We-ll," he admitted, "perhaps it is.  But sometimes I am quite
+boisterous, really I am.  I remember once, years ago, I was in an
+old cemetery in New Hampshire and I suddenly discovered an
+inscription which pleased me VERY much.  MOST quaint and unusual it
+was--dear me, yes.  And quite unconsciously I burst into a shout--
+a cheer, as one may say.  The old sexton was quite scandalized and
+warned me not to do it again.  He said it would disturb people.  I
+don't know whom he meant, there were no living people to be
+disturbed."
+
+The question of terms was the cause of a supplementary discussion.
+Mr. Bangs insisted upon continuing the three dollars a day rate and
+Miss Martha declared he should do nothing of the kind.
+
+"That three dollars a day was just a temporary thing," she said.
+"I said it just because I was sure you would go over to Elmer
+Rogers' if I didn't.  Elmer Rogers is a robber and always was.
+Father used to say he was the forty-first member of the Forty
+Thieves and that they didn't boil him because he wasn't enough
+account to waste hot oil on."
+
+"But--ah--it seems to me that if the Rogers' House board is worth
+three dollars a day yours should be worth five at least."
+
+"Maybe so, but I never heard anybody but Elmer say his board was
+worth one dollar, let alone three."
+
+They compromised on a daily rate of two and a half per day, which
+each declared to be ridiculous.
+
+Thus Galusha Cabot Bangs became no longer a transitory but a
+regular boarder and lodger at the Phipps' place.  The fact became
+known to Miss Primrose Cash that forenoon, to the driver of the
+grocer's cart one hour later, and to all of East Wellmouth before
+bedtime.  It was news and, in October in East Wellmouth, one item
+of local news is a rare and blessed dispensation.
+
+Before another day had passed the news item had been embellished.
+Mr. Bangs visited the general store of Erastus Beebe to purchase
+headgear to replace the brown derby.  Erastus happened to be busy
+at the moment--there were two customers in his store at the same
+time, an event most unusual--so Galusha's wants were supplied by no
+less a person than Mr. Horatio Pulcifer.
+
+Raish's greeting was condescendingly genial.
+
+"Well, well!" he exclaimed, pumping the little man's arm up and
+down with one hand and thumping his shrinking shoulder blades with
+the other.  "If it ain't the perfessor himself!  How are you this
+mornin', Mr. Bangs?  Right up and comin, eh?"
+
+Galusha would have withdrawn his hand from the Pulcifer clutch if
+withdrawal had been possible.  It being quite impossible, he
+murmured that he was--"ah--quite well" and, conscious that the eyes
+of Mr. Beebe and his two customers were fixed upon him, fixed his
+own gaze upon Mr. Pulcifer's assortment of watch charms and
+shivered with embarrassment.
+
+"Ain't it funny, now?" queried Raish, addressing the world in
+general.  "Ain't it funny how things happen?  When I fetched you
+over in my car t'other night didn't I say I hoped you and me'd meet
+again?  That's what I said.  And now we've met twice since.  Once
+in the old boneyard and now here, eh?  And they tell me you like
+East Wellmouth so much you're goin' to stick around for a spell.
+Good business!  Say, I'll be sellin' you a piece of Wellmouth
+property one of these days to settle down on.  That's the kind of
+talk, eh, Perfessor?  Haw, haw, haw!"
+
+He pounded the Bangs' shoulder blades once more.  Mr. Beebe and his
+two customers echoed the Pulcifer laugh.  Galusha smiled painfully--
+as the man in the operating chair smiles at the dentist's jokes.
+
+"I--I--excuse me," he faltered, turning to the grinning Erastus,
+"can I--  That is, have you a--ah--hat or--or cap or something I
+might buy?"
+
+Before the proprietor of the general store could answer, Mr.
+Pulcifer answered for him.  Again the hand descended upon the
+Bangs' shoulder.
+
+"Haw, haw!" roared Raish, joyfully.  "I get you, Mr. Bangs.  The
+old lid blew out to sea and we've got to get a new one.  Say, that
+was funny, wasn't it; that hat goin' that way?  I don't know's I
+ever laughed more in my life.  One minute she was jumpin' along
+amongst them gravestones like a hoptoad with wings, and then--
+Zing!  Fsst! away she went a half mile or so down into the
+breakers.  Haw, haw, haw!  And to see your face!  Why--"
+
+Galusha interrupted.
+
+"PLEASE don't do that," he said, nervously.
+
+"Hey?  Do what?"
+
+"Ah--slap my back.  I'd rather you wouldn't, if you don't mind.
+And--oh--I should like to see a--a cap or something."
+
+The last sentence was addressed to Mr. Beebe, who cleared his
+throat importantly.
+
+"Jest a minute, jest a minute," said Erastus.  "Soon's I get
+through waitin' on these customers I'll 'tend to you.  Jest a
+minute.  Yeast cake, did you say, Mrs. Blount?"
+
+"Ohh, pardon me," faltered Galusha.  "I'll wait, of course."
+
+"Wait?"  It was Mr. Pulcifer who spoke.  "You don't have to wait.
+I know Ras's stock as well as he does, pretty nigh.  I'LL show you
+a cap, Mr. Bangs."
+
+"Oh--oh, I couldn't think of troubling you, really I couldn't."
+
+"No trouble at all.  What's a little trouble amongst neighbors, eh?
+And that's what we are now--neighbors, eh?  Sure, Mike!  You and me
+are goin' to see a lot of each other from now on.  There!  There's
+a good, stylish cap, if I do say it.  Try it on?  What's your size,
+Perfessor?"
+
+Five minutes later Galusha descended the steps of the Beebe store,
+wearing a cloth cap which was, to say the very least, out of the
+ordinary.  Its material was a fuzzy frieze of nondescript colors, a
+shade of dingy yellow predominating, and its shape was weird and
+umbrellalike.  With it upon his head little Galusha resembled a
+walking toadstool--an unhealthy, late-in-the-season toadstool.
+
+The quartet in the Beebe store watched his departure from the
+windows.  All were hugely amused, but one, Mr. Pulcifer, was
+hilarious.
+
+"Haw, haw, haw!" roared Raish.  "Look at him!  Don't he look like a
+bullfrog under a lily pad?  Eh?  Don't he now?  Haw, haw, haw!"
+
+Erastus Beebe joined in the laugh, but he shook his head.
+
+"I've had that cap in stock," he said, "since--well, since George
+Cahoon's son used to come down drummin' for that Boston hat store,
+and he quit much as eight year ago, anyhow.  How did he ever come
+to pick THAT cap out, Raish?"
+
+Mr. Pulcifer regarded the questioner with scornful superiority.
+
+"Pick it out!" he repeated.  "He never picked it out, I picked it
+out for him.  You don't know the first principles of sellin', Ras.
+If you had me to help around here you wouldn't have so many
+stickers in your stock."
+
+Beebe, gazing after the retreating figure of Mr. Bangs, sniffed.
+
+"If I had your brass, Raish," he observed, calmly, "I'd sell it to
+the junk man and get rich.  Well, maybe I won't have so many
+stickers, as you call 'em, if that little critter comes here often.
+What's the matter with him; soft in the head?"
+
+"Isn't this his hat--the one he wore when he came in here?" queried
+Mrs. Jubal Doane, one of the two customers.
+
+Mr. Beebe picked it up.  "Guess so," he replied.  "Humph!  I've
+seen that hat often enough, too.  Used to belong to Cap'n Jim
+Phipps, that hat did.  Seen him wear it a hundred times."
+
+Mrs. Becky Blount, the other customer, elevated the tip of a long
+nose.  "Well," she observed, "if Martha Phipps is lendin' him her
+pa's hats SO early, I must say--"
+
+She did not say what it was she must say, but she had said quite
+enough.
+
+Martha herself said something when her boarder appeared beneath his
+new headgear.  When he removed it, upon entering the dining room,
+she took it from his hand.
+
+"Is THIS the cap you just bought, Mr. Bangs?" she asked.
+
+"Yes," said Galusha, meekly.  "Do you like it?"
+
+She regarded the fuzzy yellow thing with a curious expression.
+
+"Do you?" she asked.
+
+The reply was astonishingly prompt and emphatic.
+
+"I loathe it," said Galusha.
+
+She transferred the stare from the cap to its owner's face.
+
+"You do!" she cried.  "Then why in the world did you buy it?"
+
+Mr. Bangs squirmed slightly.  "He said I ought to," he answered.
+
+"Who said so?"
+
+"That man--that Mr. Pulcifer.  Mr.--ah--Deedee--Beebe, I mean--was
+busy, and Mr. Pulcifer insisted on showing me the caps.  I didn't
+like this one at all, but he talked so much that--that I couldn't
+stay and hear him any longer.  He makes me very nervous," he added,
+apologetically.  "I suppose it is my fault, but--ah--he does, you
+know."
+
+"And do you mean to say that you took this--this outrage because
+Raish Pulcifer talked you into it?"
+
+Galusha smiled sadly.  "Well, he--he talked me into it--yes," he
+admitted.  "Into the--ah--cap and out of the store.  Dear me, yes."
+
+Miss Martha drew a long breath.
+
+"My heavens and earth!" she exclaimed.  "And what did you do with
+father's hat, the one you wore down there?"
+
+Her lodger gasped.  "Oh, dear, dear!" he exclaimed.  "Oh, dear me!
+I must have left it in the shop.  I'm SO sorry.  How could I do
+such a careless thing?  I'll go for it at once, Miss Phipps."
+
+He would have gone forthwith, but she stopped him.
+
+"I'm goin' there myself in a little while," she said.  "I've got
+some other errands there.  And, if you don't mind," she added, "I'd
+like to take this new cap of yours with me.  That is, if you can
+bear to part with it."
+
+She went soon afterward and when she returned she had another cap,
+a sane, respectable cap, one which was not a "sticker."
+
+"I took it on myself to change the other one for this, Mr. Bangs,"
+she said.  "I like it lots better myself.  Of course it wasn't my
+affair at all and I suppose I ought to beg your pardon."
+
+He hastened to reassure her.
+
+"Please don't speak so, Miss Phipps," he begged.  "It was
+very, very kind of you.  And I like this cap VERY much.  I do,
+really. . . .  I ought to have a guardian, hadn't I?" he added.
+
+It was precisely what she was thinking at the moment and she
+blushed guiltily.
+
+"Why, what makes you say that?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, I'm not saying it, not as an original thought, you know; I'm
+merely repeating it.  Other people always say it, they've said it
+ever since I can remember.  Thank you very much for the cap, Miss
+Phipps."
+
+He was sunnily cheerful and very grateful.  There was not the
+slightest resentment because of her interference.  And yet if she
+had not interfered he would have worn the hideous yellow cap and
+been as cheerful under that.  Pulcifer had imposed upon him and he
+realized it, but he deliberately chose being imposed upon rather
+than listening to the Pulcifer conversation.  He was certainly a
+queer individual, this lodger of hers.  A learned man evidently, a
+man apparently at home and sure of himself in a world long dead,
+but as helpless as a child in the practical world of to-day.  She
+liked him, she could not help liking him, and it irritated her
+exceedingly to think that men like Raish Pulcifer and Erastus Beebe
+should take advantage of his childlike qualities to swindle him,
+even if the swindles were but petty.
+
+"They shan't do it," she told Lulie Hallett, the next morning.
+"Not if I can help it, they shan't.  Somebody ought to look out for
+the poor thing, half sick and with nobody of his own within
+goodness knows how many miles.  I'll look out for him as well as I
+can while he's here.  My conscience wouldn't let me do anything
+else.  I suppose if I pick out his other things the way I picked
+out that cap the whole of East Wellmouth will be talkin'; but I
+can't help it, let 'em."
+
+For the matter of that, the Beebes and the Blounts and Doanes were
+talking already.  And within a fortnight Miss Phipps' prophecy was
+fulfilled, the whole of East Wellmouth WAS talking of Galusha
+Bangs.  Some of the talk was malicious and scandalous gossip, of
+course, but most of it was fathered by an intense and growing
+curiosity concerning the little man.  Who was he?  What was his
+real reason for coming to East Wellmouth to live--in the WINTER
+time?  What made him spend so many hours in the old cemetery?  Was
+he crazy, as some people declared, or merely "kind of simple,"
+which was the opinion of others?  Mr. Pulcifer's humorous summing-
+up was freely quoted.
+
+"He may not be foolish now," observed Raish, "but he will be if he
+lives very long with that bunch down to the lighthouse.  Old Cap'n
+Jeth and Zach and Primmie Cash are enough to start anybody countin'
+their fingers.  My opinion is, if you want to know, that this Bangs
+feller is just a little mite cracked on the subject of Egyptians
+and Indians and gravestones--probably he's read a lot about 'em and
+it's sprained his mind, as you might say.  That would account for
+the big yarns he tells Prim about Africa and such.  As to why he's
+come here to live, I cal'late I've got the answer to that.  He's
+poorer'n poverty and it's cheap livin' down at Martha Phipps's.
+How do I know he's poor?  Cripes t'mighty, look at his clothes!
+Don't look much like yours or mine, do they?"
+
+They certainly did not look much like Mr. Pulcifer's.  Galusha's
+trunk had arrived at last, but the garments in it were as drab and
+old-fashioned and "floppy" as those he wore on his arrival.
+Horatio was invariably arrayed like a lily of the field--if by that
+term is meant a tiger lily.  Raish generally finished his appraisal
+by adding, patronizingly:
+
+"He's all right, though, old Galushy is.  Nothin' harmful about
+him.  See how easy I get along with him.  I shake hands with him
+and hit him a clip on the back, and, gosh t'mighty, he thinks I'm
+his best friend on earth.  He'd do anything for me, that old owl
+would."
+
+And, perhaps, because it was given forth with such authority from
+the Pulcifer Mount Sinai, the fact that Bangs was very poor and was
+living at Gould's Bluffs because of that poverty came to be
+accepted in East Wellmouth as a settled fact.  So quickly and
+firmly was it settled that, a month later, Erastus Beebe, leaning
+over his counter in conversation with a Boston traveling salesman,
+said, as Galusha passed the store:
+
+"Queer-lookin' customer, ain't he?  One of our town characters, as
+you might say.  Pretends he's been all over creation, but the truth
+is he lives down here by the lighthouse and is poorer than the last
+pullet in Job's coop.  Kind of an inventor, or book writer, or some
+such crazy thing.  Queer how that kind get that way, ain't it?"
+
+"Is that all he does for a living?" asked the salesman.
+
+"Don't do much of that, seems so, nowadays.  Spends most of his
+time copyin' off tombstone-writin' over in the old Baptist
+graveyard.  Seems to LIKE to be there, he does.  Thunder sakes! a
+graveyard is the last place I'd spend MY time in."
+
+The Bostonian made the obvious retort that it was probably the last
+place Mr. Beebe WOULD spend his time in.
+
+Galusha, of course, was not in the least aware of the East Wellmouth
+estimate of himself, his fortune and his activities.  He would not
+have been interested had he known.  He was enjoying himself hugely,
+was gaining daily in health, strength, and appetite, and was
+becoming thoroughly acquainted with Gould's Bluffs, its
+surroundings, and its people.
+
+He made many calls at the lighthouse nowadays.  These calls were
+not especially for the purpose of cultivating Captain Jethro's
+acquaintance, although the rugged, bigoted old light keeper
+afforded an interesting study in character.  The captain's moods
+varied.  Sometimes he talked freely and interestingly of his
+experiences at sea and as keeper of the light.  His stories of
+wrecks and life-saving were well told and Galusha enjoyed them.  He
+cared less for Jethro's dissertations on investments and deals and
+shrewd trades.  It was plain that the old man prided himself upon
+them, however.  On one occasion Mr. Bangs happened to mention
+Martha Phipps and hinted at his own fear that his lodging at the
+Phipps' home was in the nature of an imposition upon the lady's
+good nature.  The light keeper shook his shaggy head impatiently.
+
+"No, no, no," he growled, "'tain't any such thing.  Your boardin'
+there's a good thing for Martha.  She needs the money."
+
+Galusha was troubled.
+
+"I'm sorry to hear that," he said.  "She is not--ah--not pinched
+for means, I hope.  Not that that is my business, of course," he
+added, hastily.
+
+Captain Jeth's reply was gruff and rather testy.
+
+"She'll come out all right," he said, "if she's willin' to do as I
+do and wait.  I know I'll come out right.  Julia told me so,
+herself."
+
+Galusha had forgotten, momentarily.
+
+"Julia?" he repeated.
+
+"My WIFE."
+
+"Oh--oh, yes, yes, of course."
+
+In these conversations Bangs learned to steer the talk as far as
+possible from the subjects of life beyond the grave or of spirit
+communications.  The slightest touch here and the captain was off,
+his eyes shining beneath his heavy brows, and his face working with
+belligerent emotion.  A hint of doubt or contradiction and trouble
+followed immediately.
+
+"Don't argue with me," roared Cap'n Jethro.  "I KNOW."
+
+Lulie and Galusha had many chats together.  He had liked her at
+first sight and soon she came to like him.
+
+"He's as funny and odd as can he," she told Martha, "and you never
+can tell what he may say or do next.  But he's awfully nice, just
+the same."
+
+Little by little she confided to him her hopes and doubts and
+fears, the hopes of her own love story and the doubts and fears
+concerning her father.
+
+"He isn't well," she said, referring to the latter.  "He pretends
+he is, but he isn't.  And all this consulting with mediums and
+getting messages and so on is very bad for him, I know it is.  Do
+you believe in it at all, Mr. Bangs?"
+
+Galusha looked doubtful.
+
+"Well," he replied, "it would be presumptuous for one like me to
+say it is all nonsense.  Men like Conan Doyle and Lodge and Doctor
+Hyslop are not easy dupes and their opinions are entitled to great
+respect.  But it seems--ah--well, I am afraid that a majority of
+the so-called mediums are frauds."
+
+"ALL of father's mediums are that kind," declared Lulie,
+emphatically.  "I know it.  Most of them are frauds for money, but
+there are some, like that ridiculous Marietta Hoag, who pretend to
+go into trances and get messages just because they like to be the
+center of a sensation.  They like to have silly people say, 'Isn't
+it wonderful!'  Marietta Hoag's 'control,' as she calls it, is a
+Chinese girl.  She must speak spirit Chinese, because no Chinese
+person on earth ever talked such gibberish.  Control!  SHE ought to
+be controlled--by the keeper of an asylum."
+
+The indignation expressed upon Lulie's pretty face was so intense
+that Galusha suspected an especial reason.
+
+"Is--ah--is this Marietta person the medium who--who--" he began.
+
+"Who set father against Nelson?  Yes, she is.  I'd like to shake
+her, mischief-making thing.  Father liked Nelson well enough before
+that, but he came home from that seance as bitter against him as if
+the poor boy had committed murder.  Marietta told him that a small
+dark man was trying to take away his daughter, or some such
+silliness.  Nelson isn't very small nor VERY dark, but he was the
+only male in sight that came near answering the description.  As a
+matter of fact--"
+
+She hesitated, colored, and looked as if she had said more than she
+intended.  Galusha, who had not noticed her embarrassment, asked
+her to go on.
+
+"Well," she said, in some confusion, "I was going to say that if it
+hadn't been Nelson it would probably have been some one else.  You
+see, I am father's only child and so--and so--"
+
+"And so he doesn't like the idea of giving you up to some one
+else."
+
+"Yes, that's it.  But it wouldn't be giving me up.  It would be
+merely sharing me, that's all.  I never shall leave father and I've
+told him so ever so many times. . . .  Oh, dear!  If you could have
+known him in the old days, Mr. Bangs, before he--well, when he was
+himself, big and strong and hearty.  He used to laugh then; he
+hardly ever laughs now.  He and Cap'n Jim Phipps--Martha's father--
+were great friends.  You would have liked Cap'n Jim, Mr. Bangs."
+
+"Yes, I am sure I should."
+
+"So am I.  Martha is very much like him.  She's a dear, isn't she?"
+
+Galusha nodded.  "She has been very kind to me," he said.  "Indeed,
+yes."
+
+"Oh, she is to every one.  She is always just like that.  I am very
+glad you have decided to board with her this winter, Mr. Bangs.  I
+have an idea that she has been--well, troubled about something;
+just what, of course, I don't know, although I think--but there, I
+mustn't guess because it is not my business."
+
+Galusha expressed a wish that he might become better acquainted
+with Nelson Howard.
+
+"I am sure I should like him," he said.  "He seems like a very nice
+young man."
+
+Lulie nodded radiantly.
+
+"Oh, he is," she cried.  "Truly he is, Mr. Bangs.  Why, every one
+says--"  Then, becoming aware of her enthusiasm, she blushed and
+begged pardon.  "You see, I hear so much against him--from father,
+I mean--that I couldn't help acting silly when you praised him.  Do
+forgive me, won't you, Mr. Bangs?"
+
+He would have forgiven her much more than that.
+
+"I shall make it a point to go over to the South Wellmouth station
+and call upon him," he told her.  She thanked him.
+
+"I am hoping that you and Martha and Nelson and I may spend an
+evening together pretty soon," she said.  "You see, father--but
+there, that's another secret.  I'll tell you in a little while,
+next week, I hope."
+
+He learned the secret from Martha.  On a day in the following week
+Miss Phipps informed her lodger that he and she were to have supper
+at the light keeper's that evening.
+
+"It's a real sort of party," declared Martha.  "Small but select,
+as they used to say in books when I was a girl.  There will be four
+of us, you and I and Nelson Howard and Lulie."
+
+Galusha was surprised.
+
+"Nelson Howard!" he repeated.  "Why, dear me, I thought--I
+understood that Mr. Howard was persona non grata to Captain
+Hallett."
+
+Martha nodded.  "Well, if that means what I suppose it does, he
+is," she replied.  "If Cap'n Jeth knew Nelson was goin' to eat
+supper in his house he'd go without eatin' himself to stop it.
+But, you see, he doesn't know.  Jethro is goin' spiritualizin'
+to-night.  Marietta Hoag and Ophelia Beebe and their crowd of
+rattleheads have dug up a brand new medium who is visitin' over in
+Trumet and they've made up a party to go there and hold a seance.
+When they told Cap'n Jeth, of course nothin' would do but he must
+go, too.  So, WHILE he is gone Nelson is comin' over to supper.
+It's deceivin' the old man, in one way, of course, but it isn't
+doin' him a bit of harm.  And it does give the young folks a
+pleasant time, and I think they deserve it.  Lulie has been as kind
+and forbearin' with her father as a daughter could be, and Nelson
+has been more patient than the average young fellow, by a good
+deal."
+
+Late that afternoon two automobiles laden with humanity, male and
+female, drove past the Phipps' gate, and Primmie, from the window,
+announced that it was "Marietta and 'Phelia and the rest of 'em.
+My savin' soul, ain't they talkin' though!  Cal'late the sperits
+'ll have busy times this evenin', don't you, Miss Martha?"  A few
+minutes later she proclaimed that Cap'n Jeth had just climbed
+aboard and that the autos were coming back.
+
+"See!  See, Mr. Bangs!" she cried, pointing.  "There's Cap'n Jeth,
+settin' between Marietta and 'Phelia Beebe.  There's the three of
+'em on the back seat.  Cap'n Jeth's the one with the whiskers."
+
+At six o'clock Martha and her lodger walked over to the Hallett
+house.  Miss Phipps was dressed in her best gown and looked the
+personification of trim, comfortable New England femininity.
+Galusha was garbed in the suit he wore the evening of his arrival,
+but it had been newly sponged and pressed.
+
+"It looks lots better," observed Martha, inspecting him as they
+walked along.  "It wouldn't have, though, if Primmie had finished
+the job.  I was so busy that I let her start on it, but when I saw
+what a mess she was makin' I had to drop everything else and do it
+myself."
+
+Galusha looked puzzled.
+
+"Yes?" he said, politely.  "Oh, yes, yes.  Yes, indeed."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"I do believe you don't know what I'm talkin' about," she said.
+"Now, do you?"
+
+"Why--ah--why, Miss Phipps, I confess I--I--"
+
+"Well, I declare!  I never saw a person like you in my life.
+Didn't you notice ANY difference in that suit of clothes?"
+
+Mr. Bangs, looking downward, suddenly became aware of his
+immaculate appearance.  He was very much upset.
+
+"I--I don't know what you must think of me," he stammered.  "I have
+been--that is, I was thinking of other things and I--  Dear me!
+Oh, dear!  I am VERY grateful to you.  But you shouldn't take so
+much trouble."
+
+"It wasn't any trouble.  The suit was hangin' in your closet and I
+noticed how wrinkled and out of shape it was.  And the stains on
+the trousers--my!"
+
+"Yes--ah--yes.  I wore it over at the cemetery the other day and
+I--ah--imagine I must have gotten down on my knees to examine the
+tombstones."
+
+"I guess likely.  It looked as if you might have crawled from here
+to the cemetery and back.  Now don't say any more, Mr. Bangs.  It
+was no trouble at all.  I always used to take care of father's
+clothes.  He used to say I kept him all taut and shipshape."
+
+Lulie met them at the door.
+
+"Where is Primmie?" she asked.
+
+"She'll be over pretty soon," replied Martha.  "I knew you wouldn't
+need her yet to help with the supper and the longer she stays away
+the more talk there will be for the rest of us.  She is to eat in
+the kitchen, Lulie, remember that.  I WON'T have her chatterin' all
+through our meal."
+
+"She and Zacheus are to eat together," replied Lulie.  "It is all
+settled.  Now if Nelson will only come.  He is going to get away
+just as soon as the down train leaves."
+
+He arrived soon afterward, having bicycled over from South
+Wellmouth.  Primmie arrived also and bursts of her energetic
+conversation, punctuated by grumblings in Mr. Bloomer's bass,
+drifted in from the kitchen.  Supper was a happy meal.  Young
+Howard, questioned by Martha and Lulie--the latter evidently
+anxious to "show off" her lover--told of his experiences aboard one
+of Uncle Sam's transports and the narrow escape from a German
+submarine.  Galusha, decoyed by Miss Phipps, was led into Egypt and
+discoursed concerning that marvelous country.  Lulie laughed and
+chatted and was engagingly charming and vivacious.  Martha was her
+own cheerful self and the worried look disappeared, for the time,
+from her face.
+
+After supper was over, the ladies helped Primmie clear the table
+while the men sat in the sitting room and smoked.  The sitting room
+of the light keeper's home was even more nautical than that at the
+Phipps' place.  There was no less than six framed paintings of
+ships and schooners on the walls, and mantel and what-not bore
+salt-water curios of many kinds handed down by generations of
+seafaring Halletts--whales' teeth, little ships in bottles, idols
+from the South Sea islands, bead and bone necklaces, Eskimo lance-
+heads and goodness knows what.  And below the windows, at the foot
+of the bluff on the ocean side, the great waves pounded and
+muttered and growled, while high above the chimneys of the little
+house Gould's Bluffs light thrust its flashing spear of flame deep
+into the breast of the black night.
+
+It was almost half past eight when Martha Phipps, whose seat was
+near the front window of the sitting room, held up a warning hand.
+
+"Listen!" she cried.  "Isn't that an automobile comin'?"
+
+It undoubtedly was.  Apparently more than one motor car was
+approaching along the sandy road leading from the village to the
+lighthouse.
+
+"Who in the world is it?" asked Martha, drawing aside the window
+shade and trying to peer out.  "Lulie, you don't think it can be--"
+
+Lulie looked troubled, but she shook her head.
+
+"No, it can't be," she declared.  "The seance was to be away over
+in Trumet and it is sure to last hours.  They couldn't have gone as
+far as that and--"
+
+She was interrupted.  From the dining room came the sound of
+rushing feet.  Primmie burst into the room.  She was wildly
+excited.
+
+"My Lord of Isrul, Miss Martha!" she cried.  "It's them come back.
+It is, it is, it is!"
+
+"Who?  Who, Primmie?" demanded Miss Phipps.  "Stop flappin' your
+wings--arms, I mean.  Who's come back?"
+
+"The sperit folks.  All hands of 'em, Marietta and 'Phelia Beebe
+and Abe Hardin' and Cap'n Jeth and all.  And--and they're comin' in
+here--and here's Nelson right where Cap'n Jeth can catch him.  Oh,
+my savin' soul!"
+
+From behind her agitated shoulder peered the countenance of Mr.
+Bloomer.
+
+"She's right, Lulie," observed Zach, with calm emphasis.  "The
+whole crew of ghost seiners is back here in port again, Cap'n Jeth
+and all.  Better beat for open water, hadn't you, Nelse, eh?  Be
+the divil to pay if you don't. . . .  Godfreys, yes!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+The announcement exploded like a bomb in the midst of the little
+group in the light keeper's sitting room.  Lulie turned a trifle
+pale and looked worried and alarmed.  Martha uttered an exclamation,
+dropped the window shade and turned toward her young friend.  Mr.
+Bangs looked from one to the other and was plainly very anxious to
+help in some way but not certain how to begin.  Of the four Nelson
+Howard, the one most concerned, appeared least disturbed.  It was he
+who spoke first and his tone was brisk and businesslike.
+
+"Well, Lulie," he said, "what do you want me to do?  Shall I stay
+and face it out?  I don't mind.  There's nothing for us to be
+ashamed of, you know."
+
+But Lulie shook her head.  "Oh, no, no, Nelson," she cried, "you
+mustn't.  You had better go, right away.  There will be a scene,
+and with all those people here--"
+
+Miss Phipps put in a word.  "But perhaps Nelson's right, after all,
+Lulie," she said.  "There is no reason in the world why he
+shouldn't come to see you, and maybe he and Cap'n Jeth might as
+well have a plain understandin' now as any time."
+
+Miss Hallett's agitation increased.  "Oh, no," she cried, again.
+"Don't you see it mustn't happen, on father's account?  You know
+how he--you know how excited and--and almost violent he gets when
+any one crosses him nowadays.  I'm afraid something might happen to
+him.  I'm afraid.  Please go, Nelson, for my sake."
+
+The young man nodded.  "Of course, Lulie," he declared.  "You're
+perfectly right.  I'm off.  Good-night."
+
+He was hastening toward the dining room door, but Primmie, dancing
+up and down like a jumping jack, barred his way.
+
+"No, no, no," she squealed, "you can't--you can't.  They're almost
+to the door now.  He'll catch you sure.  He WILL.  Oh, my Lord of
+Isrul!"
+
+Sure enough, the latch of the door leading from the side porch to
+the dining room was rattling at that moment.  Fortunately the door
+itself was hooked on the inside.  Nelson hesitated.
+
+"Humph!" he grunted.  "Could I get through to the kitchen and out
+that way, do you think, Zach?"
+
+"Godfreys, no!  Not with them winder curtains strung up higher'n
+Haman the way they be.  No, no!  Godfreys!"
+
+Martha stepped across the sitting room and flung open another door
+on the opposite side.  As she did so there sounded a prodigious
+thumping from the side porch and the bull-like voice of Captain
+Hallett bellowed his daughter's name.
+
+"Go let 'em in, Lulie," whispered Martha.  "I'll look out for
+things here.  Quick, Nelson, out this way, through the front hall
+and out the front door.  QUICK!"
+
+Captain Jeth was accompanying his shouts by thumping upon the side
+of the house.  Lulie, after one desperate glance at her lover,
+hurried to the dining room.  Young Howard hesitated a moment.
+
+"My hat and coat?" he whispered.  "Where are they?"
+
+They were hanging in the entry upon the door of which the captain
+was thumping.  Zach hastened to get them, but before he reached the
+dining room they heard the outer door open and Jeth's voice
+demanding to know why Lulie had kept him waiting so long.  Nelson,
+with a somewhat rueful smile and a wave of the hand to Martha and
+Galusha, dodged into the blackness of the front hall.  Miss Phipps
+closed the door after him.  The conspirators looked at each other.
+Primmie's mouth opened but the expansive hand of Mr. Bloomer
+promptly covered it and the larger part of her face as well.
+
+"This ain't no time to holler about your savin' soul," whispered
+Zacheus, hoarsely.  "This is the time to shut up.  And KEEP shut
+up.  You be still, Dandelion!"
+
+Primmie obeyed orders and was still.  But even if she had shrieked
+it is doubtful if any one in the dining room could have heard her.
+The "ghost seiners," quoting from Mr. Bloomer, were pouring through
+the entry and, as all were talking at once, the clatter of tongues
+would have drowned out any shriek of ordinary volume.  A moment
+later the Halletts, father and daughter, led the way into the
+sitting room.  Lulie's first procedure was to glance quickly about
+the apartment.  A look of relief crossed her face and she and
+Martha Phipps exchanged glances.
+
+"Father has--he has come back," was her somewhat superfluous
+explanation.  Captain Jethro noted the superfluity.
+
+"Cal'late they can see that for themselves, Lulie," he observed.
+"How are you, Martha?  Evenin', Mr. Bangs.  Everything all right
+about the light, Zach?"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," was Mr. Bloomer's nautical reply.  The captain
+grunted.
+
+"Better go look at it," he said.  Turning, he called over his
+shoulder, "Come in, all hands."
+
+"All hands," that is, the company in the dining room--came in.
+There were fourteen of them, all told, and, as Martha Phipps told
+Galusha Bangs afterward, "If you had run a net from one end of
+Ostable County to the other you wouldn't have landed more freaks
+than there were in that house at that minute."  The majority were
+women and the few men in the party looked as if each realized
+himself a minority at home and abroad.
+
+"Set down, everybody," commanded Captain Jethro.  "Lulie, you
+better help me fetch in them dining-room chairs.  We'll need 'em."
+
+"But, father," begged Lulie, "what are you going to do?"
+
+"Do?  We're goin' to have a meetin', that's what we're goin' to do.
+Set down, all of you that can.  We'll have chairs for the rest in a
+minute."
+
+"But, father--" began Lulie, again.  The captain interrupted her.
+"Be still," he ordered, irritably.  "Marietta, you set over here by
+the melodeon.  That'll be about right for you, will it?"
+
+Miss Marietta Hoag was a short, dumpy female with a face which had
+been described by Zach Bloomer as resembling a "pan of dough with a
+couple of cranberries dropped into it."  She wore a blue hat with a
+red bow and a profusion of small objects--red cherries and purple
+grapes--bobbing on wires above it.  The general effect, quoting Mr.
+Bloomer again, was "as if somebody had set off a firecracker in a
+fruit-peddler's cart."  The remainder of her apparel was more
+subdued.
+
+She removed the explosive headgear and came forward in response to
+the light keeper's command.  She looked at the chair by the ancient
+parlor organ and announced:  "Yes, indeed, it'll do real well,
+thank you, Cap'n Jethro."  Her voice was a sharp soprano with
+liquid gurgles in it--"like pourin' pain-killer out of a bottle,"
+this last still another quotation from the book of Zacheus.
+
+"All right," said Captain Jeth, "then we'll begin.  We've wasted
+enough time cruisin' way over to Trumet and back for nothin'.  No
+need to waste any more.  Set down, all hands, and come to order.
+Lulie, you and Martha and the rest of you set down, too."
+
+"But, father," urged his daughter again, "I don't understand.  What
+are you going to do?"
+
+"Goin' to have a meetin', I tell you."
+
+"But what sort of a meeting?"
+
+"A seance.  We cruised clear over to Trumet to hear that Brockton
+medium that was stayin' at Obed Taylor's there and when we got to
+Obed's we found she'd been called back home unexpected and had left
+on this afternoon's train.  So we came back here and Marietta's
+goin' to try to get in communication herself.  That's all there is
+to it. . . .  Now don't waste any more time askin' fool questions.
+Set down.  Martha Phipps, what are you and Mr. Bangs standin' up
+for?"
+
+Martha's answer was quietly given.
+
+"Why, good gracious, Jethro!" she observed, "why shouldn't we stand
+up?  Mr. Bangs and I came over to spend the evenin' with Lulie.  We
+didn't know you and Marietta and Ophelia and the rest were goin' to
+hold any--er--what do you call 'em?--seances.  We'll run right
+along and leave you to enjoy yourselves.  Come, Mr. Bangs."
+
+For some reason or other this reply appeared to irritate the light
+keeper exceedingly.  He glared at her.
+
+"Set down, both of you," he ordered.  "I want you to.  'Twill do
+you good.  No, you ain't goin', neither.  Lulie, you tell 'em to
+stay here."
+
+His manner was so determined and the light in his eye so ominous
+that his daughter was alarmed.
+
+"Oh, do stay, Martha," she pleaded.  "Won't you please stay, you
+and Mr. Bangs?  I think it will be for the best, truly I do.
+Please stay."
+
+Martha looked at her lodger.  Galusha smiled.
+
+"I shall be very glad to remain," he observed.  "Indeed yes,
+really."
+
+Miss Phipps nodded.  "All right, Lulie," she said, quietly.  "We'll
+stay."
+
+They took chairs in the back row of the double circle.  Primmie,
+eyes and mouth open and agog with excitement, had already seated
+herself.  Captain Jethro looked about the room.
+
+"Are we all ready," he growled.  "Eh?  Who's that comin'?  Oh, it's
+you.  Well, set down and keep quiet."
+
+It was Mr. Bloomer who had re-entered the room and was received so
+unceremoniously.  He glanced at Galusha Bangs, winked the eye which
+the captain could not see, and sat down next to Primmie.
+
+"Now then," said Captain Jeth, who was evidently master of
+ceremonies, "if you're all ready, Marietta, I cal'late we are.
+Cast off!  Heave ahead!"
+
+But Miss Hoag seemed troubled; evidently she was not ready to cast
+off and heave ahead.
+
+"Why--why, Cap'n Jeth," she faltered, "I CAN'T.  Don't you KNOW I
+can't?  Everybody's got to take hands--and the lights must be
+turned way down--and--and we've GOT to have some music."
+
+The captain pulled his beard.  "Humph!" he grunted.  "That's so, I
+forgot.  Don't know what's the matter with me to-night, seem to be
+kind of--of upset or somethin'.  Zach, turn them lamps down; more'n
+that, way down low. . . .  That'll do.  Now all hands hold hands.
+Make a--a kind of ring out of yourselves.  That's it.  Now what
+else was it, Marietta?"
+
+"Music," faltered Miss Hoag, who seemed rather overawed by the
+captain's intensity and savage earnestness.  "We always have music,
+you know, to establish the--the contact.  Have somebody play the
+organ.  'Phelia, you play it; you know how."
+
+Miss Ophelia Beebe, sister of the village storekeeper, was a tall,
+angular woman garbed in black.  Her facial expression was as
+mournful as her raiment.  She rose with a rustle and moved toward
+the ancient melodeon.  Lulie spoke hurriedly.
+
+"No, no, Ophelia," she protested, "it isn't any use.  That old
+thing has been out of order for--why, for years.  No one could
+possibly play on it.  No one has for ever and ever so long.  Father
+knows it perfectly well."
+
+Again Captain Jethro tugged at his beard.
+
+"Humph!" he grunted.  "'Tis out of order; I remember now. . . .
+Humph!  I--I forgot that.  Well, we'll have to have some sort of
+music.  Can anybody that's here play on anything?"
+
+There was silence for a moment.  Then a thin masculine voice from
+the dimness made proclamation.
+
+"I can play on the fiddle," it said; and then added, as if in
+afterthought, "some."
+
+There was a rustle in the corner from which the voice had come.
+Mutterings and whisperings arose.  "Don't talk so foolish!"  "Well,
+Sary, he asked if anybody could play on anything and I--"  "Be
+still, I tell you!  I declare if there's any chance for a person to
+make a jumpin' numbskull out of himself in front of folks I'll
+trust you to be right on deck."  "Now, Sary, what are you goin' on
+like this for?  I only just--"
+
+The dispute was growing louder and more violent.  Captain Jethro
+roared a command for silence.
+
+"What's all this?" he demanded.  "Silence there for'ard!"  He
+waited an instant and then asked, "Who was it said they could play
+the fiddle?  Was it you, Abel Hardin'?"
+
+Mr. Abel Harding, clam digger and fish purveyor, resident in South
+Wellmouth, acknowledged his identity.
+
+"Yus, Cap'n Jeth," he declared.  "I said I could play the fiddle,
+and I can, too.  Sary B., she says--"
+
+"Sarah B."--otherwise Mrs. Abel Harding--interrupted.  "He can't
+play nothin' but two jig tunes and he plays them like the very Old
+Scratch," she snapped, with emphasis.
+
+"Well, I never said I was anything great at it, did I?  I said I
+can play some, and I can.  If you'd just keep your tongue to home
+and leave me be I--"
+
+"SILENCE!" shouted the light keeper again.  The domestic squabble
+broke off in the middle and some irreverent giggles from other
+sections of the circle subsided.  Captain Jethro's indignant gaze
+swept the group.  Primmie said afterward, "You couldn't see him
+glare at you, but you could FEEL him doin' it."  When the stillness
+was absolute the captain asked, "Where is your fiddle, Abel?"
+
+"Eh?"  Mr. Harding paused and cleared his throat.  "Why," he
+stammered, "it's--it's to home.  Er--er--that's where I keep it,
+you know."
+
+"Humph!"  Captain Jethro's scorn was withering.  "And home is
+eleven mile away or such matter.  How much good is your bein' able
+to play on it goin' to do us when 'tain't here for you to play on?"
+
+There were discreet snickers from the dimness.  Mrs. Hardin's voice
+was audible, saying, "There, I told you so, foolhead."  The captain
+once more ordered and obtained silence.
+
+"We've had enough of this," he growled.  "This ain't a play-actin'
+show to laugh at.  If we can't behave accordin' as we should we'll
+give it up.  Marietta says she can't get into contact with the
+sperit world without music.  Would it do if we was to sing
+somethin', Marietta?"
+
+Miss Hoag faltered that she didn't know's she hardly believed
+'twould.  "I always HAVE had some sort of instrumental music, Cap'n
+Jethro.  Don't seem to me's if I could hardly get along without
+it."
+
+The captain grunted again.  "Can't anybody play ANYTHING?" he
+demanded.  "Anything that's within hailin' distance, I mean."
+
+Another silent interval.  And then a voice said, timidly, "I can
+play the mouth organ."
+
+It was Primmie's voice and as she was sitting next Zach Bloomer,
+who was next Galusha Bangs, the unexpectedness of it made the
+latter jump.  Miss Phipps, next in line on Galusha's left, jumped
+likewise.
+
+"Primmie," she said, sharply, "don't be silly."
+
+"But I CAN, Miss Martha.  You know I can.  Zach knows it, too.
+You've heard me, ain't you, Zach?  Ain't you?  Ain't you?"
+
+Thus urged, Mr. Bloomer answered, "I've heard you," he said.  And
+added, fervently and under his breath, "Godfreys!"
+
+"Primmie," began Martha, again, but Captain Jethro broke in.
+
+"Quiet, Martha Phipps," he ordered.  "Stop your talkin', all hands.
+Marietta, do you cal'late you could get under way with mouth organ
+music?"
+
+"Why--why, I don't know.  Maybe I could if--if it played church
+tunes."
+
+"Can you play hymn tunes, Primmie?"
+
+"Yes, sir.  I can play 'Sweet By and By' and 'Brighten the Corner
+Where You Be' and 'Pack up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag.'  No,
+that ain't one, is it?  But I can play--"
+
+"Where's your mouth organ now?"
+
+"It's in my jacket pocket out yonder in the kitchen."
+
+"Go fetch it."
+
+Sounds as of one individual falling over others, accompanied by
+exclamations and confusion, indicated that Miss Cash was going in
+search of the instrument.  Lulie made one more attempt at
+persuasion.
+
+"Father," she pleaded, "what makes you try to hold a seance to-
+night?  You've been 'way over to Trumet and back and you must be
+tired.  You aren't very well, you know, and all this excitement
+isn't good for you.  Won't you please--"
+
+Her father stamped his foot.  "Set down," he shouted.  "I know what
+I'm doin'.  This is my house and I'll do as I please in it.  Stop!
+I don't want to hear any more.  Where's that Cash girl?"
+
+Primmie was returning bearing the mouth organ.  She plowed through
+the circle like an armored tank through a wire entanglement and
+reached the light keeper's side.
+
+"Here I be," she announced, "and here 'tis.  Shall I commence to
+begin now?  Where do you want me to set?"
+
+She was given a seat in the front row, facing the medium.  Captain
+Hallett, after some final instructions to Zacheus concerning the
+turning lower of one of the lamps and a last order for stillness,
+gave the command.
+
+"All ready!  Heave ahead!"
+
+Miss Hoag leaned back in her rocking-chair and closed her eyes.
+Primmie drew a long breath and the first bars of the "Sweet By and
+By" were forcibly evicted from the harmonica.  Zach Bloomer, the
+irrepressible, leaned over and breathed into his neighbor's ear.
+
+"Say, Mr. Bangs," he whispered, "if you was a sperit would you
+leave a comf'table berth up aloft to come and anchor alongside THAT
+noise?"
+
+The "noise" became more enthusiastic as the musician warmed to her
+work.  Miss Hoag stirred uneasily in her chair.  Captain Jethro
+bent toward her.
+
+"Tell her not to play so LOUD," whispered Marietta.  The captain
+obeyed.
+
+"Come, come, Primmie," he said, irritably.  "Go easy on it, soften
+her down.  Play low.  And stop stompin' out the time with your
+foot."
+
+Thus cautioned Miss Cash played low, very low, and also very
+slowly.  "The Sweet By and By" droned on, over and over, in the
+dark stuffiness of the crowded room.  Galusha Bangs, who had been
+at first much amused, began to be bored.  Incidentally he was
+extremely sorry for Lulie, poor girl, who was compelled to be
+present at this ridiculous exhibition of her father's obsession.
+Heavy breathing sounded near at hand, growing steadily heavier
+until it became a snore.  The snore broke off in the middle and
+with a sharp and most unchurchly ejaculation, as if the snorer had
+been awakened suddenly and painfully.  Galusha fancied he
+recognized Mr. Harding's voice.  Primmie ended her thirty-second
+rendition of the "Sweet By and By" chorus and began the thirty-
+third.
+
+Then Miss Hoag began to groan.  The first groan was so loud and
+unexpected that Miss Cash gasped "My savin' soul!" into the mouth
+organ.  Marietta continued to groan, also to pound the floor with
+her heels.  In her capacity as "medium" she, like other mediums--
+mediums of her stripe, that is--was "getting under control."
+
+Then followed the usual sort of thing which follows at this sort of
+seance.  Miss Hoag, through her "control," began to receive and
+transmit "messages."  The control spoke in a kind of husky howl, so
+to speak, and used a lingo most unusual on this plane, however
+common it may be elsewhere.
+
+Mr. Bangs was startled when first favored with a sample of this--
+literally--unearthly elocution.
+
+"Oh, dear me!" he exclaimed.  "Oh, dear!  WHY does she do that?
+Is--is she ill?"
+
+Miss Beebe answered, from her place in the circle.  "It's her
+sperit control talkin' now," she whispered.  "She's controlled by a
+China woman."
+
+"Name of Little Cherry Blossom," whispered Mr. Harding.
+
+"Sshh!" said several voices, indignantly.
+
+"Allee samee comee manee namee Johnee," announced Little Cherry
+Blossom.  "Anybody heree knowee manee Johnee?"
+
+Several did, of course, and John was soon undergoing cross-
+examination.  He proved to be the cousin of Mrs. Hannah Peters'
+first husband who was drowned on the Grand Banks fifteen or sixteen
+years before.  "John-ee" was, like so many of his kind, a bit shaky
+on names and dates but strong on generalities.  However, everybody
+except the few skeptics from the Phipps' place seemed satisfied and
+made no embarrassing comments.
+
+Everybody but Mr. Bloomer, that is; Zacheus, the philosopher who
+had studied his profession aboard a lightship, commented on
+everything.  Sitting next Mr. Bangs, he put his lips close to the
+ear of the last-named gentleman and breathed caustic sarcasm into
+it.  Galusha found it distracting and, at times, annoying, for Mr.
+Bloomer's mustache was bristly.
+
+"Little Cherry Blossom talks's if she had a cold," whispered Zach.
+"Better take a little cherry rum, hadn't she, eh?"
+
+The control was loudly paging a person named Noah.
+
+"Sperit heree wantee talkee with Noah," she cried.  "Wheree isee
+Noah?"
+
+"'Board the Ark, most likely," whispered Mr. Bloomer.  "Be
+hollerin' for Jonah next, won't she?  Cal'late so.  Yus, yus."
+
+Message after message came and was recognized and acknowledged by
+the devout.  The group from the Phipps' house had so far been
+slighted, so, too, had Captain Jethro Hallett.  There was a slight
+hubbub in the circle, owing to the fact that two of its members
+simultaneously recognized and laid claim to the same spirit, each
+declaring him to be or have been an entirely different person when
+living.  During this little controversy Zacheus whispered in his
+neighbor's ear.
+
+"Say, Mr. Bangs," he whispered, "this is gettin' kind of tiresome,
+ain't it?  Must be worse for Nelse, though, eh?"
+
+Galusha did not catch his meaning.  "For--for whom?" he asked.  "I
+beg your pardon."
+
+"Oh, you're welcome.  Why, I mean Nelse Howard must be gettin' more
+tired than we be, shut up in that front hall the way he is."
+
+"Shut up--  Why, really, I--  Mr. Howard left the house long ago,
+didn't he?  By the front door, you know."
+
+Zach chuckled.  "That front door is locked and the key's been lost
+for more'n a fortn't.  Cal'late Lulie forgot that when she told him
+to skip out that way.  He can't GET out.  He's in that front entry
+now and he'll have to stay there till all hands have gone and the
+cap'n gone to bed.  That's a note, ain't it! . . .  Sshh!  They're
+goin' to begin again."
+
+The identity of the spiritual visitor having been tentatively
+established, the "communications" continued.  Galusha paid little
+heed to them.  The thought of young Howard a prisoner in the front
+hall was uncomfortable of itself, but still more uncomfortable was
+the mental picture of what might happen should his presence there
+be discovered by Captain Hallett.  The old light keeper was bigoted
+and absurdly prejudiced against his daughter's lover at all times.
+An encounter between them would always be most unpleasant.  But
+this evening, when the captain was in his most fanatical mood, for
+him to find Nelson Howard hiding in his own house--well, the
+prospect was almost alarming.
+
+Galusha, much troubled in mind, wondered if Lulie had remembered
+the locked door and the lost key.  Did she realize her fiance's
+plight?  If so, she must be undergoing tortures at that moment.
+Nelson, of course, could take care of himself and was in no danger
+of physical injury; the danger was in the effect of the discovery
+upon Captain Jethro.  He was not well, he was in a highly nervous
+and excited state.  Galusha began to fidget in his chair.  More
+than ever he wished the seance would end.
+
+However, it did not end.  The messages continued to come.
+Apparently the line of spirits waiting to communicate was as long
+as that at the ticket office of a ball park on a pleasant Saturday.
+And suddenly Mr. Bangs was startled out of his fidgets by the husky
+voice of Little Cherry Blossom calling the name which was in his
+mind at the moment.
+
+"Jethro," wheezed Little Cherry Blossom.  "Jethro.  Some one heree
+wantee talkee Jethro."
+
+Martha Phipps, sitting next to Galusha, stirred and uttered an
+impatient exclamation under her breath.  From beyond, where Lulie
+sat, Galusha caught a quick gasp and a frightened "Oh, dear!"
+Zacheus whispered, "Godfreys!"  Primmie bounced up and down with
+excitement.  The circle rustled and then grew very still.
+
+"Well," growled Captain Jethro, a quaver in his deep voice, "I'm
+here.  It is--is it you, Julia?"
+
+Little Cherry Blossom said that it was.  Mr. Bangs heard another
+sniff of disgust from Miss Phipps.  He was himself thoroughly
+disgusted and angry.  This mockery of a great sorrow and a great
+love seemed so wicked and cruel.  Marietta Hoag and her ridiculous
+control ceased to be ridiculous and funny.  He longed to shake the
+fat little creature, shake her until her silly craze for the
+limelight and desire to be the center of a sensation were
+thoroughly shaken out of her.  Marietta was not wicked, she was
+just silly and vain and foolish, that was all; but at least half of
+humanity's troubles are caused by the fools.
+
+"Julia," said Captain Jethro, his big voice trembling as he said
+it, "I--I'm here, Julia.  What is it?"
+
+"Julia she say she gladee you heree," gurgled Little Cherry
+Blossom.  Martha Phipps drew a breath between her teeth as if in
+pain.  Her hand squeezed Lulie's tight.  She was suffering with the
+girl.  As for Galusha, sensitive soul that he was, he blushed all
+over in sympathetic embarrassment.
+
+"I'm glad to be here, Julia," said the captain.  "You know it, too,
+I guess likely.  Is all well with you, Julia?"
+
+Cherry Blossom in horrible pidgin English affirmed that all was
+well, all was happiness and delight and bliss in the realm beyond.
+Galusha did not hear much of this, he was suffering too acutely to
+listen.  Then he heard Captain Jethro ask another question.
+
+"Is there any special message you've got for me, Julia?"
+
+Yes, there was.  "Daughter, daughter."  There was some message
+about a daughter.
+
+"Lulie?  Is there somethin' you want to tell me about Lulie,
+Julia?"
+
+"Father!"  It was Lulie herself who uttered the exclamation.
+"Father," she cried.  "Don't!  Oh, don't!  Please don't!"
+
+Her father's reply was a furious roar.
+
+"Stop!" he thundered.  "Be still!  Don't you say another word!"
+
+"But, father, PLEASE--"
+
+"Stop! . . .  Julia, Julia . . . are you there?  What is it about
+Lulie?  Tell me."
+
+Little Cherry Blossom herself seemed a bit nervous, for her next
+message was given with a trifle less assurance.  It was an
+incoherent repetition and re-repetition of the word "daughter" and
+something about "looking out" and "danger."
+
+Captain Jethro caught at the word.
+
+"Danger?" he queried.  "Danger for Lulie?  Is that what you mean,
+Julia?  I'm to look out on account of danger comin' for Lulie?  Is
+that it, Julia?"
+
+Lulie made one more desperate plea.
+
+"Father," she begged, "please don't!  Of course there isn't any
+danger for me.  This is SO ridiculous."
+
+"Be still, I tell you. . . .  Is that it, Julia?  Is it?"  Little
+Cherry Blossom with some hesitation indicated that that was it.  A
+rustle of excitement stirred the circle.
+
+"What kind of danger?" demanded the light keeper, eagerly.  "Can't
+you tell me that, Julia?"
+
+Apparently she could not, for there was no reply.  The captain
+tried to help by suggestion.
+
+"Danger from--from her bein'--er--hurt?" he suggested.  "Being run
+over--or--or--drowned or somethin'?"
+
+No, that was not it.
+
+"Danger from somebody--some person?"
+
+"Yes."  Another rustle of excitement in the circle.  The light
+keeper caught his breath.
+
+"Julia," he demanded, "do you mean that--that our girl's in danger
+from some--some MAN?"
+
+"FATHER!  I won't stand this.  It's perfectly--"
+
+"Lulie Hallett, you set down!  Set DOWN!"
+
+Martha Phipps laid a hand upon the girl's arm.  "Don't excite him,"
+she whispered.  "I'd sit down if I were you, Lulie."
+
+Lulie, trembling with indignation, subsided under protest.  Little
+Cherry Blossom burst out with a gush of gibberish concerning some
+man, "bad, wicked manee," who was trying to influence "daughter" in
+some way or other, just how was not particularly intelligible.
+Captain Jethro offered another suggestion.
+
+"Julia," he demanded, "is it the outsider, the small, dark man you
+said afore?  Is it him?"
+
+Yes, it was.  The rustle in the circle was now so pronounced as to
+amount almost to a disturbance.  Mr. Abel Harding whispered
+audibly, "It's Nelson Howard she means, don't she?"  His wife even
+more audibly ordered him to "shut up, for the land sakes."  Primmie
+dropped the mouth organ on the floor with a metallic clatter.
+Startled, she made her customary appeal to the ruler of Israel.
+
+"It's him, eh?" growled the light keeper.  "I thought so.  I've got
+my eye on him, Julia, and he knows it.  What's he up to now?  Where
+is he?"
+
+"Near her."
+
+"Near her?  Here? . . .  In this HOUSE, do you mean?"
+
+A moment's hesitation, and then, "Ye-es, I--I shouldn't wonder."
+
+This bit of information, even though unusually qualified
+considering its spirit source, caused a genuine sensation.  Almost
+every one said something.  Zach Bloomer whistled shrilly in Mr.
+Bangs' ear and said, "Godfreys!"  Galusha said, "Oh, dear me!" with
+distressful emphasis.  Martha Phipps and Lulie clutched each other
+and the latter uttered a faint scream.  Primmie Cash, who had
+stooped to pick up the dropped harmonica, fell on her knees beside
+it.  Captain Jethro stamped and roared for silence.
+
+"Be still!" he shouted.  "Stop!  STOP!  By the everlastin', I'll--
+I'll--  Julia!  Julia!"
+
+But Julia did not answer this time.  Neither did Little Cherry
+Blossom.  Whether Miss Hoag was frightened at the effect of her
+message or whether she figured that she had caused sensation
+sufficient for one day are matters for conjecture.  At all events
+she stirred in her chair and announced faintly, and in her natural,
+everyday tones and accent, that she wished a drink of water.
+
+"Where--where be I?" she gasped.  "I--  Oh, fetch me a drink,
+somebody, won't you, please?"
+
+The light keeper, paying no need whatever, was shouting his wife's
+name.
+
+"Julia!  Julia!" he cried.  "Don't go!  I want you! I need you!"
+
+Lulie called "Father" and hastened toward him.  Zacheus whispered
+in Galusha's ear that he cal'lated 'twouldn't do no harm to turn on
+the glim and proceeded forthwith to turn up the wick of one of the
+lamps.  The sudden illumination showed Captain Jethro standing in
+the middle of the floor, his face flushed, his brows drawn together
+and his lips twitching.  He was glaring about the room and the
+expression upon his face was so fierce that Mr. Bangs said, "Oh,
+dear me!" again when he saw it.
+
+Lulie put her arm about the light keeper's shoulder.  "Father,
+father," she pleaded, "please don't look that way.  Come and sit
+down.  Please do!"
+
+But sitting down was far from the captain's thoughts just then.  He
+impatiently tossed his daughter's arm aside.
+
+"So he's here, is he," he growled, between his teeth.  "He's in my
+house, is he?  By the everlastin', I'll show him!"
+
+Martha Phipps pushed her way toward the pair.
+
+"There, there, Jethro," she said, quietly, "don't act this way.
+Don't you see you're frightenin' Lulie half out of her wits?
+There's nothin' for you to look so savage about.  Come over and sit
+down and rest.  You're tired."
+
+"No, I ain't tired, either.  Be quiet, woman.  By the Lord, if he's
+in this house I'll find him.  And WHEN I find him--"
+
+"Sshh, sshh!  What in the world are you talkin' about?  Marietta
+didn't say--"
+
+"Julia--my spirit wife--told me that that skulkin' swab of a Nelse
+Howard was here in this house.  You heard her.  Let go of me, both
+of you!  Now where is he?"
+
+He was turning directly toward the door leading to the front hall.
+Lulie was very white and seemed on the point of collapse.  Even
+Miss Phipps, usually so calm and equal to the emergency, appeared
+to find this one a trifle too much for her, for she glanced
+desperately about as if in search of help.  Zach Bloomer repeated
+"Godfreys" several times and looked, for him, almost excited.  As
+for Primmie, she was so frightened as to be speechless, a miracle
+far more amazing than any other which the seance had thus far
+produced.  The remaining members of the circle were whispering in
+agitation and staring wide-eyed at the captain and those about him.
+
+Then a masculine voice, a very soft, gentle masculine voice, said,
+"I beg your pardon, Captain Hallett, but may I--ah--ask a
+question?"
+
+The very gentleness of the voice and the calmness of its tone had
+more effect in securing the light keeper's attention than any shout
+could possibly have done.  Captain Jethro stopped in his stride.
+
+"Eh?" he grunted.  "Eh?  What's that?"
+
+Galusha Bangs moved forward, quietly elbowing his way from the back
+row of the circle to the open space before the inner line of chairs
+and their excited occupants.
+
+"It is--ah--I, Captain Hallett," he observed, calmly, "I wished to
+ask a question.  You see, I have been very much interested by the--
+ah--manifestations here this evening.  Very much so, really--
+indeed, yes."
+
+The light keeper interrupted.  "Don't bother me!" he ordered,
+savagely.  "I'm goin' to find that sneakin' rascal, and--  Get out
+of my way, will you?"
+
+Somehow or other the little Egyptologist had moved forward until,
+without appearing to have made an effort to do so, he was directly
+in the captain's way--that is, between the latter and the door of
+the front hall.  The command to get out of the way he acknowledged
+politely and with caution.
+
+"Yes, yes, of course," he said, hastily.  "I'm very sorry.  Very
+sorry indeed.  I beg your pardon, Captain Hallett.  Now there is
+one point in this lady's--ah--messages--ah--communications, you
+know--which puzzles me somewhat.  You see--"
+
+"I can't stop to talk to you now.  I'm goin' to--  WILL you get out
+of my way?"
+
+"Was I in your way?  I BEG your pardon.  How clumsy of me!  I--ah--
+You see, this lady's last message seemed to point so directly in my
+direction that I felt constrained to speak.  You see, when she, or
+her--control, is it?--mentioned my being here in your house and
+accused me of having an evil influence upon your daughter, I--well,
+I was surprised and--ah--hurt."
+
+A general gasp of astonishment from the circle behind him
+interrupted.  Mr. Abel Harding shouted "Eh!" and, for a wonder, his
+wife did not take him to task for it.  For the matter of that, she
+had uttered an exclamation also.  So had Ophelia Beebe and many
+others.  Zacheus whistled.  Primmie once more referred to her
+saving soul.  Martha Phipps cried out.
+
+As for Jethro Hallett, he stared uncomprehendingly at the Bangs'
+face which looked so earnestly and gravely up into his.  He drew a
+hand across his forehead and breathed heavily.
+
+"Wha--what are you talkin' about?" he demanded.  "Who--who said
+anything about you?"
+
+Galusha transferred his gaze from the light keeper's countenance to
+that of Miss Marietta Hoag.  The medium's moonlike visage bore an
+expression of intense surprise.
+
+"Why--ah--she did," replied Galusha, gently.  "This lady here.  She
+said that an outsider, a small, dark man, was exerting an evil
+influence upon Miss Lulie--upon your daughter.  Then she said this
+person was here in your house.  Now, as I am the only person
+present who answers to that description, naturally I--well, I--
+really, I must protest.  I have the highest respect and regard for
+your daughter, Captain Hallett.  I should be the last, the very
+last, to wish to exert any such influence."
+
+"Nonsense!"  The amazed captain shouted the word.  "What are you
+talkin' about?  'Twan't you she said.  'Twas that Howard swab.
+He's been hangin' around Lulie for more 'n a year."
+
+"Ah--pardon me, Captain Hallett, but really I must make my point.
+It could not have been Mr. Howard to whom the--ah--control
+referred.  Mr. Howard is somewhat dark, perhaps, but he is not
+small.  I am both dark and small.  And I am here, whereas Mr.
+Howard apparently is not.  And I am, beyond question, an outsider.
+Therefore--"
+
+"Nonsense, I tell you!  She said Nelson Howard was in this house."
+
+"Pardon me, pardon me, Captain Hallett.  She said a small, dark
+man, an outsider, was in this house.  She mentioned no names.  You
+mentioned no names, did you, Miss--ah--Hoag?"
+
+Marietta, thus unexpectedly appealed to, gasped, swallowed, turned
+red and stammered that she didn't know's she did; adding hastily
+that she never remembered nothin' of what she said in the trance
+state.  After this she swallowed again and observed that she didn't
+see WHY she couldn't have that drink of water.
+
+"So you see, Captain Hallett," went on Mr. Bangs, with the same
+gentle persistence, "being the only person present answering the
+description given by the medium I feel somewhat--ah--distressed.
+I must insist that I am unjustly accused.  I must ask Miss Phipps
+here and your daughter herself to say whether or not my conduct
+toward Miss Lulie has not been quite--ah--harmless and without--
+ah--malevolence.  I shall be glad to leave it to them."
+
+Of the pair to whom this appeal for judgment was made Martha Phipps
+alone heeded it.  Lulie, still white and trembling, was intent only
+upon her father.  But Martha rose to the occasion with
+characteristic promptness.
+
+"Of course, Mr. Bangs," she declared, "you've behaved just as nice
+as any one could be in this world.  I could hardly believe my ears
+when Marietta said you were an evil influence towards Lulie.  You
+ought to be careful about sayin' such things, Marietta.  Why, you
+never met Mr. Bangs before this evenin'.  How could you know he was
+an evil influence?"
+
+Miss Hoag, thus attacked from an unexpected quarter, was thrown
+still more out of mental poise.  "I never said he was one," she
+declared, wildly.  "I only just said there was a--a--  I don't know
+what I said.  Anyhow _I_ never said it, 'twas my control talkin'.
+I'll leave it to 'Phelia Beebe.  You know I don't know what I'm
+sayin' when I'm in the trance state, don't you, 'Phelia?  Anyhow,
+all I said was. . . .  Oh, 'Phelia," wildly, "why don't you help me
+out? . . .  And--and I've asked no less'n four mortal times for
+that drink of water.  I--I--  Oh, oh--"
+
+She became hysterical.  The circle ceased to be a circle and became
+a series of agitated groups, all talking at once.  Mr. Bloomer
+seized the opportunity to turn up the wick of another lamp.  Lulie,
+clinging to her father's arm, led him toward a chair in a secluded
+corner.
+
+"Sit down, father," she urged.  "Sit down, and rest.  Please do!"
+
+The old light keeper's fiery rage seemed to be abating.  He passed
+his hand across his forehead several times and his expression
+changed.  He looked like one awakening from a bad dream.
+
+"I--I cal'late I will set down for a minute or so, Lulie," he
+faltered.  "I do feel sort of tired, somehow or 'nother.  I don't
+want to talk any more, Mr. Bangs," he added, wearily.  "I--I'll
+have to think it all out.  Lulie, I cal'late they'd better go home.
+Tell 'em all to go.  I'm tired."
+
+Martha Phipps passed from group to group whispering.
+
+"I guess we'd better go," she suggested.  "He's pretty well worn
+out, I'm afraid.  Everybody's things are there in the dinin' room
+or in the side entry.  We'd better go right away, it seems to me."
+
+Galusha had gotten his "things" already, his coat was over his arm.
+The others followed his example.  A few minutes more and the last
+of the "ghost seiners" had left the house and were climbing into
+the automobiles in the yard.  Marietta Hoag's voice was the last
+distinctly audible.
+
+"I can't help it," she wailed.  "It wasn't my fault anyway.  And--
+and, besides, that Bangs man hadn't any right to say 'twas him I
+meant. . . .  I mean the control meant.  It wasn't him at all. . . .
+I mean I don't believe 'twas.  Oh, dear!  I WISH you'd stop
+askin' questions, Abe Hardin'.  CAN'T you stop?"
+
+Galusha and Primmie set out for the Phipps' homestead ahead of its
+owner, but she caught up with them at the gate.
+
+"He's goin' right up to bed," she said.  "Zach will look out for
+the light to-night."
+
+"And--" asked Galusha, with significant emphasis.
+
+Martha did not reply.  She waited until they were in the sitting
+room and alone, Primmie having been sentenced to go to her own room
+and to bed.  Miss Cash had no desire for bed; her dearest wish was
+to remain with her mistress and their lodger and unload her burden
+of conversation.
+
+"My savin' soul!" she began.  "My savin' soul!  Did you ever in
+your born days!  When that Marietta Hoag--or that Chinee critter--
+or Cap'n Jeth's ghost's wife--or whoever 'twas talkin' that spirit
+jabber--when she--them, I mean--give out that a small, dark man was
+right there in that house, I thought--"
+
+"Primmie, go to bed."
+
+"Yes'm.  And when I remembered that Nelse Howard was--"
+
+"Go to bed this minute!"
+
+"Yes'm.  But how do you 'spose he's goin' to--"
+
+Miss Phipps conducted her to the foot of the back stairs and,
+returning, closed each door she passed through behind her.  Then
+she answered her lodger's unspoken question.
+
+"Lulie will go with her father and help him up to his room," she
+said.  "After he is out of the way Nelson can come out and Zach, I
+suppose, will let him out by the side door."
+
+Galusha smiled faintly.  "The poor fellow must have been somewhat
+disturbed when that--ah--medium person announced that the 'evil
+influence' was in the house," he observed.
+
+Martha sniffed.  "I guess likely we were all disturbed," she said.
+"Especially those of us who knew.  But how did Marietta know?
+That's what I can't understand.  Or did she just guess?"
+
+Before Bangs could answer there was a rap on the windowpane.
+Martha, going to the door, admitted Nelson Howard himself.  The
+young man's first speech was a question.
+
+"Do you know what became of my hat?" he asked.  "Like an idiot I
+hung my hat and coat in that entry off the dining room when I went
+in.  When I came out just now the hat was gone."
+
+Martha looked troubled.
+
+"It wasn't that cap you wear so much, at the station and
+everywhere?" she asked.  "I hope no one took THAT; they'd know
+whose 'twas in a minute."
+
+"Yes, that's what I'm afraid of.  I . . . Eh?  Why, there it is
+now."
+
+The cap was lying on the couch beside Mr. Bangs' overcoat.  Howard
+picked it up with an air of great relief.
+
+"You brought it over for me, Mr. Bangs, didn't you?" he cried.
+
+"Why--why, yes, I--I did," stammered Galusha.  "You see, I--"
+
+The young man broke in enthusiastically.  "By jingo, that was
+clever of you!" he cried.  "I was afraid some one had got that cap
+who would recognize it.  Say," he went on, "I owe you about
+everything to-night, Mr. Bangs.  When Marietta gave out her
+proclamation that the 'small dark man' was in that house I came
+nearer to believing in her kind of spiritualism than I ever thought
+I should.  I was scared--not on my own account, I hope--but for
+Lulie and her father.  If the old cap'n had found me hiding in that
+front hall I don't know what he might have done, or tried to do.
+And I don't know what effect it might have had on him.  He was--
+well, judging from what I could hear, he was in a state that was--
+that was pretty near to--to--"
+
+While he was hesitating Martha Phipps finished the sentence.  "To
+what they put people in asylums for," she said, emphatically.  "He
+was, there is no doubt about that.  It's a mercy he didn't find
+you, Nelson.  And if I were you I wouldn't take any such chances
+again."
+
+"I shan't, you needn't worry.  When Lulie and I meet after this it
+will be--  Humph! well, I don't know where it will be.  Even the
+graveyard doesn't seem to be safe.  But I must go.  Tell Lulie I
+got away safe and sound, thanks to Mr. Bangs here.  And tell her to
+'phone me to-morrow.  I'm anxious about Cap'n Jeth.  Sometimes I
+think it might be just as well if I went straight to him and told
+him--"
+
+Again Martha interrupted.
+
+"My soul, no!" she exclaimed.  "Not now, not till he gets that
+'small dark man' notion out of his head."
+
+"I suppose you're right.  And Mr. Bangs has set him guessing on
+that, too.  Honestly, Mr. Bangs, you've just about saved--well, if
+you haven't saved everybody's life you've come pretty near to
+saving the cap'n's reason, I do believe.  How Lulie and I can ever
+thank you enough I don't know."
+
+Galusha turned red.  "Ah--ah--don't--ah--please don't," he
+stammered.  "It was just--ah--a silly idea of mine.  On the spur of
+the moment it came to me that--ah--that the medium person hadn't
+said WHO the small, dark man was.  And as I am rather dark perhaps--
+and small, certainly--it occurred to me to claim identity.  Almost
+every one else had received some sort of--ah--spirit message and,
+you see, I didn't wish to be neglected."
+
+"Well, it was the smartest dodge that I ever heard of.  By jingo,
+it was!  Say, you don't suppose Cap'n Jeth will take it seriously
+and begin to get down on YOU, do you?"
+
+Martha looked grave.  "I was wonderin' that myself," she said.
+
+Galusha smiled.  "Oh, dear no," he said.  "I think there is no
+danger of that, really.  But, Mr. Howard, in regard to that--ah--
+cap of yours, I . . .  Eh? . . .  Um . . .  Why, dear me, I
+wonder--"
+
+"Why is it you wonder, Mr. Bangs?" asked Martha, after a moment's
+wait.
+
+"Why--ah--considering that that cap of Mr. Howard's is one which,
+so you and he say, he is in the habit of wearing, and that many
+people have often seen him wear, I was wondering--  Dear me, yes,
+that might explain."
+
+"Explain what?"
+
+"Why, it occurred to me that as that cap was hanging in the--ah--
+entry--the little hall off Captain Hallett's dining room--when the
+people came in, and as the medium person--Miss--ah--bless me, what
+IS her name?--as she came in with the rest, it occurred to me that
+she might have seen the cap and--"
+
+Miss Phipps clapped her hands.  "She saw it and knew whose it was,"
+she cried, excitedly.  "Of course she did!  THAT'S how she guessed
+the small, dark man was in the house.  THAT'S how 'Little Toddy
+Blossom,' or whatever her name is, got so smart all at once.  Well,
+well!  Of course, of course!"
+
+"It--ah--occurred to me that that might possibly explain," observed
+Galusha, placidly.
+
+"It does.  But, Nelson, what set Marietta and her spirits after you
+in particular?  Has she got any grudge against you?"
+
+"Not that I know of, Martha.  She knows I don't take any stock in
+her kind of spirit messages.  I don't think she likes me very well
+on that account."
+
+"Well, perhaps, that is reason enough.  Or perhaps she just
+happened the first time to mention the small dark man hit or miss
+and Cap'n Jethro pinned the tag to you; after that she did her best
+to keep it there.  Well, thanks to Mr. Bangs, the cap'n isn't as
+sure as he was, that's some comfort."
+
+Martha accompanied Nelson to the door.  After he had gone and she
+returned to the sitting room she found her lodger standing, lamp in
+hand, at the foot of the stairs.
+
+"Goin' to turn in, Mr. Bangs?" she asked.  "Goin' to bed, I mean?
+Father always used to call it turnin' in; it's a saltwater way of
+sayin' it, just as so many of his expressions were.  I guess you
+must be pretty tired.  I know I am.  Take it by and large--that is
+another of father's expressions--we've had an excitin' evenin'."
+
+Galusha admitted the fact.  His landlady regarded him with an odd
+expression.
+
+"Do you know," she said, suddenly, "you are the most surprisin'
+person I ever met, Mr. Bangs? . . .  There!  I didn't mean to say
+that," she added.  "I was thinkin' it and it sort of spoke itself,
+as you might say.  I beg your pardon."
+
+"Oh, that's quite all right, quite, Miss Phipps," Galusha assured
+her.  "I have no doubt you are perfectly correct.  No doubt I am
+surprising; at least most people seem to find a peculiar quality in
+most of my--ah--actions."  He smiled his gentle smile, and added,
+"I presume it must be a part of my profession.  In books, you know--
+in novels--the few I have read--the archaeologist or the scientific
+man or the college professor is always peculiar."
+
+She shook her head.  "That isn't just what I meant," she said.  "So
+far as that goes I've generally noticed that folks with little
+brains are fond of criticizin' those with bigger ones.  Part of
+such criticisms is 'don't understand' and the rest is plain
+jealousy.  But what I meant by callin' you surprisin' was--was--
+Well," with a half laugh, "I might just as well say it plain.  Ever
+since you've been here, Mr. Bangs, the feelin' has been growin' on
+me that you were probably the wisest man in the world about some
+things and the most simple and impractical about others.  Over
+there in Egypt you know everything, I do believe.  And yet right
+down here on Cape Cod you need somebody to keep Ras Beebe and Raish
+Pulcifer from cheatin' you out of your last cent.  That's what I
+thought.  'Mr. Bangs is wonderful,' I said to myself, 'but I'm
+afraid he isn't practical.'  And yet to-night, over there, you were
+the only practical one amongst us."
+
+Galusha protested.  "Oh, no, Miss Phipps," he said.  "Dear me, no.
+My claiming to be the small, dark man was, as I said, merely a
+silly notion which came to me.  I acted on the spur of the moment.
+It was nothing."
+
+"It was about everything," stoutly.  "It was your notion, as you
+call it, that saved Cap'n Jethro from findin' Nelson Howard in that
+front hall; and savin' him from that saved us from havin' a crazy
+man on our hands, I truly believe.  And you did it so right on the
+instant, so matter of fact and common sense.  Really, Mr. Bangs,
+I--I don't know what to say to you."
+
+Galusha smiled.  "You said it before," he observed, "when you said
+you were surprised.  I am surprised myself.  Dear me, yes."
+
+"Don't!  That was a foolish thing for me to say and you mustn't
+take it the wrong way.  And your bringing Nelson's hat over here
+instead of leavin' it in that entry for more of Marietta's crowd to
+notice and, ten to one, recognize!  We all knew it was hangin'
+there.  I saw Nelson hang it there, myself, when he came in.  But
+did _I_ think to take it out of sight?  Did _I_--  Why, what is it?
+What's the matter?"
+
+Her lodger was protesting violently.  "Don't, don't, don't, Miss
+Phipps," he begged.  "Please don't!  You see, that hat--that cap of
+Mr. Howard's--"
+
+"Yes, you brought it over here."
+
+"Yes, I--I brought it over.  I brought it--but--"
+
+"But what?"
+
+"But I didn't know that I did.  I must have been thinking of
+something else when I went after my things and it is a mercy that
+I took my own coat.  It was only by accident that I took the--ah--
+young man's cap.  I was under the impression that it was my own.
+I presume my own cap is hanging in the Hallett entry at this
+moment. . . .  Ah--good-night, Miss Phipps.  Good night.  I have
+had a very pleasant evening, very pleasant indeed."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+Martha Phipps and her lodger, to say nothing of Lulie Hallett, were
+fearful of the effect which the eventful seance might have upon the
+light keeper.  It was with considerable foreboding that Martha
+called Lulie up on the telephone the next morning.  But the news
+she received in answer to her call was reassuring.  Captain Jethro,
+so Lulie said, was apparently quite himself again, a little tired
+and a trifle irritable, but otherwise all right.
+
+"The only unusual thing about him," said his daughter, "is that he
+has not once mentioned the seance or anything that happened there.
+If it wasn't too ridiculous to be possible I should almost think he
+had forgotten it."
+
+"Then for the land sakes don't remind him," urged Martha, eagerly.
+"So long as HE is willin' not to remember you ought to be.  Yes,
+and thankful," she added.
+
+"I guess likely he hasn't forgotten," she said afterwards, in
+conversation with her lodger.  "I imagine he is a good deal upset
+in his mind; your bouncin' in and claimin' to be the 'evil
+influence' put him 'way off his course and he hasn't got his
+bearin's yet.  He's probably tryin' to think his way through the
+fog and he won't talk till he sees a light, or thinks he sees one.
+I wish to goodness the light would be so strong that he'd see
+through Marietta Hoag and all her foolishness, but I'm afraid
+that's too much to expect."
+
+Her surmise was correct, for a few days later the captain met
+Galusha on the road leading to the village and, taking the little
+man by the arm, became confidential.
+
+"Mr. Bangs," he said, "I cal'late you must think it's kind of queer
+my not sayin' a word to you about what happened t'other night over
+to the house."
+
+Galusha, who had been thinking of something else and was mentally
+thousands of miles away--on the banks of the Nile, in fact--
+regarded him rather vacantly.
+
+"Eh?  Oh--um--yes, of course," he stammered.  "I beg your pardon."
+
+"No reason why you should beg my pardon.  I don't blame you for
+thinkin' so.  It's natural."
+
+"Yes--yes, of course, of course.  But I don't know that I quite
+comprehend.  Of what were you speaking, Captain Hallett?"
+
+The captain explained.  "Of course you think it's queer that I
+haven't said a word about what Julia told us," he went on.  "Eh?
+Don't you?"
+
+"What--ah--what Miss Hoag said, you mean?"
+
+"Plague take Marietta!" impatiently.  "She wan't nothin' but the
+go-between.  'Twas my wife that said it.  You understand 'twas
+Julia, my wife, talkin', don't you?"
+
+"Why--ah--why--I suppose--"
+
+"Suppose?  Don't you KNOW 'twas?"
+
+"Why--ah--no doubt, no doubt."
+
+"Course there ain't any doubt.  Well then, Julia said there was a
+dark man heavin' a sort of evil influence over Lulie."
+
+"She said a SMALL dark man, a stranger.  And she said he was
+present among us.  So far as I can see I was the only small dark
+stranger."
+
+"But you ain't an evil influence, are you?"
+
+"Well, I--ah--hope not.  Dear me, no!"
+
+"I hope not, too, and I don't believe you are.  No, there is some
+mistake somewheres.  'Twas Nelson Howard she must have meant."
+
+"But, Captain Hallett, Mr. Howard is not small."
+
+"No, and he wan't there that evenin', neither.  But I'm bettin'
+'twas him she meant just the same.  Just the same."
+
+"Do you think that is quite fair to Mr. Howard?  If he isn't small,
+nor very dark, and if he was not in your house that evening, how--"
+
+"I don't know--I don't know.  Anyhow, I don't believe she meant
+you, Mr. Bangs.  She couldn't have."
+
+"But--ah--why not?"
+
+"Because--well, because you couldn't be an evil influence if you
+tried, you wouldn't know how.  THAT much I'll bet on.  There,
+there, don't let's talk no more about it.  Julia and me'll have
+another talk pretty soon and then I'll find out more, maybe."
+
+So that was the end of this portion of the conversation.  The light
+keeper positively refused to mention the subject again.  Galusha
+was left with the uneasy feeling that his brilliant idea of
+claiming to be the small, dark influence for evil had not been as
+productive of good results as he had hoped.  Certainly it had not
+in the least shaken the captain's firm belief in his spirit
+messages, nor had it, apparently, greatly abated his prejudice
+against young Howard.  On the other hand, Lulie found comfort in
+the fact that in all other respects her father seemed as rational
+and as keen as he had ever been.  The exciting evening with the
+Hoag spook had worked no lasting harm.  For so much she and her
+friends were grateful.
+
+The autumn gales blew themselves out and blew in their successors,
+the howling blasts of winter.  Winter at Gould's Bluffs, so Galusha
+Bangs discovered, was no light jest of the weather bureau.  His
+first January no'theaster taught him that.  Lying in his bed at one
+o'clock in the morning, feeling that bed tremble beneath him as the
+wind gripped the sturdy gables of the old house, while the snow
+beat in hissing tumult against the panes, and the great breakers
+raved and roared at the foot of the bluff--this was an experience
+for Galusha.  The gray dawn of the morning brought another, for,
+although it was no longer snowing, the wind was, if anything,
+stronger than ever and the seaward view from his bedroom window was
+a picture of frothing gray and white, of flying spray and leaping
+waves, and on the landward side the pines were bending and threshing
+as if they were being torn in pieces.  He came downstairs, somewhat
+nervous and a trifle excited, to find Mr. Bloomer, garbed in
+oilskins and sou'wester, standing upon the mat just inside the
+dining room door.  Zacheus, it developed, had come over to borrow
+some coffee, the supply at the light having run short.  As Galusha
+entered, a more than usually savage blast rushed shrieking over the
+house, threatening, so it seemed to Mr. Bangs, to tear every shingle
+from the roof.
+
+"Goodness gracious!" exclaimed Galusha.  "Dear me, what a terrible
+storm this is!"
+
+Zacheus regarded him calmly.  "Commenced about ten last night," he
+observed.  "Been breezin' on steady ever since.  Be quite
+consider'ble gale if it keeps up."
+
+Mr. Bangs looked at him with amazement.
+
+"If it keeps up!" he repeated.  "Isn't it a gale now?"
+
+Zach shook his head.
+
+"Not a reg'lar gale, 'tain't," he said.  "Alongside of some gales
+I've seen this one ain't nothin' but a tops'l breeze.  Do you
+remember the storm the night the Portland was lost, Martha?"
+
+Miss Phipps, who had come in from the kitchen with a can of coffee
+in her hand, shuddered.
+
+"Indeed I do, Zacheus," she said; "don't remind me of it."
+
+"Why, dear me, was it worse than this one?" asked Galusha.
+
+Martha smiled.  "It blew the roof off the barn here," she said,
+"and blew down both chimneys on the house and both over at Cap'n
+Jeth's.  So far as that goes we had plenty of company, for there
+were nineteen chimneys down along the main road in Wellmouth.  And
+trees--mercy! how the poor trees suffered!  East Wellmouth lost
+thirty-two big silver-leafs and the only two elms it had.  Set out
+over a hundred years ago, those elms were."
+
+"Spray from the breakers flew clear over the top of the bank here,"
+said Zach.  "That's some h'ist for spray, hundred and odd feet.  I
+wan't here to see it, myself, but Cap'n Jeth told me."
+
+"You were in a more comfortable place, I hope," observed Galusha.
+
+"Um--we-ell, that's accordin' to what you call comf'table.  I was
+aboard the Hog's Back lightship, that's where I was."
+
+"Dear, dear!  Is it possible?"
+
+"Um-hm.  Possible enough that I was there, and one spell it looked
+impossible that I'd ever be anywheres else.  Godfreys, what a night
+that was!  Whew!  Godfreys domino!"
+
+Primmie, who had also come in from the kitchen, was listening,
+open-mouthed.
+
+"I bet you that lightship pitched up and down somethin' terrible,
+didn't it, Zach?" she asked.
+
+Zacheus looked at her solemnly.  "Pitched?" he repeated, after a
+moment's contemplation.  "No, no, she didn't pitch none."
+
+"Didn't?  Didn't pitch up and down in such a gale's that?  And with
+waves a hundred foot high?  What kind of talk's that, Zach Bloomer!
+How could that lightship help pitchin', I'd like to know?"
+
+Mr. Bloomer adjusted the tin cover on the can in which Martha had
+put the coffee, then he put the can in the pocket of his slicker.
+
+"We-ll, I tell you, Primmie," he drawled.  "You see, we had pretty
+toler'ble long anchor chains on that craft and when the captain see
+how 'twas blowin' he let them chains out full length.  The wind
+blowed so strong it lifted the lightship right out of the water up
+to the ends of them chains and kept her there.  Course there was a
+dreadful sea runnin' underneath us, but we never felt it a mite;
+that gale was holdin' us up twenty foot clear of it!"
+
+"Zacheus Bloomer, do you mean to say--"
+
+"Um-hm.  Twenty foot in the air we was all that night and part of
+next day.  When it slacked off and we settled down again we was
+leakin' like a sieve; you see, while we was up there that
+no'thwester had blowed 'most all the copper off the vessel's
+bottom.  Some storm that was, Posy, some storm. . . .  Well, so
+long, all hands.  Much obliged for the coffee, Martha."
+
+He tugged his sou'wester tighter on his head, glanced at Miss
+Cash's face, where incredulity and indignation were written large
+and struggling for expression, turned his head in Mr. Bangs'
+direction, winked solemnly, and departed.  The wind obligingly and
+enthusiastically saved him the trouble of closing the door.
+
+Galusha was not called upon to endure any such experiences as those
+described by the veracious Mr. Bloomer in his record-breaking gale,
+but during that winter he learned a little of what New England
+coast weather could be and often was.  And he learned, also, that
+that weather was, like most blusterers, not nearly as savage when
+met squarely face to face.  He learned to put on layer after layer
+of garments, topping off with oilskins, sou'wester and mittens, and
+tramp down to the village for the mail or to do the household
+errands.  He was growing stronger all the time and if the doctor
+could have seen him plowing through drifts or shouldering his way
+through a driving rain he would have realized that his patient was
+certainly obeying the order to "keep out of doors."  Martha Phipps
+was perfectly certain that her lodger was keeping out of doors
+altogether too much.
+
+"You aren't goin' out to-day, Mr. Bangs, are you?" she exclaimed.
+"It's as cold as the North Pole.  You'll freeze."
+
+Galusha smiled beneath his cap visor and between the ear-laps.
+
+"Oh, no, indeed," he declared.  "It's brisk and--ah--snappy, that's
+all.  A smart walk will do me good.  I am accustomed to walking.
+In Egypt I walk a GREAT deal."
+
+"I don't doubt it; but you don't have much of this sort of weather
+in Egypt, if what I've heard is true."
+
+Mr. Bangs' smile broadened.  "I fear I shall have to admit that,"
+he said; "but my--ah--physician told me that a change would be good
+for me.  And this IS a change, now isn't it?"
+
+"I should say it was.  About as much change as a plate of ice cream
+after a cup of hot coffee.  Well, if you're bound to go, do keep
+walkin' fast.  Don't forget that it's down to zero or thereabouts;
+don't forget that and wander over to the old cemetery and kneel
+down in front of a slate tombstone and freeze to death."
+
+"Oh, I shall be all right, Miss Phipps.  Really I shall.  Don't
+worry, I beg of you."
+
+He had begged her not to worry on many other occasions and she had
+been accustomed to answer him in a manner half joking and half
+serious.  But this time she did not answer at all for a moment, and
+when she did there was no hint of a joke in her tone.
+
+"No," she said, slowly.  "I won't.  I couldn't, I guess.  Don't
+seem as if I could carry any more worries just now, any more than I
+am carryin', I mean."
+
+She sighed as she said it and he looked at her in troubled alarm.
+
+"Oh, dear me!" he exclaimed.  "I--I'm so sorry.  Sorry that you are
+worried, I mean.  Is there anything I can do to--to--  I should be
+very glad to help in any way if--"
+
+He was hesitating, trying to say the right thing and very fearful
+of saying too much, of seeming to be curious concerning her
+personal affairs, when she interrupted him.  She was standing by
+the kitchen door, with one hand upon the knob, and she spoke
+without looking at him.
+
+"There is nothin' you or anybody can do," she said.  "And there
+isn't a single bit of use talkin' about it.  Trot along and have
+your walk, Mr. Bangs.  And don't pay any attention to what I said.
+It was just silliness.  I get a little nervous, sometimes, but
+that's no reason for my makin' other people that way.  Have a good
+walk."
+
+He did not have a very good walk and his thoughts while walking
+were not as closely centered about ancient inscriptions, either
+Egyptian or East Wellmouthian, as was usually the case upon such
+excursions.  Miss Martha Phipps was worried, she had said so,
+herself.  Yes, and now that he thought of it, she looked worried.
+She was in trouble of some sort.  A dreadful surmise entered his
+mind.  Was it possible that he, his presence in her house, was the
+cause of her worry?  He had been very insistent that she take him
+as boarder and lodger.  The sum he paid each week was ridiculously
+small.  Was it possible that, having consented to the agreement,
+she had found it a losing one and was too kind-hearted and
+conscientious to suggest a change?  He remembered agreements which
+he had made, and having made, had hesitated to break, even though
+they turned out to be decidedly unprofitable and unpleasant.  He
+had often been talked into doing things he did not want to do, like
+buying the yellow cap at Beebe's store.  Perhaps he had talked Miss
+Phipps into taking him as boarder and lodger and now she was sorry.
+
+By the time Galusha returned from his walk he was in what might be
+described as a state of mind.
+
+As he entered the Phipps' gate he met some one coming down the path
+toward it.  That some one, it developed, was no less a person than
+Mr. Horatio Pulcifer.  Raish and Galusha had not encountered each
+other for some time, weeks, in fact, and Mr. Bangs expected the
+former's greeting to be exuberant and effusive.  His shoulders and
+his spirit were alike shrinking in anticipation.
+
+But Raish did not shout when he saw him, did not even shake hands,
+to say nothing of thumping the little man upon the back.  The broad
+and rubicund face of East Wellmouth's leading politician and dealer
+in real estate wore not a grin but a frown, and when he and Galusha
+came together at the gate he did not speak.  Galusha spoke first,
+which was unusual; very few people meeting Mr. Horatio Pulcifer
+were afforded the opportunity of speaking first.
+
+"Ah--good-morning, Mr. Pulcifer," said Galusha, endeavoring to open
+the gate.
+
+"Huh!" grunted Raish, jerking the gate from Mr. Bangs' hand and
+pushing it somewhat violently into the Bangs' waistcoat.
+"Mornin'."
+
+"It is a nice--ah--cool day, isn't it?" observed Galusha, backing
+from the gateway in order to give Horatio egress.  Mr. Pulcifer's
+answer was irrelevant and surprising.
+
+"Say," he demanded, turning truculently upon the speaker, "ain't
+women hell?"
+
+Galusha was, naturally, somewhat startled.
+
+"I--I beg your pardon?" he stammered.
+
+"I say ain't women hell?  Hey?  Ain't they, now?"
+
+Galusha rubbed his chin.
+
+"Well," he said, doubtfully, "I presume in--ah--certain instances
+they--  My experience has been limited, but--"
+
+"Humph!  Say, they make me sick, most of 'em.  They haven't any
+more business sense than a hen, the heft of 'em ain't.  Go into a
+deal with their eyes open and then, when it don't turn out to suit
+'em, lay down and squeal.  Yes, sir, squeal."
+
+"Ah--I see.  Yes, yes, of course.  Squeal--yes.  The--the hens, you
+mean."
+
+"HENS?  No, women.  They make me sick, I tell you. . . .  And now a
+lot of dum fools are goin' to give 'em the right to vote!  Gosh!"
+
+He strode off along the road to the village.  Galusha wonderingly
+gazed after him, shook his head, and then moved slowly up the path
+to the house.  Primmie opened the door for him.  Her eyes were
+snapping.
+
+"Hello, Mr. Bangs!" she said.  "I 'most wisht he'd drop down dead
+and then freeze to death in a snowbank, that's what I wish."
+
+Galusha blinked.
+
+"Why, bless my soul!" he exclaimed.  "Of whom are you speaking?"
+
+"That everlastin' Raish Pulcifer.  I never did like him, and now if
+he's comin' around here makin' her cry."
+
+"Eh?  Making her cry?"
+
+"Sshh!  She'll hear you.  Makin' Miss Martha cry.  She's up in her
+room cryin' now, I'll bet you on it.  And he's responsible. . . .
+Yes'm, I'm comin'.  Don't say nothin' to her that I told you, will
+you, Mr. Bangs?"
+
+She hurried away in response to her mistress' hail.  Galusha said
+nothing to Miss Phipps.  nor to any one else, but during the rest
+of that day he did a great deal of thinking.  Martha Phipps was
+worried, she was troubled, she had been crying; according to
+Primmie Horatio Pulcifer was responsible for her tears.  Galusha
+had never fancied Mr. Pulcifer, now he was conscious of a most
+extraordinary dislike for the man.  He had never disliked any one
+so much in all his life, he was sure of that.  Also he was
+conscious of a great desire to help Martha in her trouble.  Of
+course there was a certain measure of relief in learning that
+Pulcifer and not he was responsible for that trouble, but the
+relief was a small matter in comparison with the desire to help.
+
+He could think of but one way in which Horatio Pulcifer could cause
+worry for Martha Phipps and that was in connection with some
+business matter.  Certain fragments of conversations occurred to
+him, certain things she had said to him or to Captain Hallett in
+his hearing which were of themselves sufficient to warrant the
+surmise that her trouble was a financial one.  He remembered them
+now, although at the time they had made little impression upon his
+mind.  But Raish Pulcifer's name was not mentioned in any of those
+conversations; Captain Jethro's had been, but not Raish's.  Yet
+Primmie vowed that the latter had made Miss Martha cry.  He
+determined to seek Primmie and ask for more particulars that very
+evening.
+
+But Primmie saved him the trouble of seeking her.  Miss Phipps and
+her maid left him alone in the sitting room as soon as supper was
+over and neither came back.  He could hear the murmur of voices in
+the kitchen, but, although he sat up until ten o'clock, neither
+Primmie nor her mistress joined him.  So he reluctantly went up to
+his room, but had scarcely reached it when a knock sounded on the
+door.  He opened it, lamp in hand.
+
+"Why, Primmie!" he exclaimed.
+
+Primmie waved both hands in frantic expostulation.
+
+"Sshh! shh! shh!" she breathed.  "Don't say nothin'.  I don't want
+her to hear you.  PLEASE don't let her hear you, Mr. Bangs.  And
+PLEASE come right downstairs again.  I want to talk to you.  I've
+GOT to talk with you."
+
+More bewildered than he had before been, even on that bewildering
+day, Galusha followed Miss Cash down the stairs, through sitting
+room and dining room to the kitchen.  Then Primmie put down the
+lamp, which she had taken from his hand, carefully closed the door
+behind them, turned to her companion and burst out crying.
+
+"Why--why, Primmie!" exclaimed Galusha.  "Oh, dear me!  What is
+it?"
+
+Primmie did not answer.  She merely waved her hands up and down and
+stood there, dripping like a wet umbrella.
+
+"But--my soul, Primmie!" cried Mr. Bangs.  "Don't!  You--you
+mustn't, you know."
+
+But Primmie did, nevertheless.  Galusha in desperation turned
+toward the door.
+
+"I'm going to call Miss Phipps," he declared.  Primmie, the tears
+still pouring down her cheeks, seized him by the arm.
+
+"Don't you do it!" she commanded.  "Don't you dast to do it!  I'll--
+I'll stop cryin'.  I--I'm goin' to if you'll only wait and give me
+a chance.  There!  There!  See, I'm--I'm stoppin' now."
+
+And, with one tremendous sniff and a violent rub of her hand across
+her nose, stop she did.  But she was still the complete picture of
+misery.
+
+"Why, what IS the matter?" demanded Galusha.
+
+Primmie sniffed once more, gulped, and then blurted forth the
+explanation.
+
+"She--she's canned me," she said.
+
+Galusha looked at her uncomprehendingly.  Primmie's equipment of
+Cape Cod slang and idiom, rather full and complete of itself, had
+of late been amplified and complicated by a growing acquaintance
+with the new driver of the grocery cart, a young man of the world
+who had spent two hectic years in Brockton, where, for a portion of
+the time, he worked in a shoe factory.  But Galusha Bangs, not
+being a man of the world, was not up in slang; he did not understand.
+
+"What?" he asked.
+
+"I say she's canned me.  Miss Martha has, I mean.  Oh, ain't it
+awful!"
+
+"Canned you?  Really, I--"
+
+"Yes, yes, yes!  Canned me, fired me.  Oh, DON'T stand there owlin'
+at me like that!  Can't you see, I--  Oh, please, Mr. Bangs, excuse
+me for talkin' so.  I--I didn't mean to be sassy.  I'm just kind of
+loony, I guess.  Please excuse me, Mr. Bangs."
+
+"Yes, yes, Primmie, of course--of course.  Don't cry, that's all.
+But what is this?  Do I understand you to say that Miss Phipps
+has--ah--DISCHARGED you?"
+
+"Um-hm.  That's what she's done.  I'm canned.  And I don't know
+where to go and--and I don't want to go anywheres else.  I want to
+stay here along of her."
+
+She burst into tears again.  It was some time before Galusha could
+calm her sufficiently to get the story of what had happened.  When
+told, flavored with the usual amount of Primmieisms, it amounted to
+this:  Martha had helped her with the supper dishes and then,
+instead of going into the sitting room, had asked her to sit down
+as she had something particular to say to her.  Primmie obediently
+sat and her mistress did likewise.
+
+"But she didn't begin to say it right off," said Primmie.  "She
+started four or five times afore she really got a-goin'.  She said
+that what she'd got to say was dreadful unpleasant and was just as
+hard for her to say as 'twould be for me to hear.  And she said I
+could be sartin' sure she'd never say it if 'twan't absolutely
+necessary and that she hadn't made up her mind to say it until
+she'd laid awake night after night tryin' to think of some other
+way out, but that, try as she could, she didn't see no other way.
+And so then--so then she said it.  Oh, my savin' soul!  I declare I
+never thought--"
+
+"Hush, hush, Primmie.  Ah--control yourself, please.  You promised
+not to cry, you know."
+
+"Cry!  Well, ain't I tryin' not to cry, for mercy sakes?  She was
+cryin', too, I tell you, afore she finished.  If you'd seen the
+pair of us settin' there bellerin' like a couple of young ones I
+cal'late you'd a thought so."
+
+"Bellowing?  Miss Phipps?"
+
+"Oh, I don't mean bellerin' out loud like a--like a heifer.  I
+guess likely I was doin' that, but she wan't.  She was just cryin'
+quiet, you know, but anybody could see how terrible bad she was
+feelin'.  And then she said it--oh, dear, dear!  How CAN I tell it?
+How CAN I?"
+
+Galusha groaned, in harassed desperation.
+
+"I don't know," he admitted, "But I--really I wish you would."
+
+Miss Phipps had, it seemed, told her maidservant that, owing to the
+steadily increasing cost of living, of food and clothes and every
+item of daily expense, she was finding it more and more hard to get
+along.  She said her income was very small and her bills
+continually growing larger.  She had cut and scrimped in every
+possible way, hoping against hope, but at last she had been driven
+to the point where even the small wage she was paying Primmie
+seemed more than she could afford.  Much as she hated to do it, she
+felt compelled to let the girl go.
+
+"She said she'd help me get another place," said Primmie, "and that
+I could stay here until I did get one, and all sorts of things like
+that.  I told her I didn't want no other place and I didn't care a
+bit about the wages.  I said I'd rather work here without a cent of
+wages.  She said no, she wouldn't let me do that.  If she couldn't
+pay me I couldn't work here.  I said I could and I should and she
+said I couldn't and shouldn't.  And--and we both cried and--and
+that's the way it ended.  And that's why I come to you, Mr. Bangs.
+I CAN'T go away and leave her.  I CAN'T, Mr. Bangs.  She can't keep
+this whole house a-goin' without somebody to help.  I've GOT to
+stay.  You make her keep me, Mr. Bangs.  I don't want no pay for
+it.  I never was no hand to care for money, anyhow.  Pa used to say
+I wan't.  None of our folks was.  Matter of that, we never had none
+to care for.  But you make her keep me, Mr. Bangs."
+
+She began to sob once more.  Poor Galusha was very much distressed.
+The cause of Martha Phipps' worry was plain enough now.  And her
+financial stress must be very keen indeed to cause her to take such
+drastic action as the discharge of Primmie the faithful.
+
+"You'll make her keep me, won't you, Mr. Bangs?" pleaded Primmie,
+once more.
+
+Galusha rubbed his chin.  "Dear me," he said, perplexedly, "I--
+Well, I shall be glad to do all I can, of course, but how I can
+make her keep you when she has made up her mind not to, I--really,
+I don't see.  You don't think, do you," he added, "that my being
+here is in any way responsible for a portion of Miss Phipps'
+financial trouble?  You don't think it might be--ah--easier for her
+if I was to--ah--go?"
+
+Primmie shook her head.  "Oh, no, no," she declared, with decision,
+"You ain't a mite of bother, Mr. Bangs.  I've heard Miss Martha say
+more'n a dozen times what a nice man you was and how easy 'twas to
+provide for you.  She likes you, Miss Martha does, and I do, too.
+Even when we thought you was an undertaker huntin' 'round for
+remains we liked you just the same."
+
+Galusha could not help feeling a certain satisfaction in this
+whole-hearted declaration.  It was pleasant to learn that he was
+liked and that his hostess considered him a nice man.
+
+"Thank you, Primmie," he said.  "But what I meant was--was--  Well,
+I pay what seems to me a ridiculously small sum for board and
+lodging.  I begged to be allowed to pay more, but Miss Phipps
+wouldn't permit it.  Now I am sure she must be losing money in the
+transaction and if I were to go--ah--elsewhere perhaps it might
+be--ah--easier for her.  Candidly, don't you think so, Primmie?"
+
+Miss Cash appeared to consider.  Then she shook her head again.
+"No," she said, "I don't.  You pay your board and I've heard her
+say more'n once that she felt as if you was payin' too much.  No,
+'tain't that.  It's more'n that.  It ain't anything to do really
+with you or me, Mr. Bangs.  Miss Martha's lost some money somehow,
+I believe.  She ain't got enough to get along on, 'cause she told
+me she hadn't.  Now, she used to have and I believe she's lost some
+of it somewheres.  And I believe that--"
+
+Galusha felt it his duty to interrupt.
+
+"Primmie," he continued, "you mustn't tell me anything which Miss
+Phipps wouldn't wish told.  I wouldn't for the world have you think
+that I am unduly curious concerning her personal affairs.  If there
+is any trait which I--ah--detest above others it is that of
+unwarranted curiosity concerning the--ah--private affairs of one's
+acquaintances.  I . . . Why do you look at me like that?  Were you
+about to speak?"
+
+Primmie was staring at him in what seemed to be awe-stricken
+admiration.  She drew a long breath.
+
+"My Lord of Isrul!" she exclaimed, fervently, "I never heard anybody
+string talk along the way you can in all my born days, Mr. Bangs.
+I bet you've said as many as seven words already that I never heard
+afore, never heard ary one of 'em, I ain't.  Education's wonderful,
+ain't it?  Pa used to say 'twas, but all he had he picked up off
+fishin' and clammin' and cranberrin' and around.  All our family had
+a kind of picked-up education, seemed so."
+
+"Yes, yes, Primmie, but--"
+
+"But why don't I mind my own business and stick to what I was goin'
+to say, you mean?  All right, I will.  I was goin' to say that I
+believe Miss Martha's lost money somehow and I believe that
+dressed-up stuffed image of a Raish Pulcifer is responsible for her
+losin' it, that's what I believe."
+
+"Mr. Pulcifer!  Why, Primmie, why do you say that?  What proof have
+you?"
+
+"Ain't got no proof.  If folks could get proof on Raish Pulcifer
+he'd have been in jail long ago.  Zach Bloomer said that only the
+other day.  But a body can guess, can't they, even if they ain't
+got proof, and that's what I'm doin'--guessin'.  Every once in a
+while Miss Martha goes up to the village to see this Pulcifer
+thing, don't she?  Yes, she does.  Went up twice inside of a
+fortni't that I know of.  Does she go 'cause she likes him?  I
+cal'late she don't.  She likes him about the way I do and I ain't
+got no more use for him than a hen has for a toothbrush.  And
+t'other day she sent for him and asked him to come here and see
+her.  How do I know she did?  'Cause she telephoned him and I heard
+her doin' it, that's how.  And he didn't want to come and she just
+begged him to, said she would try not to bother him again if he
+would come that once.  And he came and after he went away she
+cried, same as I told you she did."
+
+"But, Primmie, all that may be and yet Mr. Pulcifer's visit may
+have no connection with Miss Martha's monetary trouble."
+
+"I want to know!  Well, if that's so, why was she and him talkin'
+so hard when he was here this afternoon?  And why was she askin'
+him to please see if he couldn't get some sort of an offer?  I
+heard her ask that."
+
+"Offer for what?"
+
+"Search me!  For somethin' she wanted to sell, I presume likely.
+And he says to her, 'No, I can't,' he says.  'I've told you so a
+dozen times.  If I could get anybody to buy I'd sell my own,
+wouldn't I?  You bet your life I would!'  And she waited a minute
+and then she says, kind of low and more as if she was talkin' to
+herself than to him, 'What SHALL I do?' she says.  And he heard her
+and says he--I'd like to have chopped his head off with the
+kindlin' hatchet when I heard him say it--says he, '_I_ don't know.
+How do you s'pose _I_ know what you'll do?  I don't know what I'll
+do, myself, do I?'  And she answered right off, and kind of sharp,
+'You was sure enough what was goin' to be done when you got father
+into this thing.'  And he just swore and stomped out of the house.
+So THAT sounds as if he had somethin' to do with it, don't it?"
+
+Galusha was obliged to admit that it did so sound.  And when he
+remembered Mr. Pulcifer's remark at the gate, that concerning women
+and business, the evidence was still more convincing.  He did not
+tell Primmie that he was convinced, however.  He swore her to
+secrecy, made her promise that she would tell no one else what she
+had told him or even that she had told him, and in return promised
+to do what he could to bring about her retention in the Phipps'
+home.
+
+"Although, as I said, Primmie," he added, "I'm sure I can't at
+present see what I can do."
+
+Another person might have found little encouragement in this, but
+Primmie apparently found a good deal.
+
+"You'll see a way, I'll bet you you will, Mr. Bangs," she declared.
+"Anybody that's been through the kind of times you have, livin'
+along with critters that steal the shirt off your back, ain't goin'
+to let a blowed-up gas balloon like Raish Pulcifer stump you.  My
+savin' soul, no!"
+
+Mr. Bangs smiled faintly.
+
+"The shirt wasn't on my back when it was stolen," he said.
+
+Primmie sniffed.  "It didn't have no chance to be," she declared.
+"That camel thing got it onto HIS back first.  But, anyhow, I feel
+better.  I think now we're goin' to come out all right, Miss Martha
+and me.  I don't know why I feel so, but I do."
+
+Galusha was by no means as confident.  He went back to his room and
+to bed, but it was long before he fell asleep.  Just why the
+thought of Martha Phipps' trouble should trouble him so greatly he
+still did not understand, exactly.  Of course he was always sorry
+for any one in trouble, and would have gone far out of his way to
+help such a person, had the latter appealed to him.  But Martha had
+not appealed to him; as a matter of fact, it was evident that she
+was trying to keep knowledge of her difficulty from him and every
+one else.  Plainly it was not his business at all.  And yet he was
+filled with an intense desire, even a determination, to make it his
+business.  He could not understand why, but he wasted no time
+trying to understand.  The determination to help was strong when at
+last he did fall asleep and it was just as strong when he awoke the
+next morning.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+He endeavored, while dressing, to map out a plan of campaign, but
+the map was but a meaningless whirligig of lines leading nowhere
+when Primmie called from the foot of the stairs that breakfast was
+ready.  During breakfast he was more absent-minded than usual,
+which is saying a good deal, and Martha herself was far from
+communicative.  After the meal he was putting on his hat and coat
+preparatory to going out for his usual walk when Primmie came
+hurrying through the hall.
+
+"She wants you," said Primmie, mysteriously, her eyes shining with
+excitement.  "She wants to see you in the settin' room.  Come on,
+come on, Mr. Bangs!  What are you waitin' for?"
+
+As a general rule Galusha's thoughts started upon the morning
+ramble some little time before he did and recalling them was a
+rather slow and patience-taxing process.  In this case, however,
+they were already in the sitting room with Martha Phipps and so had
+a shorter road home.  But they came slowly enough, for all that.
+
+"Eh?" queried Galusha, peering out between the earlaps of his cap.
+"Eh?  What did you say, Primmie?"
+
+"I say Miss Martha wants to see you a minute.  She's in there
+a-waitin'.  I bet you she's goin' to tell you about it.  Hurry!
+hurry!"
+
+"Tell me? . . .  About what?"
+
+"Why, about what 'tis that's worryin' her so.  About that Raish
+Pulcifer and all the rest of it. . . .  Oh, my Lord of Isrul!
+Don't you understand NOW?  Oh, Mr. Bangs, won't you PLEASE wake
+up?"
+
+But Galusha was beginning to understand.
+
+"Dear me!  Dear me!" he exclaimed, nervously.  "Do you think that--
+Did she say she wished to see me, Primmie?"
+
+"Ain't I been tellin' you she did?  Now you talk right up to her,
+Mr. Bangs.  You tell her I don't want no wages.  Tell her I'll stay
+right along same as ever and--  You TELL her, Mr. Bangs."
+
+Martha was standing by the stove in the sitting room when her
+lodger entered.  She turned to greet him.
+
+"I don't know as I'm doin' right to keep you from your walk, Mr.
+Bangs," she said.  "And I won't keep you very long.  But I did want
+to talk with you for just a minute or two.  I wanted to ask your
+advice about--about a business matter."
+
+Now this was very funny indeed.  It would have been hard to find a
+richer joke than the idea of consulting Galusha Bangs concerning a
+matter of business.  But both parties to this consultation were too
+serious to see the joke at that moment.
+
+Galusha nodded solemnly.  He faltered something about being highly
+honored and only too glad to be of service.  His landlady thanked
+him.
+
+"Yes," she said, "I knew you would be.  And, as I say, I won't keep
+you very long.  Sit down, Mr. Bangs.  Oh, not in that straight up-
+and-down thing.  Here, in the rocker."
+
+Galusha lifted himself from the edge of the straight-backed chair
+upon which he had perched and sat upon the edge of the rocking-
+chair instead.  Martha looked at him sitting there, his collar
+turned up, his cap brim and earlaps covering two thirds of his face
+and his spectacles at least half of the remaining third, his
+mittened hands twitching nervously in his lap, and, in spite of her
+feelings, could not help smiling.  But it was a fleeting smile.
+
+"Take off your things, Mr. Bangs," she said.  "You'll roast alive
+if you don't.  It's warm in here.  Primmie forgot and left the
+dampers open and the stove was pretty nearly red-hot when I came in
+just now.  Yes, take off your overcoat and cap, and those mittens,
+for mercy sakes."
+
+Galusha declared that he didn't mind the mittens and the rest, but
+she insisted and he hastily divested himself of his wrappings,
+dropping them upon the floor as the most convenient repository and
+being greatly fussed when Miss Phipps picked them up and laid them
+on the table.
+
+"I--I beg your pardon," he stammered.  "Really, I DON'T know why I
+am so thoughtless.  I--I should be--ah--hanged or something, I
+think.  Then perhaps I wouldn't do it again."
+
+Martha shook her head.  "You probably wouldn't in that case," she
+said.  "Now, Mr. Bangs, I'm going to try to get at that matter I
+wanted to ask your opinion about.  Do you know anything about
+stocks--stockmarket stocks, I mean?"
+
+Her lodger looked rather bewildered.
+
+"Dear me, no; not a thing," he declared.
+
+She did not look greatly disappointed.
+
+"I didn't suppose you did," she said.  "You--well, you don't look
+like a man who would know much about such things.  And from what
+I've seen of you, goodness knows, you don't ACT like one!  Perhaps
+I shouldn't say that," she added, hastily.  "I didn't mean it just
+as it sounded."
+
+"Oh, that's all right, that's all right, Miss Phipps.  I know I am
+a--ah--donkey in most matters."
+
+"You're a long way from bein' a donkey, Mr. Bangs.  And I didn't
+say you were, of course.  But--oh, well, never mind that.  So you
+don't know anything about stocks and investments and such?"
+
+"No, I don't.  I am awfully sorry.  But--but, you see, all that
+sort of thing is so very distasteful to me.  It bores me--ah--
+dreadfully.  And so I--I dodge it whenever I can."
+
+Martha sighed.  "Some of the rest of us would like to dodge it,
+too," she said, "if we only could.  And yet--" she paused and
+regarded him with the odd expression she had worn more than once
+when he puzzled her--"and yet I--I just can't make you out, Mr.
+Bangs.  You say you don't know anything about money and managin'
+money, and yet those Egypt trips of yours must cost a lot of money.
+And somebody must manage them.  SOMEBODY must 'tend to payin' the
+bills and the wages and all.  Who does that?"
+
+Galusha smiled.  "Why, I do," he admitted, "after a fashion.  But
+it is a very poor fashion.  I almost never--I think I may safely
+say never come in from one of those trips without having exceeded
+the--ah--estimate of expenses.  I always exceed it more or less--
+generally more."
+
+He smiled again.  She looked more puzzled than ever.
+
+"But some one has to pay the extra, don't they?" she asked.  "Who
+does pay it, the museum people?"
+
+"Why--ah--no, not exactly.  It is--ah--ah--generally provided.
+But," he added, rather hastily, as if afraid she might ask more
+questions along this line, "if I might make a suggestion, Miss
+Martha--Miss Phipps, I mean--"
+
+"Plain Martha will do well enough.  I think you're the only one in
+East Wellmouth that calls me anything else.  Of course you can make
+a suggestion.  Go ahead."
+
+"Well--ah--well, Miss Phipps--ah--Miss Martha, since you permit me
+to call you so. . . .  What is it?"
+
+"Oh, nothin', nothin'.  I was goin' to say that the 'Miss' wasn't
+necessary, but never mind.  Go on."
+
+"Well--ah--Mar--ah--Miss Martha, I was about to suggest that you
+tell me what you intended telling me.  I am very anxious to help--
+ah--even if I can't, you know.  Only I beg of you not to think I am
+actuated by idle curiosity."
+
+She shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"Even if you were I don't know that I shouldn't want to tell you,
+just the same," she observed.  "The fact is I've just GOT to talk
+this over with some one.  Mr. Bangs, I am so worried I don't know
+what to do.  It is a money matter, of course, that's worryin' me,
+an investment father made a little while before he died.  Mr.
+Bangs, I don't suppose it's likely that you ever heard of the
+Wellmouth Development Company?  No, of course you haven't."
+
+And yet, as she looked into her lodger's face, she was surprised at
+its expression.
+
+"Why, you never have heard of it, have you?" she demanded.
+
+Galusha stroked his chin.  "That day in the cemetery," he murmured.
+"That day when I was--ah--behind the tomb and heard Captain Hallett
+and Mr. Pulcifer speaking.  I may be mistaken, but it seems to me
+that they mentioned the name of--ah--ah--"
+
+"The Development Company?  Of course they did and you told me so
+when you got home.  I remember now.  Well, Cap'n Jeth and Raish
+were both mixed up in it along with father.  Yes, and Doctor Powers
+and a lot more, though not so much.  Raish, of course, was at the
+back of it in the beginnin'.  He got 'em all in it, got himself
+into it, as far as that goes.  You see, it was this way."
+
+She told the story of the Wellmouth Development Company.  It--the
+story--began when the Eagle Fish Freezing Company of Denboro, a
+concern then running and operating one large cold storage plant in
+that village, were looking about for a favorable spot upon which to
+build a second.  The spot which appealed to their mind to purchase
+was the property at the mouth of Skoonic Creek in East Wellmouth.
+
+"It's a real pretty place," said Martha, "one of the prettiest
+spots alongshore, and the view from the top of the bluff there is
+just lovely.  You can see miles and miles out to sea and all up and
+down the shore--and back over the village, for that matter.  But,
+come to think of it, you know the place, Mr. Bangs.  It's only a
+little way from the old Baptist buryin' ground."
+
+Galusha nodded.  "Isn't it where my--ah--late lamented hat set
+sail?" he asked.
+
+"Why, of course it is.  Just there.  Well, the Eagle Fish folks
+made their plans to buy all that property, the hills on both sides,
+and the low land down by the creek.  It was just the place for 'em,
+you see.  And they were quietly makin' arrangements to pick up the
+different parcels of land from the owners here and there, when
+Raish Pulcifer got wind of it.  There's precious little goin' on
+down this part of the Cape that Raish doesn't get wind of,
+particularly if it's somebody else's secret.  He's got a reg'lar
+pig's nose for rootin' up other people's private concerns.  Well,
+Raish found out what the Eagle Company was up to and he started
+bein' up to somethin' himself."
+
+Mr. Pulcifer, so Miss Phipps went on to say, conceived the idea of
+buying the Skoonic Creek property before the Eagle Company could do
+so.  The principal difficulty was that just then his own limited
+capital was tied up in various ways and he lacked ready money.  So,
+being obliged to borrow, he sought out Captain Hallett, got the
+shrewd old light keeper's cupidity aroused--not a very difficult
+task at any time--and Captain Jethro agreed to help finance the
+deal.
+
+"It didn't need a whole lot of real money," explained Martha.
+"Most folks that owned that land had owned it for mercy knows how
+long and had done nothin' but pay taxes on it, so they were glad
+enough to sell for somethin' down to bind what Raish and Jethro
+called 'options.'  Anyhow, when the Eagle people finally started in
+to put their grand plan into workin', they bumped bows on into a
+shoal, at least that's the way father used to tell about it.  They
+found that all that Skoonic Creek land was in the hands of Raish
+Pulcifer and Cap'n Jeth Hallett; those two either owned it outright
+or had options where they didn't own."
+
+At first the Eagle Company declined to have anything to do with the
+new owners.  They declared the whole affair off, so far as the
+Skoonic Creek location was concerned, and announced their intention
+of going elsewhere.  But there was no sufficiently attractive
+"elsewhere" to go.  There followed much proposing and counter-
+proposing and, at last, an entirely new deal.  A new corporation
+was formed, its name The Wellmouth Development Company.
+
+"I don't know a great deal about it," confessed Martha, "that is,
+not about the reasons for it and all, but, as near as I can make
+out, Raish and Jethro wouldn't sell outright to the Eagle Company,
+but wanted to come in on the profits from the cold storage
+business, which were pretty big sometimes.  And they couldn't get
+into the reg'lar Eagle Fish Freezing Company, the old one.  So they
+and the Eagle folks together undertook to form this new thing, the
+Development Company, the name meanin' nothin' or a whole lot,
+'cordin' to how the development developed, I presume likely.  The
+capital stock--I know all this because Cap'n Jethro and father used
+to talk it over so much between 'em and Cap'n Jeth and I have
+talked so much since--was fifty thousand.  An awful lot of money,
+isn't it, Mr. Bangs?"
+
+Her tone was awe-stricken as she mentioned the amount.  Galusha
+gravely admitted that it was an "awful lot of money."  All sums
+were awful to him; he would have agreed if the Wellmouth
+Development Company had been capitalized from one thousand to a
+million.  Miss Phipps went on.
+
+"They put out the stock somethin' like this:  The Eagle folks took
+pretty near half, somewhere around twelve hundred shares, I think
+they had.  And Raish he took five hundred shares, and Cap'n Jeth
+four hundred, and father--after listenin' to Jethro and Raish talk
+about dividends and profit sharin' and such till, as he said, the
+tar on his top riggin' began to melt, he drew out money from the
+savin's bank and sold some other bonds and stocks he had and went
+in for two hundred and fifty shares.  Twenty dollars a share it
+was; did I tell you that?  Yes, five thousand dollars father put
+into that Development Company.  It seemed like a lot even then;
+but, my soul and body, WHAT a lot it seems to me now!"
+
+She paused for an instant, then sighed, and continued.
+
+"If you've figured this all out in your head, Mr. Bangs," she said,
+"which I suppose you haven't--?"
+
+Galusha, surprised by the direct question, started, colored, and
+guiltily admitted the correctness of her supposition.
+
+"I--I haven't," he faltered.  "Dear me, no.  In fact I--ah--doubt
+if I am capable of doing such a thing."
+
+"Well, never mind, you don't have to.  What it amounted to was that
+the Eagle folks had twelve hundred shares and Raish and Jeth and
+father had eleven hundred and fifty together.  You see, neither
+side would let the other have more'n half, or even quite half,
+because then whichever had it could control things.  So the
+remainin' one hundred and fifty shares was sold around Wellmouth
+and Trumet.  Doctor Powers has a few shares and Eben Taylor's got
+some, and so have lots of folks, scattered around here.  You see,
+all hands were anxious to get in, it looked like a real good
+investment.
+
+"'But,' says father--right here in this very room I heard him say
+it one night--'it's that one hundred and fifty shares that worry
+me.  If the Eagle crowd ever COULD buy up those shares they would
+control, after all, and freeze us out.  Freezin' is their business,
+anyhow,' he said, and laughed that big laugh of his.  Seems as if
+I could hear him laugh now.  Ah, hum! . . .  But there, let's get
+under way again or you'll go to sleep before the ship makes port.
+I declare, that was father's word, too, I'm always quotin'
+him. . . .  Let me see. . . .  Oh, yes. . . .  When father said
+that about the one hundred and fifty shares controllin' Cap'n
+Jethro looked at Raish and Raish looked at him.  Then Raish
+laughed, too, only his laugh isn't much like father's.
+
+"'_I_ got those extra shares taken up,' he said, 'and I was
+particular who took 'em.  There's mighty few of those shares will
+be sold unless I say the word.  Most of the folks that bought those
+shares are under consider'ble obligation to me.'  Just what he
+meant by that I don't know, of course, but I can guess.  Raish
+makes it a point to have people under what he calls 'obligations'
+to him.  It comes in handy for him, in politics and other ways, to
+have 'em that way.  He lends money and holds mortgages and all
+that, and that's where the obligations come in. . . .  Well,
+anyhow, that's what he said and, although father didn't look any
+too happy at the time and wouldn't talk about it afterward, it
+seemed to settle the objection about the hundred and fifty shares.
+So the new company got under way, the stockholders paid their money
+in, old Cap'n Ebenezer Thomas of Denboro was made president and
+Raish Pulcifer was vice president and Judge Daniel Seaver of
+Wellmouth Centre was secretary and treasurer.  The Judge was
+Wellmouth Centre's biggest gun, rich--at least, that's what
+everybody thought then--and pompous and dignified and straight-
+backed as an old-fashioned church pew.
+
+"Well, I'm pretty near to the end, although it may not seem that
+way.  For the first few months all hands were talkin' about what
+great things the Wellmouth Development Company was goin' to do.
+Then Judge Seaver gave 'em somethin' else to talk about.  He shot
+himself one night, and they found him dead and all alone in the
+sittin' room of his big house.  And when they came to look over his
+papers and affairs they found that, instead of bein' rich, he
+hadn't a cent in the world.  He had lost all his own money gamblin'
+in stocks, and, not only that, but he'd lost all that other folks
+had given him to take care of.  He was treasurer of the Eagle Fish
+Freezin' Company and he'd stolen there until that company had to
+fail.  And, bein' secretary and treasurer of the Wellmouth
+Development Company, he had sent the fifty thousand its stockholders
+paid in after the rest of his stealin's.  All there was left of that
+new Development Company was the land over here by Skoonic Creek.  He
+couldn't steal that very well, although, when you think of the
+stealin' he did do, it's a wonder he hadn't tried to carry it off
+by the wheelbarrow load.
+
+"It isn't worth while my tellin' you all the hullabaloo that came
+after the smash.  It would take too long and I don't know the ins
+and outs of it, anyway.  But the way it stands now is this:  The
+Eagle Fish Freezin' Company is out of business.  Their factory is
+run now by another concern altogether.  The Wellmouth Development
+Company is still alive--at least it's supposed to be, but nobody
+but a doctor could tell it wasn't dead.  The Denboro Trust Company
+has the Eagle Company's twelve hundred shares--I don't know how it
+got 'em; a long snarled-up tangle of loans, and security for loans,
+and I don't know what--and the rest of us have got ours.  All
+that's back of those shares--all that the Development Company owns--
+is that Skoonic Creek property and that is goin' to be worth a lot
+some day--maybe.  But I guess likely the some day will be a long,
+long time after MY day.  There, Mr. Bangs, that's the story of the
+Wellmouth Development Company.  And I presume likely you're
+wonderin' why I tell it to you."
+
+Galusha, who had been faithfully endeavoring to grasp the details
+of his hostess' narrative, passed a hand in bewildered fashion
+across his forehead.  He murmured that the story was--ah--very
+interesting, very interesting indeed--yes.  Martha smiled faintly.
+
+"I'm glad you think so," she said.  "It is interestin' enough to
+some of us here in Wellmouth, those of us who have our money tied
+up in it, but I shouldn't think a stranger would find much in it to
+amuse him.  But, you see, Mr. Bangs, I didn't tell it to amuse you.
+I told it because--because--well, because, I--I wondered if in any
+way you knew, or could find out, how I could sell my two hundred
+and fifty shares.  You see, I--I've GOT to sell 'em.  At least,
+I've got to get more money somehow or--or give up this house.  And
+I can't tell you what it would mean to me to do that."
+
+Galusha murmured something, something meant to be sympathetic.
+Miss Phipps' evident distress and mental agitation moved him
+extraordinarily.  He wanted to say many things, reassuring things,
+but he could not at the moment think of any.  The best he could do
+was to stammer a hope that she would not be obliged to sell the
+house.
+
+She shook her head.  "I'm afraid I shall," she said.  "I don't see
+how I can possibly keep it much longer.  When father died he left
+me, so he thought, with enough income to get along on.  It wasn't
+much--fact is, it was mighty little--but we could and did get along
+on it, Primmie and I, without touchin' my principal.  But then came
+the war and ever since livin' costs have been goin' up and up and
+up.  Now my income is the same as it was, but what it will buy is
+less than half.  It doesn't cost much to live down here, but I'm
+afraid it costs more than I can afford.  If I begin to take away
+from my principal I'll have to keep on doin' it and pretty soon
+that will be all gone.  After that--well, I don't want to look any
+further than that.  I shouldn't starve, I presume likely; while
+I've got hands I can work and I'd manage to keep alive, if that was
+all.  But it isn't all.  I'd like to keep on livin' in my own home.
+And I can't do that, Mr. Bangs.  I can't do that, as things are
+now.  I must either get some more money somehow, or sell this
+house, one or the other."
+
+Galusha leaned eagerly forward.  He had been waiting for an excuse
+and now he believed he saw one.
+
+"Oh, Miss Phipps," he cried, "I--I think I can arrange that.  I do
+indeed.  You see, I have--ah--more money than I need.  I seldom
+spend my money, you know, and--"
+
+She interrupted him and her tone was rather sharp.
+
+"Don't, Mr. Bangs," she said.  "Don't say any more.  If you've got
+the idea that I'm hintin' for you to LEND me money--you or anybody
+else--you never was more mistaken in your life.  Or ever will be."
+
+Galusha turned red.  "I beg your pardon," he faltered.  "Of course
+I know you were not hinting, Miss Martha.  I--I didn't dream of
+such a thing.  It was merely a thought of my own.  You see, it
+would be such a favor to me if you would permit me to--to--"
+
+"Don't."
+
+"But, Miss Phipps, it would be doing me such a GREAT favor.
+Really, it would."
+
+He was so very much in earnest that, in spite of her own stress of
+mind, she could not help smiling.
+
+"A great favor to help you get rid of your money?" she asked.  "You
+havin' such a tremendous lot of it, I presume likely."
+
+"Yes--ah--yes, that's it, that's it."
+
+Her smile broadened.  "And 'twas because you were so dreadfully
+rich that you came here to East Wellmouth to live, I suppose.  Mr.
+Bangs, you're the kindest, best-hearted man that ever stepped, I do
+believe, but truly I doubt if you know whether you're worth ten
+dollars or ten hundred.  And it doesn't make the least difference,
+so far as I am concerned.  I'll never borrow money while I'm alive
+and I'll try to keep enough one side to bury me after I'm dead.  So
+don't say any more about lendin'.  That's settled."
+
+Galusha reluctantly realized that it was.  He tried a new idea.
+
+"I fear," he stammered, "that my being here may have been a
+contributory cause to your--ah--difficulties.  Dear me, yes!  I
+have realized since the beginning that the amount I pay you is
+ridiculously small."
+
+"WHAT?  The board you pay SMALL?  Rubbish!  You pay me altogether
+too much and what I give you to eat isn't worth half of it.  But
+there, I didn't mean to go into all this at all.  What I told you
+all this long rigmarole for was to see if you could think of any
+way for me to turn those Development Company shares of mine into
+money.  Not what father paid for them, of course, or even half of
+it.  But SOME money at least.  If I thought they weren't worth
+anything I shouldn't think of tryin' to sell 'em.  I don't want to
+cheat--or steal.  But they tell me they are worth somethin', maybe
+will be worth quite a good deal some day and I must wait, that's
+all.  But, you see, that's what I can't do--wait."
+
+She had been, she said, to every one she could think of, to
+Pulcifer, who would not give her any encouragement, declaring that
+he was "stuck" worse than she was and was only hoping some one
+might make a bid for his holdings; to Captain Jethro, who, relying
+as usual upon his revelations from the beyond, blandly told her to
+wait as he was waiting.  It had been communicated to him that he
+was to sell his own shares at a profit; if she waited she might do
+likewise.  The president of the Denboro Trust Company had been very
+kind, but his counsel was not too encouraging.  The Development
+shares were nonsalable at the present time, he said, but that did
+not mean that they were valueless.  The Skoonic Creek property was
+good.  Shore land on the Cape was becoming more valuable every
+year.  Some time--perhaps ten years from now--she might--
+
+"And where will I be in ten years?" asked Martha, sadly.  "Goodness
+knows, Mr. Bangs, I don't.  I tried to get the Trust Company man to
+take my shares at almost any price and do the waitin' for me, but
+he didn't see it that way.  Said the bank was goin' to hold on to
+what it had, but it certainly didn't want any more.  So there I
+am. . . .  And yet, and yet if I COULD sell--if I COULD get two
+thousand dollars, yes, or even fifteen hundred just now, it might
+tide me over until the cost of livin' comes down.  And everybody
+says they ARE comin' down.  Mr. Bangs, can you see any way out for
+me?  Can you think of any one who would know about--  Oh, my soul
+and body!  Look OUT!"
+
+She sprang to her feet with a little scream.  Her lodger's rocking-
+chair, with its occupant, had suddenly tilted over backward.
+Fortunately his proximity to the wall had prevented a complete
+overturn, but there sat Galusha, the back of the chair against the
+wall and his knees elevated at a very acute angle.  The alarming
+part of it was that he made no effort to regain his equilibrium,
+but remained in the unusual, not to say undignified, posture.
+
+"What IS the matter?" demanded Miss Phipps, seizing him by the arm
+and pulling him forward.  "What was it?  What happened?"
+
+Galusha's face was beaming.  His eyes shone with excitement.
+
+"It--it struck me at that moment," he cried.  "At that very
+moment."
+
+"Struck you?"  Miss Phipps looked about the room.  "What struck
+you?  Where?  Are you hurt?"
+
+Mr. Bangs' beaming smile broadened.
+
+"I mean the idea struck me," he declared.  "Dear me, how odd that
+it didn't do so before.  Yes, he is exactly the right person.
+Exactly.  Oh, dear me, this is VERY good!"
+
+Martha said afterward that she never in her life felt more like
+shaking a person.
+
+"What do you mean?" she demanded.  "What was it that struck you?"
+
+"Why, Cousin Gussie," announced Galusha, happily.  "Don't you see?
+He will be EXACTLY the one."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+When, at last--and it took some time--Martha Phipps was actually
+convinced that her lodger's "Cousin Gussie" was no less a person
+than the senior partner of the famous banking firm of Cabot,
+Bancroft and Cabot, she was almost as excited as he.
+
+"Cabot, Bancroft and Cabot," she repeated.  "Why, everybody knows
+about them!  They are the biggest bankers in New England.  I have
+heard father say so ever so many times.  And this Mr. Cabot, is he
+really your cousin?"
+
+Galusha nodded.  "Oh, yes," he said.  "He is my cousin--really he
+is.  I have always called him Cousin Gussie; that is," he added,
+"except when I worked for him, of course.  Then he didn't like to
+have me."
+
+"Worked for him?"
+
+"Yes, in his office, in the--ah--banking house, you know."
+
+"Do you mean to say you used to work for Cabot, Bancroft and Cabot?
+Were you a banker?"
+
+Galusha shook his head.  "No," he said.  "Dear me, no!  But once I
+tried to be."
+
+"Oh!  And you gave it up?"
+
+"_I_ was given up--as a bad job.  If you don't mind," he added,
+apologetically, "I'd rather not talk about that.  I've gotten over
+it a long while ago, or I thought I had, but for a time I--I felt
+very badly--ah--ungrateful, you know."
+
+Martha didn't know, nor did she in the least understand, but she
+did not, of course, press the subject.
+
+"Why, I can hardly believe it," she said.  "That about your bein'
+that Mr. Cabot's cousin, I mean.  But of course I do believe it, if
+you say so, Mr. Bangs.  And you think he would tell me what to do
+with this Development stock of mine, whether it is worth anything
+or not?  He would know, if anybody did, that's a fact."
+
+Galusha nodded assent.
+
+"He knows all about everything," he declared; "everything of that
+kind, I mean.  He is used to making all sorts of--ah--investments
+for people, and taking care of their money, and all that sort of
+thing.  Why," he added, as a final clincher, "he takes care of all
+my money, really, he does."
+
+Miss Phipps laughed.
+
+"And that I suppose is enough to keep one man busy," she observed.
+
+Galusha was too much in earnest to notice the sarcasm.
+
+"I'm sure it must be," he said.  "I never could do it myself."
+
+"I can believe that without any trouble.  Now what is your idea,
+Mr. Bangs; to write to your cousin, tell him everything I've told
+you, and then ask his advice?  Is that it?"
+
+That was not exactly it, apparently.  Galusha thought that perhaps
+he might go to Boston forthwith, on the very next train, and
+consult Cousin Gussie in person.  But Martha did not think this
+advisable.
+
+"I certainly shouldn't put you to all that trouble," she said.
+"No, I shouldn't, so please don't let's waste time arguin' about
+it.  And, besides, I think a letter would be a great deal better."
+
+Galusha said that a letter was so slow.
+
+"Maybe so, but it is sure.  Truly now, Mr. Bangs, do you believe if
+you went to your cousin that you could tell him this Development
+Company yarn without gettin' it all tangled up?  I doubt if you
+could."
+
+He reflected for a moment, and then ruefully shook his head.
+
+"I'm afraid you are right," he admitted.  "I presume I could learn
+it--ah--by rote, perhaps, but I doubt if ever I could understand it
+thoroughly."
+
+"Well, never mind.  My plan would be to have you write your cousin
+a letter givin' him all the particulars.  I'll help you write the
+letter, if you'll let me.  And we'll ask him to write right back
+and tell us two things:  Number One--Is the Development stock worth
+anything, and what?  Number Two--If it is worth anything, can he
+sell it for that?  What do you think of that idea?"
+
+Naturally, Galusha thought it a wonderful idea.  He was very
+enthusiastic about it.
+
+"Why, Miss Phipps--Miss Martha, I mean," he declared, "I really
+think we--ah--may consider your troubles almost at an end.  I
+shouldn't be in the least surprised if Cousin Gussie bought that
+stock of yours himself."
+
+Martha smiled, faintly.  "I should," she said, "be very much
+surprised.  But perhaps he may know some one who will buy it at
+some price or other.  And, no matter whether they do or not, I am
+ever and ever so much obliged to you, Mr. Bangs, for all your
+patience and sympathy."
+
+And, in spite of her professed pessimism she could not help feeling
+a bit more hopeful, even sharing a bit of her lodger's confidence.
+And so when Primmie, in tears, came again that afternoon to beg to
+be retained in service, Martha consented to try to maintain the
+present arrangement for a few weeks more, at least.
+
+"Although the dear land knows I shouldn't, Primmie," she said.
+"It's just postponin' what is almost sure to come, and that isn't
+right for either of us."
+
+Primmie's grin extended from ear to ear.
+
+"You bet you it's right for one of us, Miss Martha," she declared.
+"And you ain't the one, neither.  My Lord of Isrul, if I don't feel
+some better'n I did when I come into this room!  Whew!  My savin'
+soul!  Zach Bloomer he says to me this mornin'.  'What's the
+matter, Posy?' he says.  'Seems to me you look sort of wilted
+lately.  You better brace up,' he says, 'or folks'll be callin' you
+a faded flower.'  'Well,' says I, 'I may be faded, but there's one
+old p'ison ivy around here that's fresh enough to make up.'  Oh, I
+squashed HIM all righty, but I never took no comfort out of doin'
+it.  I ain't took no comfort for the last two, three days.  But
+now--  Whew!"
+
+The letter to Cousin Gussie was written that very afternoon.  Mr.
+Bangs wrote it, with helpful suggestions, many of them, from Miss
+Phipps.  At Martha's suggestion the envelope was marked "Personal."
+
+"I suppose it is foolish of me," she said, "but somehow I hate to
+have my affairs talked all over that office.  Even when I was a
+little girl, and things went wrong in school, I used to save up my
+cryin' until I got home.  I'm the same now.  This Development
+Company milk is spilled, and, whether any of it can be saved or
+not, there is no use callin' a crowd to look at the puddle.  If
+your cousin thinks it's necessary to tell other Boston folks, I
+presume he will, but WE won't tell anybody but him."
+
+Galusha hoped to receive an answer the following day, but none
+came.  Nor did it come the next day, nor the next.  That week
+passed and no reply came from Cousin Gussie.  Galusha began to
+worry a little, but Miss Phipps did not.
+
+"Perhaps he's away for a day or two, sick or somethin'," she
+suggested.  "Perhaps he's lookin' up some facts about the
+Development Company.  Perhaps he hasn't had time to read the letter
+at all yet.  Mercy me, you mustn't expect as busy a man as the head
+of Cabot, Bancroft and Cabot to drop everything else and run around
+in circles attendin' to my little two-for-a-cent business!"
+
+The relative of the great man admitted that there was reason in
+this line of argument, but he was impatient, nevertheless.  His
+daily walks now included trips to the post office.  On one of
+those trips he caught a glimpse of Mr. Pulcifer's hemispherical
+countenance through its wearer's office window, and, on the spur
+of the moment's impulse, went in.
+
+Horatio, who was smoking his customary cigar, reading a political
+circular and humming "Beautiful Lady" all at the same time, looked
+up from the reading and greeted him boisterously.
+
+"Well, well, well!" exclaimed Raish.  "If it ain't the Perfessor
+again!  Welcome to amongst our midst, as the feller said.  Have a
+chair, Perfessor.  How's things in the graveyard these days?  Kind
+of dead around there, eh?  Haw, haw, haw!"
+
+He enjoyed his joke and laugh and Galusha smiled because he felt
+that politeness required it.  When the laugh and smile had run
+their course, he endeavored to come to the point.
+
+"Mr. Pulcifer," he said, "I--if you are not too greatly occupied I
+should like to ask--ah--a business question.  Ah--may I?"
+
+He most assuredly could.  In fact, he was urged to ask it then and
+there.
+
+"Never too busy to talk business, a feller usually ain't; eh,
+Perfessor?  Haw, haw!  I'd say he wan't, eh?  Set down, set down
+and ease your mind.  What's the business question?  Let 'er go."
+
+Mr. Bangs let her go to the extent of stammering a request to be
+given his companion's candid opinion concerning the shares of the
+Wellmouth Development Company.  He was--ah--somewhat interested in
+them, so he said.
+
+Raish leaned back in his chair and scrutinized the questioner.  He
+shot at least five deep-drawn puffs of smoke into the already murky
+air of the little office before replying.
+
+"Humph!" he grunted, after the fifth puff.  "Wellmouth Development
+Company, eh?  You're interested in that, are you?"
+
+"Why--ah--yes, yes.  To a certain extent, yes, Mr. Pulcifer."
+
+"Humph!  What d'you mean, interested?  How interested?"
+
+"Why, as--ah--as an investment, you know.  As something to put
+one's money into."
+
+"Humph!  Was you thinkin' of puttin' some of yours into it?"
+
+"Why, not exactly.  But, you see, a friend of mine--  But, really,
+I think I shouldn't give any further particulars at the present
+time.  You'll excuse me under the circumstances, Mr. Pulcifer, I'm
+sure.  Dear me, I hope you will."
+
+He was forgiven.  Mr. Pulcifer assured him to that effect.  But
+Raish was still uncertain just how to proceed.  He continued to
+puff and scrutinize.
+
+"What I wish to know," continued his caller, after another moment's
+interval, "is--well, in short, I should like to know your opinion
+of Wellmouth Development shares as an investment security."
+
+"Um--ye-es.  Well, you said that before."
+
+"Did I?  Dear me, I believe I did.  Well, then, suppose, just
+suppose that I actually did wish to buy some of those shares.
+Would you consider it a good thing for me to do?"
+
+Here at last was something tangible--and promising.  Mr. Pulcifer's
+puffy lids drew nearer together to hide the gleam behind them.  He
+took the cigar from his mouth and held it between the fingers of
+his right hand.  During his next speech he gesticulated with it.
+
+"Would I consid--" he began, and then paused, apparently overcome
+by his feelings.  The pause was not long, however.  "Would I
+consider Wellmouth Development a good thing for you to put your
+money in?  WOULD I?"
+
+"Ah--yes.  Would you?"
+
+"Say, Perfessor, you listen to me.  _I_ know all about Wellmouth
+Development.  You've come to the right place.  You listen."
+
+Galusha listened, listened for a long time.  The red of the
+Pulcifer cigar tip died out and that of the Pulcifer face
+brightened.
+
+"And so I say," vowed Raish, in conclusion, "with all that property
+behind it and all that future ahead of it, if Development ain't a
+good investment, what is?"
+
+"I don't know, I'm sure," confessed Galusha.  "But--"
+
+"Don't know?  You bet you don't know!  Nor nobody else.  Not for
+quick returns, maybe--though you can't never tell.  But for a
+feller that's willin' to buy and put away and hang on--say, how can
+you beat it?"
+
+"I don't know, but--"
+
+"You bet you don't know!  The main thing is to buy right.  And I'm
+goin' to put you wise--yes, sir, wise to somethin' I wouldn't let
+every Tom, Dick, and Harry in on, by a consider'ble sight.  I think
+I can locate a fair-sized block of that stock at--well, at a little
+bit underneath the market price.  I believe--yes, sir, I believe I
+can get it for you at--at as low as eighteen dollars a share.  I
+won't swear I can, of course, but I MAY be able to.  Only you'll
+have to promise not to tell anybody how you got it."
+
+"Eighteen dollars a share?  Is that a fair price, do you think, Mr.
+Pulcifer?"
+
+"FAIR price?" Mr. Pulcifer was overcome by the absurdity of the
+question.  "A fair price!" he repeated.  "Man alive, it's a darned
+LOW price!  You buy Wellmouth Development at that price and then
+set back and hang on.  Yes, sir, that's all you'll have to do, just
+hang on and wait."
+
+To his surprise, Mr. Bangs seemed to find something humorous in
+this suggestion.  Instead of appearing thrilled, as he certainly
+should, he smiled.
+
+"Ah--yes," he observed, quietly.  "That is what my friend has been
+doing, I believe.  Yes, indeed, just that."
+
+Raish did not smile.  He looked puzzled and a bit perturbed.
+
+"What friend?" he demanded.  "Been doin' what?"
+
+"Hanging on and waiting, as you advise, Mr. Pulcifer.  She has had--
+ah--several shares of the Development stock and she--"
+
+"Hold on!  Did you come here to SELL somebody's stock for 'em?"
+
+"Why, no, not exactly.  But, as I say, a friend of mine has some
+and she was anxious to know what it was worth at the present time.
+When I tell her that you will give eighteen dollars a share for it--"
+
+"Here!"  Raish's smile and his urbanity had vanished.  "Here," he
+demanded, "what are you talkin' about?  Who the devil said anything
+about my givin' eighteen dollars a share?"
+
+"Why, I understood you to say that the--ah--shares were cheap at
+that figure, that it was a very low price for them.  You did say
+that, didn't you?"
+
+Mr. Pulcifer seemed to find articulation difficult.  He blew and
+sputtered like a stranded porpoise and his face became redder than
+ever, but he did not answer the question.
+
+"I understood--" began Galusha, again, but a roar interrupted him.
+
+"Aw, you understand too darn much," shouted Raish.  "You go back
+and tell Martha Phipps I say I don't know what them shares of hers
+are worth and I don't care.  You tell her I don't want to buy 'em
+and I don't know anybody that does.  Yes, and you tell her that if
+I did know anybody that was fool enough to bid one dollar of real
+money for 'em I'd sell him mine and be darn glad of the chance.
+And say, you tell her not to bother me no more.  She took her
+chance same as the rest of us, and if she don't like it she can
+go--  Eh?  What is it?"
+
+His caller had risen, rather suddenly for him, and was standing
+beside the desk.  There was a peculiar expression on his thin face.
+
+"What's the matter?" demanded Mr. Pulcifer.  Galusha's gaze was
+very direct.
+
+"I wouldn't say that," he said, quietly.
+
+"Eh?  Say what?  I was just goin' to say that if Martha Phipps
+didn't like waitin' same as the rest of us she--"
+
+"Yes, yes," hastily, "I know.  But I shouldn't say it, if I were
+you."
+
+"You wouldn't.  Why not, for thunder sakes?"
+
+"Because--well, I am sure you were speaking hastily--without
+thinking."
+
+"Is that so?"  How do YOU know I wasn't thinkin'?"
+
+"Because I am sure no one who had stopped to think would send that
+sort of message to a lady."
+
+"Humph! . . . Well, I swear! . . . Wouldn't send--I want to know!"
+
+"Yes--ah--and now you do know.  Good-day, Mr. Pulcifer."
+
+He was at the door when the surprised and, to tell the truth,
+somewhat disconcerted Horatio called after him.
+
+"Here!  Hold on, Perfessor," he hailed; "don't go off mad.  I
+didn't mean nothin'.  Er--er--say, Perfessor, I don't know's
+there's any use in your tellin' Martha what I said about them
+Development shares bein' cheap at eighteen.  Of course, that was
+all--er--more or less of a joke, you understand, and--  Eh?  What
+say?"
+
+"I said I understood, Mr. Pulcifer."
+
+"Yes--er--yes, yes.  Glad you do; I thought you would.  Now I tell
+you what to do:  You tell Martha . . . you tell her . . . say, what
+ARE you goin' to tell her?"
+
+"Nothing.  Good-day, Mr. Pulcifer."
+
+Galusha did not tell Martha of the interview in the real estate
+dealer's office, but the recollection of it did not tend to make
+him more easy in his mind concerning her investment in Wellmouth
+Development Company.  And, as another week went by and still Cousin
+Gussie did not reply to the letter of inquiry, his uneasiness grew
+with his impatience.  Another and more practical person would have
+called the Boston bankers by telephone, but Galusha did not think
+of that.  Martha offered no suggestions; her advice was to wait.
+
+"I don't think we ought to hurry your cousin, Mr. Bangs," she said.
+"He's probably lookin' into things, and he'll write when the time
+comes."
+
+Galusha devoutly wished the time would come soon.  He somewhat felt
+a great responsibility in the matter.  This sense of responsibility
+caused him to assume more and more optimism as his nervousness
+increased.  Each day of waiting found him covering his disappointment
+and anxiety with a more cheerful prophecy.
+
+"I've been thinking, Miss Martha," he said, "that Cousin Gussie
+must be MOST interested in the--ah--Development Company.  I really
+believe that he may be considering going into it himself--ah--
+extensively, so to speak.  The more he delays replying to our
+letter, the more certain I am that this is the case.  You see, it
+is quite logical.  Dear me, yes.  If he were not interested at all
+he would have replied at once, any one would.  And if only a little
+interested, he would have replied--say, at the end of a week.  But
+now he has taken almost three weeks, so--so--well, _I_ think we may
+infer GREAT interest, personal interest on his part.  Now, don't
+you think so, Miss Martha?"
+
+Martha shrugged.  "Accordin' to that reasonin," she said, "if he
+never answers at all it'll be because he's interested to death.
+Well, it begins to look as if that might be it.  There, there, Mr.
+Bangs, I mustn't talk that way, must I?  We won't give up the ship
+as long's the pumps work, as father used to say."
+
+It was the first symptom of discouragement she had shown.  The next
+morning Galusha crept downstairs before daylight, left a note on
+the dining table saying he would be back next day, and started on
+his long tramp to the railway station.  At noon of that day he
+entered the Boston office of Cabot, Bancroft and Cabot.
+
+Disappointment met him at the threshold, so to speak.  The young,
+extremely young, gentleman at the desk by the door, informed him
+that Mr. Augustus Cabot was not in.  Pressed still further, he
+admitted that he would not be in that day.  No, he would not be in
+that week.  No, he was not in Boston.  Where was he?  Well, he had
+gone away and the date of his return was extremely uncertain.
+
+Galusha, his spirits at a low ebb, stroked his chin in sad
+perplexity.
+
+"Dear me!  Dear me!" he observed.  And then added:
+
+"Is--is anybody in?"
+
+Considering that the space behind the mahogany and brass railings
+was crowded with clerks and that from the various inner offices
+people were constantly coming and going, the question was peculiar.
+The young guardian of the portal seemed to find it so.  He regarded
+Mr. Bangs with the puzzled stare of one not certain whether he has
+to do with a would-be joker or an imbecile.
+
+"Say, who do you want to see?" he demanded.
+
+"Why, Mr. Cabot--Mr. Augustus Cabot."
+
+"Mr. Cabot's away, I tell you.  He's out of town."
+
+A tall, thin man of middle age, who had just emerged from one of
+the private offices, paused beside them.  He looked at Galusha
+through his eyeglasses, and then held out his hand.
+
+"Why, Bangs!" he exclaimed.  "It IS Bangs, isn't it?  Glad to see
+you.  Don't you know me?  I'm Minor.  How are you?"
+
+Galusha remembered him, of course.  Minor had been a young
+assistant bookkeeper in those far-off and dismal days when he,
+Galusha, had worked--or attempted to work--in that very office.
+That was--mercy, that was a great many years ago!  Minor had
+changed very much.
+
+They shook hands and Galusha was invited to come into Mr. Minor's
+private office.
+
+"Let me see," said the latter, "you are--you are--  What is your
+business now?  I did hear, but I've forgotten."
+
+Galusha told of his connection with the National Institute.
+
+"I do--ah--archaeological work," he added.  "Egyptology is my
+specialty."
+
+Minor nodded.  "Yes, yes," he said, doubtfully.  "Just so."
+
+Plainly he regarded it as a weird sort of business.
+
+"And you are still a--ah--banker?" queried Galusha.
+
+"Yes.  Very much so.  I'm second vice president here now."
+
+"Dear me! dear me!  You have been in this place ever since?  Well,
+well!"
+
+A pause, during which each regarded the other, trying not to show
+the pity they felt.  Then Minor asked if there was anything he
+could do for his former associate.  Galusha explained that he had
+come to town to see his cousin, Mr. Augustus Cabot, on a business
+matter.  Mr. Minor was surprised, momentarily.
+
+"That's so," he said, "he is a relative of yours, isn't he?  I had
+forgotten."
+
+"Yes, yes, he is.  He--ah--you see, he looks after things for me--
+investments and--all that."
+
+"Humph!  Well, if you wanted to see him personally, you're out of
+luck.  He is away out in the Sierras, somewhere.  Been there for a
+month and he won't come back till the doctors tell him he may.
+Goodness knows when that will be."
+
+Cousin Gussie had, it appeared, suffered a severe nervous
+breakdown.  The physicians had ordered immediate dropping of
+business and business cares.
+
+"He must drop everything, they said, and cut, if he wanted to head
+off something a good deal more serious.  He must get out of doors
+and stay there; go to bed early at night--instead of early in the
+morning, which had been more in his line--and rough it generally."
+
+"Why--yes, yes, indeed.  That was almost precisely what the doctors
+told me I must do.  Rest and--ah--good air, you know, and pleasant
+people.  _I_ was very fortunate, really.  I am at--ah--Gould's
+Bluffs, Cape Cod, you know."
+
+"Yes?  Well, he's away out in California or Nevada or thereabouts.
+His secretary is with him--Thomas, the fellow he's had so many
+years; you remember him.  Thomas has gone along to see that the
+chief--Mr. Cabot, I mean--doesn't get any business letters or wires
+or anything of that sort.  He looks out for those that do come, the
+personal matters."
+
+"Oh!  Then perhaps my letter has been forwarded out there.  That
+would explain why I have received no answer.  Yes, of course."
+
+"Sure!  Thomas will write you by and by, no doubt.  But now that
+you are here, why don't you see Barbour?  Barbour is in charge of
+the chief's outside affairs while Thomas is away.  That is, he is
+in charge of everything that can be handled here.  The most
+important stuff goes to Thomas, of course.  But come in and see
+Barbour.  Perhaps he can tell you what you want to know."
+
+Mr. Barbour was a bald-headed, worried-looking little man, who, in
+the seclusion of a rear office, sat behind a big desk.  Minor
+introduced Galusha and Mr. Barbour extended a moist and flabby
+hand.  Minor excused himself and hastened out to the really
+important matters of life.  Galusha told Barbour the story of his
+letter to Cousin Gussie.  He did not tell what was in the letter,
+further than to say that it was an inquiry concerning a certain
+investment security.
+
+Barbour shook his head.
+
+"Everything marked 'Personal' I forward to Thomas," he said.
+"He'll write you pretty soon, although I'm pretty sure he won't
+trouble the chief with your question.  Doctors are mighty strict
+about that.  Nothing we here can do to help, is there?  Perhaps Mr.
+Minor might answer your question."
+
+Galusha was thinking of Minor that very moment, but he shook his
+head.  Martha had asked that no one but Cousin Gussie be told of
+her trouble.  No, he would wait, at least until he heard from the
+secretary in the West.
+
+"Why, thank you, Mr. Barbour," he said, rising.  "I--I will wait, I
+think."
+
+"All right, sir.  Sorry, but you see how it is.  Drop in again,
+Mr.--er--Barnes.  Barnes was the name, wasn't it?"
+
+"Why, not exactly.  My name is Bangs, but it really doesn't matter
+in the least.  Dear me, no.  I am a relative of Mr. Cabot's.  But
+that doesn't matter either.  Good-morning, Mr. Barbour."
+
+But it did seem to matter, after all.  At any rate, Mr. Barbour for
+the first time appeared actually interested.
+
+"Eh?" he exclaimed.  "Bangs?  Oh, just a minute, Mr. Bangs.  Just a
+minute, if you please.  Bangs?  Why, are you--  You're not the--er--
+professor?  Professor Ga--Ga--"
+
+"Galusha.  Yes, I am Galusha Bangs."
+
+"You don't mean it!  Well, well, that's odd!  I was planning to
+write you to-day, Professor.  Let me see, here's the memorandum
+now.  We look after your business affairs, I believe, Professor?"
+
+Galusha nodded.  He was anxious to get away.  The significance of
+Cousin Gussie's illness and absence and what those might mean to
+Martha Phipps were beginning to dawn upon him.  He wanted to get
+away and think.  The very last thing he wished to do was to discuss
+his own business affairs.
+
+"Yes," he admitted; "yes, you--ah--do.  That is, Cousin Gussie--ah--
+Mr. Cabot does.  But, really, I--"
+
+"I won't keep you but a moment, Professor.  And what I'm going to
+tell you is good news, at that.  I presume it IS news; or have you
+heard of the Tinplate melon?"
+
+It was quite evident that Galusha had not heard.  Nor, hearing now,
+did the news convey anything to his mind.
+
+"Melon?" he repeated.  "Ah--melon, did you say?"
+
+"Why, yes.  The Tinplate people are--"
+
+It was a rather long story, and telling it took longer than the
+minute Mr. Barbour had requested.  To Galusha it was all a tangled
+and most uninteresting snarl of figures and stock quotations and
+references to "preferred" and "common" and "new issues" and
+"rights."  He gathered that, somehow or other, he was to have more
+money, money which was coming to him because the "Tinplate crowd,"
+whoever they were, were to do something or other that people like
+Barbour called "cutting a melon."
+
+"You understand, Professor?" asked Mr. Barbour, concluding his
+explanation.
+
+Galusha was at that moment endeavoring to fabricate a story of his
+own, one which he might tell Miss Phipps.  It must not be too
+discouraging, it must--
+
+"Eh?" he ejaculated, coming out of his daydream.  "Oh, yes--yes, of
+course."
+
+"As near as I can figure, your share will be well over twelve
+thousand.  A pretty nice little windfall, I should say.  Now what
+shall I do with it?"
+
+"Yes. . . .  Oh, I beg your pardon.  Dear me, I am afraid I was not
+attending as I should."
+
+"I say what shall I do with the check when it comes.  That was what
+I intended writing you to ask.  Do you wish me to reinvest the
+money, or shall I send the check to you?"
+
+"Yes--ah--yes.  If you will be so kind.  You will excuse me, won't
+you, but really I must hurry on.  Thank you very much, Mr.
+Barbour."
+
+"But I don't quite understand which you wish me to do, Professor.
+Of course, Thomas usually attends to all this--your affairs, I
+mean--but I am trying not to trouble him unless it is absolutely
+necessary.  Shall I send the check direct to you, is that it?"
+
+"Yes--yes, that will do very nicely.  Thank you, Mr. Barbour.
+Good-morning."
+
+He hurried out before Barbour could say any more.  He cared nothing
+about Tinplate melons or checks; in fact, he forgot them both
+almost before he reached the street.  But Martha Phipps--he had
+assured and reassured Martha Phipps that Cousin Gussie would help
+her out of her financial difficulties.  And Cousin Gussie had not
+as yet learned of those difficulties, nor, in all probability,
+would he be permitted ever to learn of them.
+
+Galusha Bangs' trip back to East Wellmouth was by no means a
+pleasure excursion.  What should he say to Martha?  How could he be
+truthful and yet continue to be encouraging?  If he had not been so
+unreasonably optimistic it would be easier, but he had never once
+admitted the possibility of failure.  And--no, he would not admit
+it now.  Somehow and in some way Martha's cares must be smoothed
+away.  That he determined.  But what should he say to her now?
+
+He was still asking himself that question when he turned in at the
+Phipps' gate.  And Fate so arranged matters that it was Primmie who
+heard the gate latch click and Primmie who came flying down the
+path to meet him.
+
+"Mr. Bangs!  Oh, Mr. Bangs!" she cried, breathlessly.  "It's all
+right, ain't it?  It's all right?"
+
+Galusha, startled, stared at her.
+
+"Dear me, Primmie," he observed.  "How you do--ah--bounce at one,
+so to speak.  What is the matter?"
+
+"Matter?  I cal'late we both know what's the matter, but what _I_
+want to know is if it's goin' to keep ON bein' the matter.  Is it
+all right?  Have you fixed it up?"
+
+"Fixed what up?  And PLEASE speak lower.  Yes, and don't--ah--
+bounce, if you don't mind."
+
+"I won't, honest I won't.  But have you fixed up Miss Martha's
+trouble; you and them Bancroft folks, I mean?  Have you, Mr.
+Bangs?"
+
+"Bancroft folks? . . .  How did you know I--"
+
+"I seen it, of course.  'Twas in that note you left on the table."
+
+"Note?  Why, Primmie, that note was for Miss Phipps.  Why did you
+read it?"
+
+"Why wouldn't I read it?  There 'twas laid out on the table when I
+came down to poke up the fire and set the kettle on.  There wasn't
+no name on it, so 'twan't till I'd read it clear through that I
+knew 'twas for Miss Martha.  It said:  'Have gone to Boston to
+see--er--what's-his-name and Somebody-else and--'  Never mind,
+Bancroft's all I remember, anyhow.  But it said you'd gone to them
+folks to see about 'stock matter.'  Well, then I knew 'twas for
+Miss Martha.  _I_ didn't have no stock matters for folks to see
+about.  My savin' soul, no!  And then you said, 'Hope to settle
+everything and have good news when I come back.'  I remember THAT
+all right. . . .  Oh, Mr. Bangs, have you settled it?  HAVE you got
+good news for her?"
+
+By this time she had forgotten all about the request to speak in a
+low tone.  Galusha glanced fearfully at the open door behind her.
+
+"Sshh! shh, Primmie," he begged.
+
+"But have you?  Have you, Mr. Bangs?"
+
+"Why--why, perhaps, Primmie.  I mean--that is to say--"
+
+He stopped.  Miss Phipps was standing in the doorway.
+
+"Why, Mr. Bangs!" she exclaimed.  "Are you here so soon?  I didn't
+expect you till to-night.  What are you standin' out there in the
+cold for?  Come in, come in!"
+
+And then Primmie, to make use of the expressive idiom of her
+friend, the driver of the grocery cart, Primmie "spilled the
+beans."  She turned, saw her mistress, and ran toward her, waving
+both hands.
+
+"Oh, Miss Martha!" she cried, "he--he's done it.  He says it's all
+right.  He does! he does!"
+
+"Primmie!"
+
+"He says he's been to them--them Bancroft what's-his-name folks and
+he's got the good news for you.  Oh, ain't it elegant!  Ain't it!"
+
+This wild perversion of his guarded statement took Galusha
+completely by surprise.  He started forward aghast.  And then he
+saw Martha Phipps' face.  Upon it were written such hope and relief
+and joy that the words of expostulation and protest remained
+unspoken.  And it was Martha who spoke first.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Bangs!" she gasped.  "Oh, Mr. Bangs!"
+
+Galusha's chin quivered.  His face became very red.
+
+"Why--why--why, Miss Martha, I--I--"
+
+His agitation caused his teeth actually to chatter.  Martha noticed
+the chatter and misinterpreted the cause.
+
+"Mercy me!" she cried.  "You're standin' out there and freezin'
+to death.  Of course you are.  Come right in!  Primmie, open
+those stove dampers.  Put the kettle on front where it will boil
+quick. . . .  No, Mr. Bangs, you mustn't tell me a word until
+you're warm and rested.  You would like to go to your room, wouldn't
+you? Certainly you would.  Primmie will bring you hot water as soon
+as it's ready.  No, don't try to tell me a word until after you are
+rested and washed up."
+
+It was a welcome suggestion, not because Galusha was so eager to
+"wash up," but because he was eager, very eager, to be alone where
+no one could ask more embarrassing questions.  Yet the last thing
+he saw as he closed his room door was the expression upon Miss
+Phipps' face.  Hope, relief, happiness!  And what he had to tell
+would change them all.
+
+Oh, if he had not been so foolishly optimistic!  What should he
+say?  If he told the exact truth--the whole truth--
+
+But there, what was the whole truth?  After all, he did not KNOW
+that nothing would come of his letter to Cousin Gussie.  Something
+might come of it.  Yes, even something very good might come.  If
+Cousin Gussie himself never saw the letter, Thomas, the secretary,
+would see it and very likely he would write encouragingly.  He
+might--it was quite likely that he would--give the names of other
+Boston financiers to whom Wellmouth Development might be of
+interest.  In this case, or even the probability of such a case,
+he, Galusha, would certainly not be justified in making his story
+too discouraging.
+
+When, at last, he did descend to the sitting room, where Miss
+Phipps was awaiting him, the tale he told her bore very little
+resemblance to the hopeless, despairful narrative he had, while on
+the way down in the train, considered inevitable and the telling of
+which he had so dreaded.  In fact, when it was finished Martha's
+expression had changed but little.  She still looked happy.
+
+She drew a long breath.  "Well!" she exclaimed, "I can hardly
+believe it; it seems almost too good to believe.  And so that
+secretary man told you that he felt sure that your cousin, or his
+other secretary--how many secretaries does one man have to have,
+for mercy sakes?--would attend to the Development thing and it
+would be all right if we would just wait a little longer?  Was that
+it?"
+
+Galusha, who, in his intense desire not to be discouraging, had not
+until now realized how far he had gone in the other direction,
+blinked and wiped his forehead with his handkerchief.
+
+"That was it, wasn't it?" repeated Martha.
+
+"Why--why--ah--yes, about that, as--ah--one might say.  Yes."
+
+It was the first lie Galusha Bangs had told for many, many years,
+one of the very few he had ever told.  It was a very white lie and
+not told with deliberation or malice aforethought.  But, as so
+often happens, it was destined to be the father of a pestilential
+pack which were neither white nor unintentional.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+About the Phipps' home hung now the atmosphere of expectancy.  It
+had so hung for several weeks, ever since the first letter to
+Cousin Gussie had been posted, but now there was in it a different
+quality, a quality of brightness, of cheer.  Martha seemed more
+like herself, the capable, adequate self which Galusha had met when
+he staggered into that house out of the rain and wind of his first
+October night on Cape Cod.  She was more talkative, laughed more
+frequently, and bustled about her work with much, if not all, of
+her former energy.  She, herself, was quite aware of the change and
+commented upon it rather apologetically in one of her talks with
+her lodger.
+
+"It's ridiculous," she said, "and I know it, but I can't help it.
+I'm as excited as a child and almost as sure everything is goin' to
+come out right as--well, as Primmie is.  I wasn't so at all in the
+beginnin'; when we first sent that letter to your cousin I didn't
+think there was much more than one chance in a thousand that he
+would take any interest in Wellmouth Development stock.  But since
+you got back from your Boston cruise, Mr. Bangs, I've felt
+altogether different.  What the Cabot, Bancroft and Cabot folks
+said wasn't any too definite; when I sit right down and think about
+it I realize it wasn't.  But it was encouraging, real encouraging.
+And that bit of real encouragement has made me over, like an old
+dress.  Which reminds me that I've got to be makin' over some of MY
+old dresses pretty soon, or summer'll be here and I won't have a
+thing fit to wear.  I declare," she added, with a laugh, "this is
+the first time I've even thought about clothes since last fall.
+And when a woman forgets to be interested in dressmakin' she's
+pretty far gone. . . .  Why, what makes you look so sorrowful?  Is
+anything wrong?"
+
+Galusha replied that nothing whatever was wrong; there was, he
+said, no reason in the world why he should appear sorrowful.  Yet,
+this answer was not the exact truth; there were reasons, and
+speeches such as Miss Martha's reminded him of them.  They awoke
+his uneasy conscience to the fear that the encouragement she found
+in his report from Cabot, Bancroft and Cabot was almost entirely
+due to his interpretation of that report and not to the facts
+behind it.  However, as she must on no account guess this to be the
+case, he smiled and assumed an air more than ever carefree.
+
+One afternoon, when, on his way home after an unusually lengthy
+walk, he stopped at the post office, he found that the Phipps' mail
+had already been delivered.
+
+"Zach Bloomer stopped along in and took it," explained Miss Tamson
+Black, the postmaster's sister-in-law.  "I told him I presumed
+likely you'd be here after it yourself pretty soon, but it didn't
+make no difference.  He said--but maybe I better not tell you."
+
+"Oh, yes--no doubt," observed Galusha, who was, as usual, paying
+little attention.
+
+Tamson, plainly disappointed at his lack of curiosity, elevated her
+thin nose.
+
+"Well," she observed, "what he SAID was that, fur's things bein'
+here was concerned, Christmas would be here, give it time enough.
+Pretty sassy kind of talk, _I_ call it, but maybe you ain't so
+partic'lar, Mr. Bangs."
+
+"Dear me!  Of course.  Well, well! . . .  Oh, were there any
+letters for--ah--for me, may I ask?"
+
+"Why, yes, there was, two of 'em.  That's what made me cal'late you
+might like to get 'em first yourself.  I knew you didn't get
+letters very often, Mr. Bangs; that is, I've noticed you ain't
+since I've been helpin' in this office.  Anyhow, 'most anybody
+would rather get their own mail private than have Zach Bloomer
+cartin' it from land-knows-where to never-and-gone, smellin' it all
+up with old tobacco pipes and fish or whatever else he carries
+'round in his pockets.  Course I don't mean he lugs fish around in
+his pocket, 'tain't likely--  He, he, he--but that old coat of his
+always smells like a--like a porgie boat.  And I don't know's I
+mean that those letters of yours were any more 'special private
+than common; anyhow, both envelopes was in MALE handwritin'--  He,
+he, he!  But I noticed one was stamped from way out in--in Nevada,
+seems if 'twas, so--"
+
+"Eh?" Galusha came to life with astonishing quickness.  "From--from
+Nevada, did you say?"
+
+"Um-hm.  I remember it real plain now.  You see, it kind of caught
+my eye as I was sortin.'  We don't never get much mail from Nevada--
+not in this office we don't never hardly.  So when I see . . .
+Well, my good land!"
+
+The exclamation was caused by the unceremonious suddenness of Mr.
+Bangs' exit.  He was well across the road by the time Miss Black
+reached the window.
+
+"My good land!" exclaimed Tamson again.  Later she told her
+brother-in-law that she cal'lated that Nevada letter was maybe more
+private than she cal'lated first, and that she bet you she was
+goin' to look pretty hard at the handwritin' on the NEXT one that
+come.
+
+Primmie, apparently, had been watching through the kitchen window
+for Galusha to appear.  At any rate, she opened the door for him.
+Her mouth opened also, but he, for perhaps the first time in their
+acquaintanceship, spoke first.
+
+"I know--I know, Primmie," he said, hastily; "or if I don't know
+you can tell me later on.  Ah--please don't delay me now."
+
+Primmie was struggling between surprise and disappointment.
+
+"Well," she observed, as the little man hurriedly shed his hat and
+coat; "well, all right, Mr. Bangs.  Only Zach, he told me to be
+sure and tell you, and tell you how sorry he was that it happened,
+and that he can't exactly figger out just how it did come to
+happen, neither."
+
+"Eh?" Galusha paused, with one arm still in the sleeve of his
+overcoat.  "Happen?  What has happened to--ah--Mr. Bloomer?"
+
+"Ain't nothin' happened to him.  'Twas him that made it happen to
+your letter.  And THAT letter of all letters!  You see, Zach he
+don't exactly remember when 'twas he got it from the post office,
+but it must have been much as a week ago, sartin sure.  Anyhow,
+when he took out the lighthouse mail he left this letter in the
+pocket, and to-day, just now, when he got them other letters of
+yours and put 'em in the same pocket, he found the first one.  And
+when I see that 'Cabot, What-d'ye-call-it and Cabot' name printed
+out right on the envelope and it come over me that 'twas THAT
+letter he'd forgot and had been totin' 'round with him, 'WELL,'
+says I.  'My Lord of Isrul!' I says--"
+
+"Primmie!  Primmie, stop!  Stop--please!  And tell me:  Where are
+those letters?"
+
+"Hey?  I was goin' to tell you.  _I_ put 'em right here on the
+dinin' room table, but Miss Martha she carted 'em off upstairs to
+your bedroom.  Said she presumed likely you'd want to open 'em by
+yourself.  _I_ don't see why--"
+
+"Hush!  Hush!  Where is--ah--Miss Phipps?"
+
+"She's in the settin' room.  Told me not to disturb her, she wanted
+to be alone.  I--"
+
+Galusha hastened away, leaving the excited Miss Cash still talking.
+From the foot of the stairs he caught a glimpse of Martha in the
+chair by the front window of the sitting room, looking out.  She
+must have heard him, but she did not turn her head.  Nor did he
+speak to her.  Time enough for that when he had read what was in
+those letters.
+
+There they were, three of them, upon his bureau.  He picked up the
+one on top.  It bore upon the envelope the words "National
+Institute, Washington, D. C.," and was, he knew, merely a monthly
+report.  Usually such reports were of great interest to him; this
+one was not.  He had really important matters to claim his
+attention.
+
+The second letter was, obviously, that which the forgetful Zacheus
+had carried about with him for a week.  In the corner was the
+Cabot, Bancroft and Cabot name.  He tore it open.  An oblong slip
+of paper fell to the floor.  He did not even stoop to pick this up,
+for there was a letter, too.  It began:
+
+
+"Prof. Galusha Bangs,
+East Wellmouth, Mass.
+
+"DEAR SIR:
+
+"Pursuant to your instructions in our conversation of recent date I
+am enclosing check representing your share of the new Tinplate re-
+issue, sale of rights, transfer of old stock, bonus, etc.  The
+transfer has been, as I told you I felt sure it would be, very
+advantageous and profitable to stockholders like yourself.  The
+amount due you, as shown in statement attached, is--"
+
+
+Galusha read no further.  What did he care for Tinplate, profits,
+business, or anything like that!  There was not a word in the
+letter concerning Wellmouth Development.  It was a bitter
+disappointment.
+
+But there was the third letter, the letter from Nevada.  He opened
+that.  The first page which he looked at was that bearing the
+signature.  Yes, the letter was from George L. Thomas, and George
+L. Thomas was Cousin Gussie's private secretary.  At last!
+
+The letter shook in Galusha's fingers as he began to read.  Mr.
+Thomas was glad to hear from him, glad to learn that he was in
+better health, etc. . . .  All right enough, this beginning, but
+not at all important.  Thomas also felt sure that he, Professor
+Bangs, would be grateful to know that Mr. Cabot's condition was, so
+his physician seemed to think, steadily improving.  The improvement
+was slow, of course, which was to be expected, but . . . a long
+paragraph here which Galusha skipped.  He was highly pleased to
+know that Cousin Gussie was better, but at present that was
+sufficient; he could not waste time in reading details of the
+convalescence.  WHY didn't the man get down to business?
+
+Ah, here it was!  Mr. Thomas wrote:
+
+
+"In your letter to Mr. Cabot I note your inquiry concerning the
+stock of the Wellmouth Development Company, its desirability as an
+investment, the likelihood of present sale, and so on.  I know
+nothing of the matter personally, and am not in a position to
+ascertain at the present time.  Speaking in a general way, however,
+and with my only knowledge of the facts in the case that supplied
+by your letter, I should suggest that your friend keep his stock
+and await developments.  I am quite sure that a forced sale--if
+such a sale could now be made at any price, which I doubt--would
+involve the sacrifice of almost the entire amount invested.  I
+should suggest holding on and waiting."
+
+
+Galusha passed his shaking hand across his perspiring forehead.
+
+"Oh, dear me!" he said aloud.
+
+
+"This would be my advice," went on the letter, "but if you wish a
+more positive answer I suggest your writing Mr. Minor at our Boston
+office.  He will be very glad to look into the matter for you, I am
+sure, although I am practically certain his views will agree with
+mine.  Of course, as you will understand, it is quite impossible to
+mention your inquiry to Mr. Cabot.  He is here to regain his
+health, which is still very far from normal, his doctor is with
+him, and the one word which is positively forbidden is 'Business.'
+Mr. Cabot is supposed to forget that there is such a thing.  By the
+way he spoke of you only the other day, and jokingly said he
+wondered how mummies and quahaugs were mixing.  The fact that he is
+beginning to joke once more we all consider most encouraging. . . ."
+
+
+A paragraph or two more of this sort of thing and then Mr. Thomas'
+signature.  Galusha stared at the letter dully.  This--this was what
+he and Martha Phipps had awaited so long!  This was the outcome of
+his brilliant idea which was to save the Phipps' home . . . and its
+owner's peace of mind . . . and Primmie . . . and . . . .
+
+Oh, dear me! dear me!
+
+Galusha walked slowly across the room to the chair by the window,
+and, sitting down, continued to stare hopelessly at the letter in
+his hand.  He read it for the second time, but this rereading
+brought no comfort whatever.  Rather, it served to bring home to
+him the hard realities of the whole wretched affair.  Cousin
+Gussie's interest was what he had banked on, and that interest was
+absolutely unapproachable.  To write Minor at the Boston office was
+a possibility, of course, but, in his present frame of mind Galusha
+felt no hope that such a proceeding would help.  Thomas had written
+what amounted to that very thing; Thomas was "practically certain"
+that Minor's views would agree with his.  And, besides, to write
+Minor meant another long wait, and Martha Phipps must be very close
+to her limit of waiting.  How could he summon the courage to
+descend to the sitting room and tell her that she must prepare for
+another period of waiting, with almost certain disappointment at
+the end?
+
+A temperament like Galusha Bangs' is capable of soaring to the
+heights and descending to the depths.  Just now the elevator was
+going down, and down it continued to go to the very subcellar.  It
+was dark in that subcellar, not a ray of light anywhere.  Galusha
+realized now, or thought he did, that all his great scheme for
+helping Martha to dispose of her Development shares had been based
+upon nothing substantial, nothing but rainbow-tinted hopes which,
+in turn, were based upon nothing but wishes.  Omitting the hopes
+and wishes, what was there left?  Just what the president of the
+Trumet Trust Company had told Martha and what Raish Pulcifer, when
+angered into truthtelling, had told him.  That is, that the shares
+of the Wellmouth Development Company might be worth something some
+day, but that now they were worth nothing, because no one would buy
+them.
+
+Yes . . . yes, that was the truth. . . .  But how could he go down
+to the sitting room and tell Martha Phipps that truth, having
+already told her so much that was quite different?
+
+If she would only let him lend her the five thousand dollars, or
+whatever it was.  He did not know how much Cousin Gussie was taking
+care of for him at present, but there had been a large sum at the
+time of Aunt Clarissa's death.  He remembered that the figures had
+quite frightened him then.  He had not thought much about them
+since, because they did not interest him.  He always had enough for
+his needs and more than enough, and dividends, and interests, and
+investments and all such things bored him and made him nervous.
+But, now that he WAS interested in an investment--Martha Phipps'
+investment--it brought home to him the undisputable fact that he,
+Galusha Bangs, had plenty of money to lend, if he wished to lend
+it.
+
+And if Cousin Gussie, or Cousin Gussie's representatives, would let
+him have it for such a purpose!  Cousin Gussie always made such an
+unpleasant disturbance when he expressed a desire for any of his
+money, asked so many embarrassing questions as to what was to be
+done with it, and the like.  If he should go now and ask for five
+thousand dollars to lend Martha Phipps, what . . .
+
+But Martha Phipps would not accept a loan, anyway.  She had told
+him that very thing, and he knew her well enough by this time to
+know she meant what she said.
+
+Yet there remained the imminent and dreadful question:  How, how,
+HOW could he go down to where she was sitting waiting and tell her
+that her hopes, hopes which he had raised, were based solely upon
+the vaporings of an optimistic donkey?
+
+In his wrathful disgust with that donkey he shifted angrily in his
+chair and his foot struck a bit of paper upon the floor.  It
+rustled and the rustle attracted his attention.  Absently he
+stepped and picked up the paper.  It was the slip which had fallen
+from the Cabot, Bancroft and Cabot letter and was a check drawn to
+his order for fourteen thousand, three hundred and ten dollars and
+thirty-eight cents, his share of the Tinplate "melon."
+
+Fifteen more minutes passed before Mr. Bangs came down to the
+sitting room, but when he did he came in a great hurry.  He dashed
+into the apartment and announced his intention of starting for
+Boston at once.
+
+"And--and if you will be so kind as to let me have those--ah--
+shares of yours, Miss Martha," he said.
+
+Martha looked at him.  She had been rather pale when he entered,
+but now the color rushed to her face.
+
+"Shares?" she repeated.  "Do you mean--"
+
+"Those--ah--Development shares of yours--yes.  If you will be good
+enough to let me take them with me--"
+
+"Take them with you? . . .  Oh, Mr. Bangs, you don't mean you have
+heard from your cousin and that he is goin' to--"
+
+"Yes--ah--yes," broke in Galusha, hastily.  "I have heard.  I am
+to--that is, I must take the shares with me and go to Boston at
+once.  If you will be willing to entrust them to me, Miss Martha."
+
+"I'll get 'em this minute."  She started toward the stairs, but
+paused and turned.
+
+"Is it really settled, Mr. Bangs?" she asked, as if scarcely daring
+to believe in the possibility.  "Are they really goin' to buy that
+Wellmouth stock of mine?"
+
+"Why--why--"  Galusha was yawing badly, but he clutched the helm
+and kept on the course; "I--ah--hope so, Miss Martha, I hope so."
+
+"And pay me--pay me MONEY for it?"
+
+"I presume so.  I hope so.  If you will--"
+
+"I declare, it doesn't seem possible!  Who, for mercy sakes, is
+goin' to buy it?  Mr. Cabot, himself?"
+
+He had been expecting this and was prepared for it.  He had
+rehearsed his answer many times before coming downstairs.  He held
+up a protesting hand.
+
+"I am very sorry," he said, "but--but, you see, that is a--ah--
+secret, I understand.  Of course, they did not write me who was to
+buy the stock and so--and so--"
+
+"And so you don't know.  Well, it doesn't make a bit of difference,
+really.  The Lord knows I shouldn't care so long as I sell it
+honestly and don't cheat anybody.  And a big house like Cabot,
+Bancroft and Cabot ought to know what they're doin' when they buy,
+or let any of their customers buy.  I'll get the certificate this
+very minute, Mr. Bangs."
+
+She hastened up the stairs.  Galusha wiped his forehead and
+breathed heavily.  There was a knock on the door leading to the
+dining room; it opened and Primmie's head appeared.
+
+"I heard her go upstairs," she whispered, hoarsely.  "Is it all
+right, Mr. Bangs?  Was there good news in that What-you-call-it-
+Bancroft letter, Mr. Bangs?  Was there?"
+
+"Go away, Primmie!  Go AWAY!"
+
+"I'm a-goin'.  But was there?"
+
+"Yes--ah--no--I--I guess so."
+
+"Lord everlastin' of Isrul!  My savin' soul!"
+
+Martha's footsteps on the stairs caused the head to disappear and
+the door to close.  Miss Phipps appeared, her hand clasping a
+highly ornate document.
+
+"Here's the certificate," she said, breathlessly.  "I'm so upset
+and excited I don't know hardly whether I'm in the channel or hard
+aground, as father used to say, but I've signed my name on the
+back.  Once when I sold two shares of railroad stock he left me I
+had to sign on the back there.  I HOPE I've done it in the right
+place."
+
+Galusha declared the signature to be quite right, yes.  As a matter
+of fact, he could not have told for certain that there was a
+signature there.  He crammed the certificate into his pocket.
+
+"Oh, my sakes!" protested Martha, "you aren't goin' to just put it
+loose into that pocket, are you?  Don't you think it ought to go in
+your--your wallet, or somewhere?"
+
+"Eh?  Why--why, I presume it had. . . .  Dear me, yes. . . .  It
+would be a--a joke if I lost it, wouldn't it?"
+
+"A JOKE!  Well, it wouldn't be my notion of a joke, exactly."
+
+"Oh, dear, dear!  Did I say 'joke'?  I didn't mean that it would
+actually be--ah--humorous, of course.  I meant . . . I meant. . . .
+Really, I don't think I know what I meant."
+
+"I don't believe you do.  Mr. Bangs, I truly think you are more
+excited about all this than I am, and all on my account.  What can
+I ever say--or do--to--"
+
+"Please, please, Miss Martha!  Dear me, dear me, DON'T speak in
+that way.  It's so--ah--nonsensical, you know.  Now if--if I may
+have my coat and--ah--cap--"
+
+"Cap!  Goodness gracious, you weren't plannin' to wear that old
+cap, earlaps and all, to Boston, were you?  And--mercy me!  I
+didn't think of it until this minute--the train doesn't go for
+'most two hours."
+
+She burst out laughing and, because she was overwrought and a
+trifle hysterical, she laughed a good deal.  Galusha laughed even
+longer than she did, not because he was hysterical, but because
+laughing was very much easier and safer than answering embarrassing
+questions.
+
+When it really was time to leave for the railroad station and
+Galusha, NOT wearing the earlapped cap, but hatted and garbed as
+became his rank and dignity, was standing on the stone step by the
+outside door, she said:
+
+"Now do be careful, Mr. Bangs."
+
+"Yes--yes, I will, I promise you.  I shall keep one hand in my
+pocket, holding the pocketbook with the certificate in it, until I
+get to the office.  I shall think of nothing else."
+
+"Mercy me, think of SOMETHIN' else, please!  Think of yourself when
+you're goin' across those Boston streets or you'll be run over.  I
+declare, I don't know as I ought to let you go."
+
+"Oh, I shall be quite safe, quite.  But, really," he added, with a
+puzzled smile, "I can't tell you how odd this seems.  When I was a
+boy my Aunt Clarissa, I remember, used to caution me about--about
+crossing the streets, and so on.  It makes me feel quite young
+again to have you do it, Miss Martha.  I assure you it does."
+
+Martha regarded him gravely.
+
+"Hasn't anybody since ever told you to be careful?" she asked;
+"anybody since your aunt died, I mean?"
+
+"Why, no, I think not.  I presume," he added, with the air of one
+suggesting a happy explanation, "I presume no one has--ah--been
+sufficiently interested.  It would have been peculiar if they had
+been, of course."
+
+"Hum! . . . Well, I hope you won't think I am impudent for
+remindin' you to look out."
+
+"Oh, no, indeed.  It is very nice of you to take the trouble.  I
+like it, really I do."
+
+The office of Cabot, Bancroft and Cabot was closed when his train
+reached Boston, so he went to a hotel and remained there over-
+night.  But he was on hand at the banking office early the next
+morning.  In the interval he had time for more reflection and, as a
+result, he determined not to go to Mr. Barbour with his business.
+The fear that knowledge of what he was about to do would reach
+Cousin Gussie's ears was strong upon him.  Doubtless it was a fact
+that he had a right to do what he pleased with his own money, but
+it was also a fact that Cousin Gussie seemed to think he had no
+such right.  Barbour was the Cabot secretary, or assistant
+secretary, so decidedly it was best not to go to Barbour.
+
+It was Minor whom he saw as he entered the banking house and to
+Minor he divulged his business.  Taking from his pocketbook the
+Tinplate check, he asked if he might have it--ah--broken up, so to
+speak.
+
+"You see," he explained, "I want to get--ah--five thousand dollars."
+
+Minor appeared rather puzzled at first, and Mr. Bangs' tangled and
+nervous explanations did not seem to enlighten him greatly.  At
+last, however, he caught the idea.
+
+"I see," he said.  "You don't want to deposit and draw against it;
+you want two checks instead of one.  One check for five thousand
+and the other for the balance."
+
+"Yes, yes, yes," assented Galusha, much relieved.  "That is it,
+exactly.  I am very much obliged to you--indeed I am--yes."
+
+Minor took him to one of the windows and introduced him to the
+clerk at the desk behind it.
+
+"Give Mr. Bangs whatever he wants," he said.
+
+Galusha explained.  The clerk asked how he would have the five-
+thousand-dollar check made out.
+
+"In your own name?" he asked.
+
+ Mr. Bangs reflected. "Why--ah--" he stammered, "I should prefer it
+in--ah--some other name, if possible.  I should prefer that my name
+was not connected with it, if you don't mind."
+
+"In the name of the person you intend paying it to?" inquired the
+clerk.
+
+Galusha reflected again.  If Martha Phipps' name were written on
+that check it would be possible that, some day or other, Cousin
+Gussie might see it.  And if he saw it, questions would be asked,
+embarrassing questions.
+
+"No-o," he said, hesitatingly; "no, I think I should not care to
+have her--that is, to have that person's name appear, either.
+Isn't there some way by which the sum could be paid without any
+one's name appearing?  A check to--to--oh, dear me! why CAN'T I
+think of it?"
+
+"To bearer, you mean?"
+
+"That's it, that's it.  A check to bearer would be very satisfactory,
+very satisfactory, indeed.  Thank you very much."
+
+The clerk, who was a painstaking young man, destined to rise in his
+profession, inspected the odd individual outside the railing.
+
+"A check to bearer is almost the same as cash," he said.  "If you
+should lose it, it would be negotiable--practically the money
+itself, or pretty near it."
+
+Galusha started.  He looked radiantly happy.
+
+"That's it!" he exclaimed.  "That's it, of course.  Thank you for
+the suggestion.  The money will be the very thing.  It will be such
+a delightful surprise.  And there will be no one's name upon it at
+all.  I will take the money, of course."
+
+It took some time to convince the astonished clerk that Mr. Bangs
+actually wished five thousand dollars in currency, but he finally
+was convinced.
+
+"How will you have it?" he asked.  "Small bills or large?"
+
+Galusha apparently did not care.  Any denominations would be quite
+satisfactory, he affirmed.  So, when the transaction was finished,
+and he left the Cabot, Bancroft and Cabot office, it was with a new
+check for nine thousand, three hundred and ten dollars and thirty-
+eight cents in his pocketbook and in his trousers' pocket a roll of
+bills as thick as his wrist.  By way of modification to this
+statement, it may be well to explain that Galusha Bangs' wrists,
+considered AS wrists, were by no means thick.
+
+The clerk stared after him as he departed and a fellow clerk paused
+to ask questions.
+
+"Who was the old guy?" he inquired.
+
+"Name's Bangs."
+
+"What is he?"
+
+"A nut," was the reply, given with the assurance of absolute
+conviction.
+
+The "nut" traveled back to East Wellmouth upon the afternoon train
+and, back once more in the Phipps' sitting room, "shelled out" upon
+the center table.  Martha stared at the heap of bills and caught
+her breath with a gasp.
+
+Galusha deposited the last bank note upon the table.  "There!" he
+exclaimed, with satisfaction; "that is all, I believe.  And I have
+actually gotten it here--all of it.  I am quite sure I haven't lost
+a--a penny.  Dear me, that is a very remarkable thing to do--for me
+to do, I mean."
+
+Miss Phipps did not answer and, turning, he saw that she was
+sitting in the rocking-chair, her hand to her forehead.  Her face
+was white.
+
+"Dear me!" he exclaimed, in alarm.  "Miss Martha, are you ill?"
+
+Still she did not answer and, very much frightened, he hastened to
+the door, opened it, and shouted for Primmie.  The summons for her
+handmaiden acted as a complete restorative.  Martha came to life at
+once.
+
+"WHAT in the world are you callin' Primmie for?" she demanded.  "I
+don't want her.  I wouldn't have her see all that. . . .  Oh, good
+heavens and earth!"
+
+Primmie was already in the room.  She, as Mr. Bangs would have
+described it, bounced in.
+
+"Yes'm--I mean yes, sir," was her salutation.  "Here I be. . . .
+Oh, my savin' soul of Isrul!"
+
+She had seen the mound of money upon the table.  Two minutes later
+Martha and her lodger were again alone in the sitting room.
+Primmie had been, gently but firmly, escorted to outer darkness and
+the door closed behind her.  She was still asking questions and
+calling for her ransomed spirit and the ruler of Israel; they could
+hear her do so even through the door.  The exclamations died away
+in the direction of the kitchen.  Miss Phipps, who had done escort
+duty, turned toward Galusha and ruefully shook her head.
+
+"I GUESS there isn't anybody I'd rather should not have been here
+just now than Primmie Cash," she observed.  "If there is I can't
+think of their names.  Mr. Bangs, I know you meant well, because
+you couldn't mean any other way, but would you mind tellin' me WHY
+you called for her?"
+
+Galusha blinked in bewildered fashion behind his spectacles.
+
+"Why--why," he stammered, "you--you see--why, I spoke to you
+several times and you did not answer--and you were so pale, I
+thought--I thought--"
+
+"You thought I was sick and so you sung out for Primmie.  Humph!
+that's a good deal like jumpin' into the well to get out of the
+rain.  But there, never mind.  So I looked pale and didn't answer
+when you spoke?  Do you wonder?  Mr. Bangs," she moved to the table
+and laid a hand, which trembled a good deal, upon the pile of
+bills, "is this money really mine?"
+
+"Yes--oh, yes, indeed.  It is yours, of course."
+
+"All of it?  It doesn't seem possible.  How much is there here?"
+
+He told her.  She lifted the topmost bills from the heap and
+reverently laid them down again.
+
+"Five thousand dollars!" she repeated.  "It's like--it's like
+somethin' in a dream, or a book, isn't it?  I can hardly believe I
+am Martha Phipps.  So they did think Wellmouth Development was
+worth somethin', after all.  And they paid--why, Mr. Bangs, they
+paid the full price, didn't they!  Twenty dollars a share; as much
+as father paid in the first place."
+
+"Yes--ah--yes, of course.  Yes, indeed.  Are you sure you feel
+quite well again, Miss Martha?"
+
+"I'm sure.  But what did they say when they bought it, Mr. Bangs?"
+
+"Say?  Ah, say? . . .  Why, they said--ah--um--they said there was
+the money and--and I counted it, you know, and--"
+
+"Yes, yes.  But didn't they say anything about the stock; about why
+they bought it, and like that?"
+
+"Why, no . . . no, I think nothing was--ah--so to speak--ah--said.
+They--ah--  Won't you sit down again, Miss Martha?  I think you had
+better."
+
+"Sit down!  Mr. Bangs, I'm too excited to sit down.  I could fly, I
+think, a good deal easier than I could sit; at least, I feel as if
+I could.  And so they just bought that stock and said nothing more
+than that?  Just bought it?"
+
+"Yes--ah--yes, that's it.  They--ah--bought it, you know."
+
+"It seems strange.  What did your cousin say?"
+
+"Ah--my cousin?  Cousin Gussie, you mean.  Yes, yes, of course.
+Oh, he said--ah--all sorts of things."
+
+"Did he?  About the stock?"
+
+"Oh, no, not about the stock so much.  No, not so much about that,
+about . . . a sort of general conversation it was, about--about the
+weather, and--and the like."
+
+"The weather?  Did he write about the weather in his letter?"
+
+He had for the moment forgotten that his relative was an invalid in
+the Far West and that Miss Phipps knew it.  He turned red, coughed,
+stammered and then broke out in a series of fragmentary and
+involved explanations to the effect that Cousin Gussie was--ah--
+naturally much interested in the weather because of his state of
+health and--and--  She paid little heed, for in the midst of his
+explaining she interrupted.
+
+"Oh, never mind, never mind," she said.  "It doesn't make one bit
+of difference and why I asked about it I don't know.  You see, Mr.
+Bangs, I'm not back on earth yet, as you might say, and I don't
+suppose I shall be for a little while, so you'll have to be patient
+with me.  All I can think of is that now I can live here in this
+house, for a while longer anyhow, and perhaps always.  And I
+sha'n't have to turn Primmie away.  And--and maybe I won't have to
+lie awake night after night, plannin' how I can do this and do
+without that--and--and--"
+
+She stopped, her sentence unfinished.  Galusha said nothing.  A
+moment later she turned to him.
+
+"Should I write your cousin a letter and thank him, do you think?"
+she asked.
+
+Galusha's reply was hurriedly given and most emphatic.  "Oh, no,
+no," he protested.  "It will be quite unnecessary, quite.  Indeed,
+no.  He--ah--he would not expect it."
+
+"No, I presume likely he wouldn't.  And, after all, it was just a
+matter of business with his firm.  But it wasn't a matter of
+business with you, Mr. Bangs.  And if it hadn't been for you,
+I--I--  Well, I mustn't say any more or--or . . .  Oh, you
+understand what I want to say, don't you?"
+
+"Now--now, Miss Martha, please.  I have done nothing, really,
+nothing but what any friend would have done."
+
+"Any friend like you, you mean.  I don't know where there are any
+more such friends, Mr. Bangs."
+
+"Now, PLEASE.  Miss Martha, I--I HOPE you won't mention this again.
+It will oblige me greatly if you will not.  Really, I--I mean it."
+
+She nodded, slowly.  "Yes," she said, "bein' you, I think you do
+mean it.  So I won't say any more; but I shall think a great deal,
+Mr. Bangs, and I never shall stop thinkin'. . . .  There!  And now
+what shall I do with all this money?  Of course, I'll put it in the
+bank to-morrow, but what will I do with it to-night?  By the way,"
+she added, "it seems queer they should have paid you in cash
+instead of a check.  Why did they, I wonder?"
+
+Here was a demand for more explaining.  Galusha plunged headlong,
+foundered, and then emerged, like a dog, with an explanation, such
+as it was, between his teeth.
+
+"They--ah--they thought the money would be safer," he said.
+
+Martha laughed aloud.  "Safer?" she repeated.  "Why, that's funny.
+Perhaps they're right, but I know the only way I shall feel safe
+between now and bankin' time tomorrow is to stay awake and watch
+every minute.  Oh, I sha'n't do that exactly, of course, but I'm
+beginnin' to realize the responsibility of havin' riches.  Ah hum!
+I laugh, Mr. Bangs, but you mustn't think it's because I don't
+realize what you--I mean . . . well, I guess I laugh because I'm
+kind of hysterical and--happy.  I haven't been so happy for a long,
+long time.  I won't say it again because you don't want me to, but
+for this once more, thank you, Mr. Bangs."
+
+As Galusha left her to go to his room, she said:  "Now I must go
+out and get after Primmie again.  I'm scared to death that she'll
+tell everybody from here to Provincetown about my bein' worth a
+million dollars.  She won't make it any LESS than a million, and
+the chances are it will be consider'ble more."
+
+"But, Miss Martha, you have already told her not to tell about the
+money.  I heard you tell her just now when you sent her out of the
+room."
+
+Martha shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"When you pour water into a sieve," she said, "it doesn't do much
+good to tell the sieve not to leak.  Father used to say that some
+folks' heads were built so that whatever was poured into their ears
+ran right out of their mouths.  Primmie's is made that way, I'm
+afraid.  She'll swear she won't tell, and she won't mean to tell,
+but . . .  Well, good-night, Mr. Bangs."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+Miss Phipps had prophesied that the cares attending the possession
+of wealth might interfere with her sleep that night.  Concerning
+his own slumbers Galusha made no prophecy, but the said slumbers
+were broken and scanty, nevertheless.  Martha's happiness, her
+relief, and the kind things she had said to him, all these were
+pleasant to reflect upon and to remember.  Not so pleasant was the
+thought of the deception he had practiced.  Of course, he had
+deceived for a good purpose and certainly with no idea of personal
+gain, quite the contrary.  But he had been deceitful--and to Martha
+Phipps, of all people.  What would she say if she ever found it
+out?  He reflected upon the amazing number of--ah--fibs he had told
+her, and the question what would she say if she ever learned of
+these was even more terrifying in its possibilities.  She must not
+learn of them, she must never, never know that it was his own money
+which he had brought from Boston, that he, and no one else, had
+bought that stock of hers.
+
+Here he sat up in bed, having suddenly remembered the certificate
+for two hundred and fifty shares of Wellmouth Development Company
+stock which she had handed him when he started for Boston.  He had
+folded it lengthwise and crosswise and had put it in his pocket--
+and had not thought of it since, until that moment.  A cold chill
+ran down his back.  What if--
+
+He scrambled out of bed and, the room being distinctly cool, chills
+immediately ran up and down other portions of his anatomy.  He did
+not mind those, however, but finding the matches, lighted the lamp
+and began pawing over his garments, those which he had worn upon
+his Boston pilgrimage.
+
+The certificate was not in the coat pocket.  Galusha gasped.  Had
+he dropped it in the train?  Or in the office of Cabot, Bancroft
+and Cabot?  Why, if the last were true, it would be found and
+traced to him, and Minor and Barbour and, eventually, Cousin Gussie
+would learn that he . . . .
+
+Here he remembered that Martha had urged him not to put it in his
+coat pocket but in his pocketbook.  Oh, joy!  He delved for the
+pocketbook, opened it--and found no certificate therein.
+
+Oh, dear, dear!  Oh, dear!  Suppose he had not lost it in Boston.
+Suppose he had that very evening dropped it in the house here at
+home, in the sitting room, or the dining room.  Suppose Primmie
+should find it, or Miss Phipps herself.  Then she would KNOW that
+he had deceived her--and lied to her--
+
+And then he remembered that, instead of putting the certificate in
+his pocketbook, he had found the latter too small for the purpose,
+and had put the document in the inside pocket of his waistcoat.
+And in that waistcoat pocket he found it.
+
+So that was all right, all right so far; but the fact remained
+that, instead of the troublesome thing--damning evidence of his
+guilt and deception--reposing safely in the vaults of a Boston
+bank, where he had intended putting it, it was here, in the house,
+in the house of Miss Martha Phipps, who might find it at any time.
+
+He tried various hiding places, the drawers of his bureau, the
+table drawer, under the straw matting in the corner, but none
+seemed satisfactorily secure.  Under the matting was, at first
+thought, ideal, but, after secreting it there and getting into bed,
+he remembered that Martha had declared his room needed new matting
+and, if ever she could afford that cost, new matting it should
+have.  Having come into possession of five thousand dollars, she
+might feel that she could now afford it.  He climbed, shivering,
+out of bed again, resurrected the certificate and hid it under his
+pillow, an orthodox but safe hiding place for that night only.  The
+next morning he wrapped it in a summer undergarment and placed the
+said garment at the bottom of a pile of similar intimacies in his
+bureau drawer.  And each night of the following week, before
+retiring, he dug it out to make sure of its safety.
+
+The day after her boarder's return from Boston, Martha went over to
+Wellmouth Centre.  The bank there had charge of her account, such
+as it was, and she wished to have it take charge of the, to her,
+huge sum of real money which Mr. Bangs had brought.  She told the
+cashier that she was desirous of speaking with him on a matter of
+business, and he invited her into his little room at the end of the
+counter.  There she took from her "Boston bag" a brown paper parcel
+and, unwrapping the brown paper, disclosed the five thousand
+dollars.
+
+Cashiers of small town banks know the true financial strength and
+weakness of dwellers in those towns, just as the doctors know their
+physical ones.  Mr. Edgar Thacher, which was the cashier's name in
+this instance, knew how much of an estate Cap'n Jim Phipps had left
+his daughter and how that estate was divided as to investments.  So
+he was surprised when Martha revealed the money.
+
+"Good land, Martha!" he exclaimed.  "What's happened?  Haven't gone
+into the counterfeiting trade, have you?"
+
+Martha smilingly shook her head.  "No, Edgar," she said.  "It's too
+late in life for me to begin learnin' new trades, I guess.  Just
+count that, will you, please?  I want to make sure it's all there
+and that I didn't really have only half of it and dream the rest."
+
+The cashier counted the money.  "Five thousand, I make it," he
+said.
+
+"That's what it ought to be.  Now will you put that to my account?
+I don't know how long it'll stay there--the whole of it not very
+long, I'm afraid--but it will be earnin' a little interest while it
+does stay."
+
+"Yes, sure.  Well, Martha, it's none of my business, of course,
+but, as long as you say you haven't been counterfeiting, I wish you
+would give me your receipt for making money.  Anybody that can make
+five thousand in one lump these hard times is doing well."
+
+Martha shook her head once more.  She and the cashier were old
+friends.  "No receipt to give, Edgar," she said.  "I wish there
+was; I'd be busy usin' it, I tell you.  I just sold somethin' I
+owned, that's all, and got a good deal better price than I ever
+expected to.  In fact, I had about given up hope of ever gettin' a
+cent.  But there, I mustn't talk so much.  You'll deposit that to
+my account, won't you, Edgar?  And, if you SHOULD see your way
+clear to pay seven or eight per cent interest instead of four, or
+whatever you do pay, don't bother to write and ask me if I'll take
+it, because you'll only be wastin' your time. . . .  Eh?  Why, good
+gracious, Jethro!  What are you doin' over here?"
+
+The captain's big frame blocked the doorway of the cashier's
+office.  He had opened that door without knocking, because it was
+his habit to open doors that way.  Captain Jethro Hallett's
+position as keeper of the Gould's Bluffs light was not an exalted
+or highly paid one, but his influence in Wellmouth and its vicinity
+was considerable, nevertheless.  He was accounted a man of means,
+he had always been--more especially in the years before his wife's
+death and the break in health which followed it--a person of shrewd
+business ability and keenness in a trade, and even now, when some
+of the townsfolk grinned behind his back and told stories of his
+spiritualistic obsessions, they were polite and deferential to his
+face.  As a matter of fact, it would have been extremely impolitic
+to be otherwise than deferential to him.  Captain Jeth was quite
+aware of his worth and expected deference.
+
+He was as surprised to see his neighbor as she was to see him.
+
+"Why, hello, Martha!" he grunted.  "What fetched you here?"
+
+"I asked you first, Cap'n Jeth, but it doesn't make any difference.
+My feet brought me as far as the corner and Ras Beebe's grocery
+cart brought me the rest of the way.  I had planned to come in the
+train, but Ras saved me the trouble--AND the fare.  He's goin' back
+in a few minutes, so I've got to hurry."
+
+"Humph!  But what did you come here FOR?"
+
+"Oh, I had a little business with Edgar and the bank.  Excuse me,
+Jethro.  Edgar . . ."
+
+She stooped and whispered to the cashier.  He nodded.
+
+"Yes, Martha, of course," he said.  "You've got your book?  All
+right.  Back in a minute, Cap'n."
+
+He picked up the pile of money from the desk, took from Miss
+Phipps' hand the pass book she handed him, and together they
+stepped out into the public room.  Captain Jethro, whose eyes had
+caught sight of the bills, leaned forward and peered through the
+little grating above Mr. Thacher's desk.  He saw the cashier and
+Martha standing by the teller's window.  The former said something
+and handed the teller the bank book and the roll of bills.  A
+moment later the teller, having counted the money and made an entry
+in the book, handed the latter back to the lady.
+
+"Five thousand," he said, and his tone was not low.  "There you
+are, Miss Phipps.  Thank you."
+
+When, having escorted the lady to the door, Thacher came back to
+his private office, he found the light keeper sitting in the
+armchair reserved for customers and pulling thoughtfully at his
+beard.
+
+"Well, Cap'n," said Mr. Thacher, "what can I do for you?"
+
+Captain Jethro crossed his legs.  "I come over to cash a couple of
+checks I got by mail," he said.  "Had plenty of time so I thought
+I'd drop in and see you a minute."
+
+"Oh, yes, yes.  Glad to see you."
+
+"Um-hm.  Ain't so glad to see me as you was to see Martha Phipps, I
+guess likely.  _I_ ain't depositin' any five thousand dollars.
+'Twas five thousand she just deposited, wasn't it?"
+
+The cashier was rather annoyed.  He did not answer at once.  His
+visitor repeated the question.
+
+"Martha just put five thousand in the bank, didn't she?" he asked.
+
+"Why--yes.  Did she tell you she was going to?"
+
+"No.  I heard Eldridge say five thousand when he give her back her
+bank book.  Five thousand is a lot of money.  Where'd she get it
+from?"
+
+"I don't know, Cap'n, I'm sure.  Little more spring-like out to-
+day, isn't it?"
+
+"Um-hm.  Martha been borrerin' from the bank, has she?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Didn't know but she might have mortgaged the Phipps' place.  Ain't
+done that, you say?"
+
+"No.  At least, if she has she didn't tell me of it.  How are
+things over at the lighthouse?"
+
+"All right enough.  I don't hardly believe she could raise more'n
+three thousand on a mortgage, anyhow. . . .  Humph!  Five thousand
+is a sight of money, too. . . .  Didn't she tell you nothin' about
+how she got it?"
+
+Thacher's annoyance increased.  The ordinary caller displaying such
+persistent curiosity would have been dismissed unceremoniously; but
+Jethro Hallett was not to be dismissed that way.  The captain owned
+stock in the bank and, before his illness, his name had been
+seriously considered to fill the first vacancy in its list of
+directors.
+
+"Must have told you SOMETHIN' about how she got hold of all that
+money," persisted the light keeper.  "What did she say to you,
+anyway, Ed?"
+
+"She said--she said--  Oh, well, she said she had sold something
+she owned and had got the five thousand for it."
+
+"Humph!  I want to know!  Sold somethin', eh?  What was it she
+sold?"
+
+"She didn't say, Cap'n.  All she said was that she had sold it and
+got the five thousand.  Oh, yes, she did say that it was a bigger
+price than she ever expected to get and that there was a time when
+she never expected to get a cent."
+
+"Humph!  I want to know!  Funny she should sell anything without
+comin' to me first.  She generally comes to ask my advice about
+such things. . . .  Humph! . . .  She didn't sell the house?
+No, I'd a-known if she had done that.  And what else. . . .
+Humph! . . ."
+
+He pulled at his beard in silence for a moment.  The teller, a
+brisk young man, possessed of a profound love of mischief and a
+corresponding lack of reverence, entered the office.
+
+"Oh, excuse me," he said.  "I thought you was alone, Mr. Thacher."
+Then, with a wink at his superior over the light keeper's tousled
+gray head, he observed, "Well, Cap'n Jeth, what's this I hear about
+Marietta Hoag?  They tell me she's left the Spiritualists and gone
+over to Holiness chapel.  Is it so?"
+
+Jethro came out of his reverie.  His deep-set eyes flashed and his
+big fist pounded the office table.  No, it was not so.  It was a
+lie.  Who said it?  Who was responsible for starting such
+sacrilegious, outrageous yarns?  Marietta Hoag was a woman called
+and chosen to receive and give out revelations from on high.  The
+Holiness crowd was a crew of good-for-nothin', hollerin' hard-
+shells.  By the everlastin'--
+
+He blew out of the office and out of the bank, rumbling and
+spitting fire like a volcano.  The teller and the cashier watched
+him go.  Then the former said:
+
+"That's the way to get rid of him, Mr. Thacher.  He'll set 'round
+and talk you to death if you give him half a chance.  When you want
+him to go, tell him somebody at the other end of the town has been
+running down the Spiritualists.  He'll be so anxious to get there
+and heave 'em overboard that he'll forget to stop and finish what
+he was saying here."
+
+Which may or may not have been true, but the fact remains that the
+light keeper did not entirely forget what he and the cashier said
+concerning Martha Phipps' surprising bank deposit.  And the next
+morning, as Martha was walking up the lane from the village, where
+she had been on a supply-purchasing excursion, she heard heavy
+footsteps and, turning, saw her neighbor tramping toward her, his
+massive figure rolling, as it always did when in motion, from side
+to side like a ship in a seaway.
+
+"Why, hello, Jethro!" she exclaimed.  Captain Jethro merely nodded.
+His first remark was a question, and very much to the point.
+
+"Look here, Martha," he demanded.  "Have you sold that Development
+stock of yours?"
+
+Martha stared at him.  For a moment she was inclined to believe in
+the truth of the light keeper's "spirit revelations."
+
+"Why--why, Jethro!" she gasped.  The captain, gazing at her keenly
+beneath his shaggy brows, seemed to find his answer in her face.
+
+"Humph!" he observed.  "You have sold it, ain't you?  Well, by the
+everlastin'!"
+
+"Why--why, Jethro!  What are you talkin' about?"
+
+"About that two hundred and fifty shares of Wellmouth Development
+of yours.  You've sold it, ain't you, Martha?  And you must have
+got par for it, too.  Did the Trumet Trust Company folks buy it?"
+
+But Miss Phipps was recovering from her surprise.  She waited a
+moment before replying and, when she did reply, her tone was as
+crisp, if not as domineering, as her interrogator's.
+
+"See here, Jethro," she said; "you're takin' a good many things for
+granted, aren't you?"
+
+"No, I don't cal'late I am.  I know you've sold somethin' and got
+five thousand dollars for it.  I see you deposit the five thousand,
+myself, and Ed Thacher told me, after I pumped it out of him, that
+you said you'd sold somethin' you owned and got a good price when
+you didn't know as you'd ever get a cent.  Now, you ain't sold your
+place because I'd know if you had, and it ain't worth five
+thousand, anyway.  The other stocks and bonds you've got ain't--"
+
+But Martha interrupted.
+
+"Jethro," she said, sharply, "I just said that you were takin' a
+good many things for granted.  You are.  One of 'em is that you can
+talk to me as if I was Zach Bloomer or a fo'masthand on your old
+schooner.  I'm neither of those and I don't care to be talked to in
+that way.  Another is that what I chose to do with my property is
+your business.  It isn't, it's mine.  I may have sold that stock or
+any other, or the house or the barn or the cat, as far as that
+goes, but if I have or haven't it is my affair.  And I think you'd
+better understand that before we talk any more."
+
+She turned and walked on again.  Captain Jethro's eyes flashed.  It
+had been some time since any one had addressed him in that manner.
+However, women were women and business was business, and the
+captain was just then too intent upon the latter to permit the
+whims of the former to interfere.  He swallowed his temper and
+strode after his neighbor.
+
+"Martha," he said, complainingly, "I don't see as you've got any
+call to talk to me that way.  I've been a pretty good friend to
+you, seems to me, and I was your father's friend, his chum, as you
+might say.  Seems as if I had--well, a right to be interested in--
+in what you do."
+
+Martha paused.  After all, there was truth in what he said.  He had
+been her father's close friend, and, no doubt, he meant to be hers.
+And he was Lulie's father, and not well, not quite his old self
+mentally or physically.  Perhaps she should make allowances.
+
+"Well, all right, Cap'n Jeth," she said.  "It wasn't what you said
+so much as it was how you said it.  Now will you tell me why you're
+so dreadfully anxious to know how I got that five thousand dollars
+I deposited over to the bank yesterday?"
+
+The light keeper pulled at his beard; the latter was so thick as to
+make a handful, even for one of his hands.  "Well," he said,
+somewhat apologetically, "you see, Martha, it's like this:  IF you
+sold them Development shares of yours--and I swan I can't think of
+anything else you own that would sell for just that money--IF you
+sold 'em, I say, I'd like to know how you done it.  I've got four
+hundred shares of that stock I'd like to sell fust-rate--fust-rate
+I would."
+
+She had not entirely forgiven him for his intrusion in her affairs
+and his manner of the moment before.  She could not resist giving
+him a dig.
+
+"Cap'n Jeth," she said, "I don't see why you need to worry.  I've
+heard you say a good many times that you had promises from--well,
+from the spirits that you were goin' to sell your Development stock
+and at a profit.  All you had to do, you said, was wait.  Now, you
+see, _I_ couldn't wait."
+
+The captain nodded in satisfaction.  "So 'TWAS the Development you
+sold," he growled.  "I figgered out it couldn't be nothin' else."
+
+Martha scarcely knew whether to frown or laugh.  Some of her pity
+concerning the old man's mental state had been, obviously,
+unnecessary.  He was still sharp enough in business matters.
+
+"Well," she said, with both laugh and frown, "suppose it was, what
+of it?"
+
+"Why, just this, Martha:  If there's anything goin' on on the
+inside of the Development Company I want to know it."
+
+"There isn't anything goin' on so far as I know."
+
+"Then who bought your stock?  The Denboro Trust Company folks?"
+
+"No.  They don't know a thing about it."
+
+"'Twan't that blasted Pulcifer?"
+
+"No.  I should hope not.  Now don't ask any more, because I sha'n't
+tell you.  It's a secret, that's all, and it's got to stay that
+way."
+
+He looked at her.  She returned his look and nodded.  She meant
+what she said and he reluctantly recognized the fact.
+
+"Humph!  Well, all right, Martha," he growled.  "But--but will you
+do this much for me?  Will you ask these folks--whoever 'twas
+bought your two hundred and fifty--if they don't want my four
+hundred?  If they're really buyin', I shouldn't be surprised if
+they would want it.  If they bought it just as a favor to you, and
+are goin' to hang on and wait--why--why then, maybe they'd do a
+favor to a friend of yours and your father's afore you.  Maybe they
+will, you can't tell.  And you can tell 'em I've had word from--
+from over yonder that it's all goin' to turn out right.  You ask
+'em if they don't want to buy my stock, will you, Martha?"
+
+Martha took time for reflection.  Then she said:  "Cap'n Jeth, if I
+do ask 'em that, will you promise not to tell a soul a word about
+my sellin' my stock, or about the money, or anything of the kind?
+Will you promise that?"
+
+The light keeper nodded.  "Sartin sure," he said.  "I'll promise
+you, Martha."
+
+"All right, I'll ask, but you mustn't count on anything comin' from
+it."
+
+The captain's brows drew together.  "What I count on," he said,
+solemnly, "is a higher promise than yours or mine, Martha Phipps.
+What we do down here will only be what them up aloft want us to do.
+Don't you forget that."
+
+They parted at the Phipps' gate.  Captain Jethro walked moodily
+home.  Lulie met him at the door.  She was wearing her hat and
+coat.
+
+"I'm going up to the village, father," she said.  "I have some
+errands to do.  I'll be back pretty soon."
+
+Her father watched her as she walked away.  The thought crossed his
+mind that possibly Nelson Howard might be visiting the village that
+forenoon.  He called her name, and she turned and came back.
+
+"What is it, father?" she asked.
+
+Jethro hesitated.  He passed a hand across his forehead.  His head
+felt tired.  Somehow he didn't want to talk any more.  Even as
+important a topic as Nelson Howard did not arouse his interest.
+
+"Oh, nothin', nothin'," he assured.  "Cal'late maybe I'll lay down
+and turn in a little spell afore dinner.  Is Zach on deck?"
+
+"Yes, he is out in the kitchen, or was a minute ago.  Primmie was
+over on an errand and I heard their tongues going.  Shall I speak
+to Zach, father?"
+
+He told her no, and went into the house.  There was a couch in the
+dining room and he stretched himself upon it.  The head of the
+couch was near the door leading to the kitchen.  That door was
+closed, but from behind it sounded voices, voices which were
+audible and distinct.  A dispute seemed to be in progress between
+Mr. Bloomer and Miss Cash and, although Zacheus continued to
+grumble on in an even key, Primmie's tone became higher and
+shriller with each retort.
+
+"I tell you 'tis so, Zach Bloomer. . . .  Well, maybe 'twan't a
+hundred and fifty thousand, but I bet you 'twas more money than you
+ever see in YOUR life.  So now!"
+
+The assistant light keeper was heard to cough.  Primmie seemed to
+discern a hint of skepticism even in the cough.
+
+"Oh, you can set there and keep on turnin' up your nose and--and
+coughin'," she declared, "but--"
+
+Zacheus interrupted to say that he hardly ever turned up his nose
+when he coughed.
+
+"Seems to come handier to turn it down, Posy," he said.
+
+"Oh, be still, foolish!  Well, anyhow, it's true, every word of it.
+I see more money at one time and in one--er--er junk, as you might
+say, than ever I see afore--yes, or I bet you ever see neither,
+Zach Bloomer."
+
+"We-ll, course what I ever see never amounted to much, but if it's
+more than YOU see, Rosebud, then it must have been consider'ble of
+a lot.  Over in them Mashpaug woods, where you hail from, money
+kind of grows on the bushes, like huckleberries, I presume likely.
+Martha Phipps been over there berryin', has she?"
+
+"No, she ain't.  Besides, I never said Miss Martha brought the
+money into the house.  All's I said was that 'twas in there and I
+see it with my own eyes."
+
+"Sho!  With your own eyes, eh?  Well, well!  What do you cal'late
+'twould have looked like if you'd borrered somebody else's eyes?
+Say, Posy, was it you fetched the billion and a half, or whatever
+'twas, into the house?"
+
+"Me?  ME with all that money?  My savin' soul!"
+
+"Well, who did fetch it?  Santy Claus?"
+
+"I sha'n't tell you.  I promised Miss Martha I wouldn't tell one
+word about that money and I ain't goin' to."
+
+"Hooray, Posy!  That's the way to talk!  Well, now, be honest about
+it:  What did you have for supper night afore last?  Mince pie, was
+it?  Why didn't you eat another slice?  Then you'd have dreamed
+about a mackerel keg full of di'monds, most likely."
+
+Captain Jethro, trying to fall asleep on the couch in the dining
+room, turned over in disgust and raised himself upon an elbow
+preparatory to shouting an order for silence.  But Primmie's next
+speech caught his attention and the order was not given.
+
+"Dreamed!" retorted the indignant young woman.  "Are you tryin' to
+tell me I only dreamed about that money, Zacheus Bloomer?  Huh!  My
+Lord of Isrul!  If you'd seen that great big piled-up heap of bills
+layin' right there on the table in our settin' room where Mr. Bangs
+put 'em, I guess you'd have said 'dreams' and more, too.  Ten
+dollar bills there was and twenties and--and thirties and forties,
+for all I know."
+
+"That so?  Right where Mr. Bangs put 'em, eh?  Now I KNOW you was
+dreamin', Pansy Blossom.  That little dried-up Bangs man ain't
+worth more'n ten cents, if that."
+
+"He ain't?  How do you know he ain't?"
+
+"Same as I know when that Lucy Larcom tomcat of Martha's has been
+in a fight, by the looks of him.  Look at the Bangs man's clothes,
+and--and his hat--and--why, Godfreys mighty, he can't afford to get
+his hair cut oftener than once in three months!  Anyhow, he don't.
+And you stand there and tell me he come cruisin' in t'other night
+and commenced sheddin' million dollar bills all over the furniture.
+Where'd he get 'em to?  Dig 'em up over in the Baptist graveyard?"
+
+"No, he never.  He got 'em up to Boston.  Leastways, I guess he
+did, 'cause that's where he went.  And, besides, what do you know
+about how much he's worth?  He may look kind of--of ratty, but all
+the same he's got rich relations.  Why, one of his relations is
+head of the biggest broke--I mean, brokin' and bank place there is
+in Boston.  Cabot, Bancroft and--and Thingumbob is the name of it.
+And Miss Martha told me 'twas--"
+
+There was much more of this and the listener on the dining room
+couch heard it all.  He remained on that couch until Miss Cash, at
+the back door of the kitchen, delivered her triumphant farewell.
+
+"So there now, Zach Bloomer," she said, "I guess you believe now I
+didn't dream it.  And you needn't ask any more questions because I
+sha'n't tell you a single word.  I promised Miss Martha I wouldn't
+never tell and I'm goin' to keep my promise."
+
+That evening Martha approached her lodger on the subject of the
+possibility of selling the light keeper's Development holdings for
+him.  To say the least, she received no encouragement.  Galusha was
+quite emphatic in his expression of disbelief in that possibility.
+
+"Oh, dear me, no, Miss Martha," he stammered.  "I--ah--I feel quite
+sure it would be unwise to--ah--attempt such a thing.  You see--ah--
+you see--my cousin is--is--"
+
+"I know, he's sick, poor man, and shouldn't be disturbed.  You're
+right, of course, Mr. Bangs.  It was only that Cap'n Jeth had
+always been a good friend of father's and mine and I thought if
+Cabot, Bancroft and Cabot really were buyin' the stock perhaps they
+might like to buy his.  But I can see why you wouldn't want to
+trouble Mr. Cabot again just now.  I'm sorry I mentioned it to you;
+I'm afraid I have made you nervous."
+
+Galusha was nervous, certainly, and showed it.  He protested,
+however, that he was quite all right really, and, as his landlady
+did not mention the subject again, he recovered a portion of his
+equilibrium.  And during the following week he gradually gained
+more and more confidence.  The telltale certificate hidden in his
+bureau drawer was, of course, a drawback to his peace of mind, and
+the recollection of his recent outbreak of prevarication and
+deception was always a weight upon his conscience.  But, to offset
+these, there was a changed air about the Phipps' home and its
+inmates which was so very gratifying that, if it did not deaden
+that conscience, it, at least, administered to it an effective dose
+of soothing syrup.
+
+Primmie wept no more into the dishwater nor sighed despairingly
+when serving breakfast.  She sang now and, although an unprejudiced
+person might not have found the change an unmixed delight, Galusha
+did.  Miss Phipps sang, too, occasionally, not with the camp-
+meeting exuberance of her maid, but with the cheery hum of the busy
+bee.  She was happy; she said so and looked so, and, in spite of
+his guilty knowledge of the deceit upon which that happiness was
+founded, her lodger was happy because she was.
+
+"Do you know," he observed, on Saturday morning of that week, as,
+coated and capped for his daily walk, he stood by the door of the
+dining room, "it's quite extraordinary, really.  I have been
+thinking, you know, and it really is quite extraordinary."
+
+Martha was sitting in the rocker by the window, the morning
+sunshine streaming in through the leaves and blossoms of the potted
+plants on the brackets dappling her hair and cheek with cheery
+splashes of light and shade.  She was consulting the pages of her
+cookbook, as a preliminary to preparing a special dessert for
+Sunday's dinner, and was humming as she did so.
+
+She looked up when he spoke.
+
+"What is extraordinary?" she asked.  "Your thinkin', do you mean?
+I don't see anything very extraordinary about that.  You're
+thinkin' most of the time, seems to me."
+
+"Oh, I don't mean that.  I meant what I was thinking was
+extraordinary.  Or not precisely that, either.  I--ah--I mean--
+well, you see, when I was in Washington--at the Institute, you
+know--it used to annoy me--ah--extremely, to have any one sing or
+whistle in my vicinity.  Really, it did.  I sometimes spoke very
+sharply--ah--irritably to any one who did that.  And now, as I
+stood here and heard you singing, Miss Martha, it suddenly came
+over me that I do not mind it at all.  I--ah--actually like to hear
+you.  I do, very much, indeed.  Now, isn't that extraordinary!"
+
+Martha laughed aloud.  "Why, yes," she declared; "I think it is.
+Anybody likin' to hear me sing is about as extraordinary as
+anything that ever was, I guess.  Mr. Bangs, you're awfully funny."
+
+Galusha nodded.  "Yes," he said, "I am sure I must be.  I think if
+I were any one else I should laugh at myself a great deal.  I mean--
+ah--I mean in that case I should laugh, not at myself, but at me.
+Good gracious, I haven't made that very clear, have I?"
+
+His smile was so contagious that she laughed again.
+
+"I didn't mean you were funny to laugh at, but to laugh with," she
+said.  "You're goin' to have an especially nice walk this mornin'.
+It's such a lovely forenoon I almost wish I was goin' with you."
+
+Galusha beamed.  "Why--why, so do I!" he exclaimed, in delighted
+surprise.  "Yes, I do, I do, indeed!  Ah--ah--why don't you?"
+
+"Mercy me, I couldn't think of it!  I must stay here and get to
+cookin' or we'll have no puddin' to-morrow noon.  I'll be with you
+in spirit, as the books say; how will that do?"
+
+Whether or not she was with him in spirit, she was very much in her
+lodger's thoughts as he walked down the path to the gate.  It was
+such a beautiful forenoon, with the first promise of spring in the
+air, that, instead of starting toward the village, as was his usual
+custom, he turned in the other direction and strolled toward the
+lighthouse.  The sea view from the cliff edge should be magnificent
+on a morning like this.
+
+But it was not of the view, or the beauty of the morning, that he
+thought as he wandered slowly on.  His mind, for some reason or
+other, seemed to be filled with the picture of Martha Phipps as she
+sat in the rocking-chair, with the background of old-fashioned
+plants and blossoms, and the morning sunshine illumining her
+pleasant, comely face.  He could visualize every feature of that
+face, which fact was extremely odd, for it had been many years
+since he had noticed a female face sufficiently for that face to
+impress itself upon his memory.  Years and years before Galusha
+Bangs had been forced to the conclusion that the interest of
+attractive feminity was not for him and he had accepted the
+inevitable and never permitted his own interest to stray in that
+direction.  A few feminine faces he could, of course, recall; the
+face of his Aunt Clarissa, for instance, and--dear me, yes! that of
+the pestiferous Mrs. Worth Buckley, his--ah--not his "old man of
+the sea" exactly, but his equally troublesome, middle-aged woman of
+the mountains.  Mrs. Buckley had not attracted his notice, she had
+seized it, served a subpoena upon it, and his provokingly contrary
+memory persisted in recalling her face, probably because he so
+earnestly desired to forget it.
+
+But he found a real pleasure in visualizing the face of Miss Martha
+Phipps.  Her eyes now--her eyes were--ah--um--they were blue; no,
+they were gray--or a sort of gray-blue, perhaps, or even a shade of
+brown.  But the precise color made no real difference.  It was the
+way they looked at one, and--ah--smiled, so to speak.  Odd, because
+he had never before realized that one could--ah--smile with one's
+eyes.  Attractive, too, that smile of hers, the eyes and the lips
+in combination.  A sort of cheerful, comfortable smile--yes, and--
+ah--attractive--ah--inviting, as one might say; a homelike smile;
+that was the word he wanted--"homelike."  It had been a long, long
+time since he had had a home.  As a matter of fact, he had not
+cared to have one.  A tent in Egypt or Syria, furnished with a
+mummy or two, and with a few neighborly ruins next door--this had
+been his idea of comfort.  It was his idea still, but nevertheless--
+
+And then he became aware that from somewhere, apparently from the
+heavens above, a voice was shouting--yes, roaring--his name.
+
+"Mr. Bangs! . . .  Hi-i, Mr. Bangs!"
+
+Galusha came out of his walking dream, stared about him, found that
+he had walked almost to the fence surrounding the light keeper's
+home and would have collided with that fence in another stride or
+two, looked around, down, and finally up--to see Captain Jethro
+leaning over the iron rail surrounding the lantern room at the top
+of the lighthouse.
+
+"Oh!  Why--ah--good gracious!" he exclaimed.  "Were you calling me,
+Captain Hallett?"
+
+Captain Jethro shook his big head.  "Callin'!" he repeated.  "I've
+been bellerin' like the foghorn for five minutes.  A little more of
+it and I'd have run out of steam or bust a b'iler, one or t'other.
+Ain't been struck deef, have you, Mr. Bangs?"
+
+"No--ah--no, I trust not.  I was--ah--thinking, I presume, and I
+did not hear you.  I'm very sorry."
+
+"That's all right.  Glad you was only thinkin' and no worse.  I
+didn't know but you'd been struck by walkin' paralysis or
+somethin'.  Say," he leaned further over the rail and lowered his
+voice.  "Say," he said again, "would you mind comin' up here a
+minute?  I want to talk to you."
+
+Mr. Bangs did not mind and, entering the round tower, he climbed
+the spiral stair to the little room at the top.  The great lantern,
+with its glittering facets and lenses filled that room almost
+entirely, and the light keeper's great form filled it still more.
+There was scarcely space for little Galusha to squeeze in.
+
+Jethro explained that he had been cleaning the lantern.  "It's
+Zacheus' job really," he observed, "but I have to do it myself once
+in a while to keep it shipshape.  Say," he added, opening the door
+which led to the balcony, "look out yonder.  Worth lookin' at,
+ain't it?"
+
+It was.  The morning was dry and clear, a brisk wind from the west,
+and not a cloud.  The lighthouse, built as it was upon the knoll at
+the edge of the bluff, seemed to be vastly higher than it actually
+was, and to tower far above all else until the view from its top
+was almost like that from an aeroplane.  The horizon swept clear
+and unbroken for three quarters of a circle, two of those quarters
+the sharp blue rim of the ocean meeting the sky.  The white wave-
+crests leaped and twinkled and danced for miles and miles.  Far
+below on the yellow sand of the beach, the advancing and retreating
+breakers embroidered lacy patterns which changed constantly.
+
+"Worth looking at, ain't it?" repeated the captain.
+
+Galusha nodded.  "Indeed it is," he said, with emphasis.  Yet it
+surprised him slightly to find the gruff old light keeper
+enthusiastic concerning a scene which must be so very much a matter
+of course to him.
+
+"The Almighty done a good job when He built that," observed Captain
+Jethro, waving his hand toward the Atlantic.  "Don't never get
+tired of lookin' at salt water, I don't, and yet I've been in it or
+on it or around it pretty much all my life.  And now I'm up above
+it," he added, thoughtfully.  "We're pretty high up where we are
+now, Mr. Bangs.  I like to set up here and--er--well, kind of think
+about things, sometimes. . . .  Humph! . . .  Do you cal'late we're
+any nigher when we're up aloft here than we are down on the ground
+yonder; nigher to THEM, I mean?"
+
+His visitor was puzzled.  "I--I beg your pardon?" he stammered.
+"Nigher--ah--nearer to--ah--what?"
+
+"Nigher to them--them that's gone afore.  Seems sometimes, when I'm
+alone up here, particular of a foggy day, as if I was consider'ble
+nigher to them--to HER, especial--than when I'm on the ground.
+Think there's anything in it, do you?"
+
+Galusha said he didn't know; we know so little about such things,
+really.  He wondered what the captain had invited him up there to
+talk about.  Some spiritualistic subject, very likely; the
+conversation seemed to be tending that way.  Jethro appeared to
+have forgotten altogether the seance and his, Galusha's, assumption
+of the character of the small, dark "evil influence."  It looked
+very much as if that assumption--so far as it entailed the
+permanent shifting of prejudice from Nelson Howard to himself--had
+been effort wasted.
+
+Captain Jeth pulled at his beard and seemed to be dreaming.
+Galusha pitied the old fanatic as he stood there, massive, rugged,
+brows drawn together, sturdy legs apart as if set to meet the roll
+of a ship at sea--a strong figure, yet in a way the figure of a
+wistful, dreaming child, helpless--
+
+"Mr. Bangs," said the light keeper, "don't you cal'late, if you set
+out to, you could sell my four hundred Wellmouth Development same
+as you sold Martha's two hundred and fifty?"
+
+Galusha would have sat down, if there had been anything except the
+floor to sit down on.  As a matter of fact, even that consideration
+might not have prevented his sitting; his knees bent suddenly and
+he was on his way to the floor, but his shoulders struck the wall
+behind him and furnished the support he so very much needed.  So
+far as speech was concerned, that was out of the question.  His
+mouth opened and shut, but nothing audible issued therefrom.  Mr.
+Bangs, at that moment, gave a very good imitation of a fish
+unexpectedly jerked out of deep water to dry, very dry land.
+
+Captain Jethro did not seem to realize the effect of his question
+upon his visitor.  His big fist moved downward from his chin to the
+tip of his beard, only to rise and take a new hold at the chin
+again.  His gaze was fixed upon the rolling sea outside.
+
+"You see," he went on, "I kind of figger it out this way:  If them
+folks who bought Martha's stock are cal'latin' to buy up
+Development they'll want more'n two hundred and fifty.  I'll sell
+'em mine at a reasonable figger; sha'n't ask much over what I paid
+for it, I sha'n't.  If they ain't buyin' for anything 'special, but
+just 'cause they think it's a good thing to keep--well, then--"
+
+Galusha interrupted.  The faculty of framing words and uttering
+them was returning to him, albeit slowly and jerkily.
+
+"Why--why, Captain Hallett," he faltered.  "How--how--who--who--"
+
+"Martha didn't tell me nothin' except that she had sold her stock,"
+broke in the light keeper.  "I guessed that, too, afore she told
+me.  She never mentioned your name, Mr. Bangs, nor where she sold
+it, nor nothin'.  But, of course, when I found out 'twas you who
+went to Boston and fetched home the five thousand dollars I didn't
+need to be told--much.  Now, Mr. Bangs, I wish you'd see if you
+can't sell my four hundred shares for me.  It'll be consider'ble of
+a favor if you will.  You see, them shares--"
+
+But Galusha did not wait for him to finish.  His alarmed protests
+fairly tumbled over each other.
+
+"Why--why, Captain Hallett," he cried, "really I--I . . . ah . . .
+What you ask is quite impossible.  Oh, very much so--ah--very.  You
+see . . .  Well, really, I . . .  Captain Hallett, this entire
+matter was supposed to be a secret, an absolute secret.  I am
+surprised--and--ah--shocked to learn--"
+
+The captain's big paw was uplifted as a signal.  "Sshh!  Heave to!
+Come up into the wind a minute, Mr. Bangs.  'Tis a secret, fur's
+I'm consarned, and 'twill be just the same after I've sold my
+stock.  I realize that business men don't want business matters
+talked about, 'tain't likely.  All I'd like to have you do is just
+see if you can't dispose of that four hundred of mine, same as you
+done with Martha's.  Just as a favor I'm askin' it."
+
+Galusha shook his head violently.  His agitation was as great as
+ever.  After going through the agony of the frying pan and
+congratulating himself that that torment was over, then to find he
+had escaped merely into the fire was perfectly maddening--not to
+say frightening--and--oh, dear, dear, dear!
+
+"Really, I'm very sorry, very," he reiterated.  "But I am QUITE
+sure I can do nothing with your shares, Captain Hallett.  It--it--
+such a thing would be absolutely impossible.  I'm sorry."
+
+Captain Jethro's calm was unshaken.  "We-ll," he said, slowly, "I
+ain't altogether surprised.  Course I could see that maybe you
+wouldn't want to go cruisin' up to them folks again, 'specially
+they bein' relations.  I don't blame you for that, Mr. Bangs.  But,
+in case you did feel that way, I'd made up my mind I'd go up there
+myself and see 'em."
+
+"Eh?  Ah--ah--  See?  See whom?"
+
+"Why, them relations of yours.  Them Cabot, Bancroft and Cabot
+folks.  I know OF 'em; everybody that knows anything about bankin'
+does, of course.  I don't know any of 'em personal, but I cal'lated
+maybe you'd be willin' to give me a note, a letter introducin' me,
+you see.  Then I could tell 'em why I come, and how I wanted to
+talk with 'em about sellin' some more of the same stock they sold
+for you.  That would be all right, wouldn't it, Mr. Bangs?"
+
+Galusha did not answer.  The absolute hopelessness of the situation
+was beginning to force itself upon his understanding.  Whether or
+not he gave the letter of introduction, the light keeper would go
+to Cabot, Bancroft and Cabot--oh, how on earth did he ever learn
+that THEY had anything to do with it?--and begin talkin' about
+Martha Phipps' stock; and they would deny knowing anything of it;
+and then the captain would persist, giving details; and Barbour and
+Minor and the rest would guess the truth and probably write Thomas,
+who would eventually tell Cousin Gussie; and the light keeper would
+return home and tell Martha, and she would learn that he had lied
+to her and deceived her--
+
+"Well, what do you say, Mr. Bangs?" inquired Captain Jethro.
+
+Bangs turned a haggard gaze in the speaker's direction.  The latter
+was standing in exactly the same attitude, feet apart, hand to
+beard, sad eyes gazing out to sea; just as he had stood when
+Galusha's sympathy had gone out to him as a "helpless, dreaming
+child."
+
+"What are you laughin' at?" asked Captain Jeth, switching his gaze
+from old ocean to the face of the little archaeologist.
+
+Galusha had not laughed, but there was a smile, a wan sort of
+smile, upon his face.
+
+"Oh, nothing in particular," he replied.  "I was reflecting that it
+seemed rather too bad to waste pity in quarters where it was not--
+ah--needed, when there was such a pressing demand, as one might
+say, at home."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+The earnest young man behind the counter in the office of Cabot,
+Bancroft and Cabot--the young man who had so definitely classified
+Galusha Bangs as a "nut"--was extremely surprised when that
+individual reappeared before his window and, producing the very
+check which he had obtained there so short a time before, politely
+requested to exchange it for eighty-two hundred dollars in cash and
+another check for the balance.
+
+"Why--why--but--!" exclaimed the young man.
+
+"Thank you.  Yes, if--ah--if you will be so good," said Galusha.
+
+The young man himself asked questions, and then called Mr. Minor
+into consultation, and Mr. Minor asked more.  The answers they
+received were not illuminating, but in the end the transaction was
+made as requested.
+
+"But, Bangs," said Minor, laughing, "what I can't understand is why
+you want to bother with the check for eleven hundred and odd--
+whatever it is.  Why not take the whole amount in cash and be done
+with it?"
+
+Galusha shook his head.  "I prefer it the--ah--other way.  If you
+don't mind," he added, politely.
+
+"Oh, we don't mind.  But--well, it seems rather funny, that's all.
+Ha, ha!"
+
+"Does it?  Yes, I--ah--dare say it does."
+
+"Ha, ha!  Yes, rather.  Of course, it is your business, you know,
+but--"
+
+He laughed again.  The harassed Galusha waited until the laugh was
+over.  Then he said, gently, "Yes, I was under that impression."
+
+"Eh?  What impression?"
+
+"That it was, as you say, my--ah--business."
+
+"Yes.  Why . . .  Eh?  Oh! . . .  Humph! . . .  Why, yes, surely,
+certainly.  Here," turning briskly to the clerk, "give Mr. Bangs
+what he wishes at once."
+
+He walked away, pulling thoughtfully at his mustache.  Galusha,
+rubbing his chin, looked gravely after him.  The clerk began making
+out the check.  This done and the check entrusted to a messenger to
+be taken to the private office for signing, the next business was
+the counting of the money.
+
+"Eighty-two hundred, you said?" asked the clerk.
+
+"Eighty-two hundred--ah--yes," said Galusha.
+
+Eight thousand was, of course, the price at par of Jethro Hallett's
+four hundred shares of Wellmouth Development stock.  The additional
+two hundred was a premium paid, so to speak, to the departed spirit
+of the late Mrs. Jethro Hallett.  She, by or through the Chinese
+control of Miss Marietta Hoag, had notified her husband that he was
+destined to sell his Development shares at a profit, a small profit
+perhaps, but a profit, nevertheless.
+
+So, when at that point of their conversation in the lantern room of
+the Gould's Bluffs light, Galusha, recognizing his helpless
+position and the alternative of buying the Hallett holdings or
+being exposed to Cousin Gussie as a sentimental and idiotic
+spendthrift and to Martha Phipps as a liar and criminal--when
+Galusha, facing this alternative, stammered a willingness to go to
+Boston and see if he could not dispose of Jethro's stock as he had
+Martha's, the captain added an additional clause.
+
+"I won't sell for par," he declared stubbornly.  "Julia revealed to
+me that I wouldn't, and so I sha'n't.  I'll sell for fifty cents a
+share extry, but I won't sell for twenty flat.  Rather than do that
+I'll go to them Cabot folks myself and see if I can't find out
+who's buyin' and why.  Then I'll go to the real buyers and make the
+best trade I can with them.  If they really want to get hold of
+that stock, fifty cents a share won't stand in their way, I'll bet
+you."
+
+It did not stand in Galusha's way, either.  In his desperate
+position he would have paid any amount obtainable rather than have
+the light keeper go to Boston on such an errand.
+
+Leaving the clerk's window with his pocket bulging with bank notes,
+Mr. Bangs proceeded sadly, but with determination, to the private
+office of Mr. Barbour, his cousin's "second secretary."  There,
+producing from another pocket a huge envelope, portentously daubed
+and sealed with red wax, he handed it to Barbour.  It contained the
+two stock certificates, each signed in blank, Martha's for two
+hundred and fifty shares, Captain Jethro's for four hundred.  The
+envelope and the wax he had procured at a stationer's near the
+South Station.  The obliging salesman had permitted him to do the
+sealing on the premises.
+
+"Mr. Barbour," he faltered, "I should like to leave this with you,
+if--if quite convenient, that is to say."
+
+Barbour turned the big envelope over.
+
+"Yes, Mr. Bangs, surely," he said, but he looked puzzled.  "What is
+it?"
+
+Galusha blushed and stammered.  "Why--why--" he began; "I--ah--you
+see--it is--ah--something of mine."
+
+"Something you wish me to take care of?" asked Barbour, still
+looking at the envelope.
+
+His caller grasped at the straw.
+
+"Yes--yes, that is it," he said, eagerly.  "Dear me, yes.  If you
+will be so kind."
+
+"Yes, indeed, Mr. Bangs.  No trouble at all.  I'll put it--"
+
+But the little man stopped the sentence in the middle.
+
+"If--if you please," he protested.  "Ah--please don't.  I don't
+wish to know where you put it.  Really, I don't, not in the least.
+I very much prefer not to know where it is. . . .  Ah--good-day,
+Mr. Barbour.  Thank you very much."
+
+The general opinion in the office of Cabot, Bancroft and Cabot
+concerning the senior partner's queer cousin was strengthened by
+this visit.  The surmise that Galusha Bangs was a "nut" became a
+conviction.
+
+But, for the "nut" himself, life during the coming weeks and months
+became a much less worrisome struggle.  Returning to East
+Wellmouth, for the second time laden with legal tender, he
+delivered his burden to Captain Jethro, who, in return, promised
+faithfully never to reveal a word concerning the sale of his
+Development stock or drop a hint which might help to locate its
+purchasers.
+
+"Course I won't say nothin'," vowed the captain.  "I realize that
+business men don't want their business talked about.  And if them
+Cabot, Bancroft and Cabot folks are tryin' to buy in the stock,
+whether it's for themselves or somebody else, they'll want it kept
+dark.  No, I ain't told a soul on this earth and I WON'T tell one.
+That is satisfactory, ain't it?"
+
+The shadow of a smile passed across Galusha's face.  "Quite,
+quite," he replied.  "Nothing could be more so unless--"
+
+"Well, unless what?"
+
+"Oh, nothing, nothing.  Thank you--ah--thank you very much."
+
+It had occurred to him that, considering the light keeper's
+peculiarities, the promise not to tell a soul on earth might be
+stretched to include those elsewhere; but he kept the thought to
+himself.  Captain Jethro did not press his question.  The shrewd
+old captain was so thoroughly delighted at having sold, and at the
+prophesied profit, his troublesome holdings in the Wellmouth
+Development Company, that his mood was neither combative nor
+inquisitive.
+
+Galusha did not tell Miss Phipps of his business deal with the
+light keeper.  In the first place, his telling her would involve
+more deception and, also, might lead to more possibilities of
+discovery.  The average, well-meaning person, having been driven by
+relentless fate to the committing of murder, could scarcely have
+felt more conscience-stricken and depraved than did little Galusha
+Bangs at having lied to Martha Phipps.  Of course, the lies and
+deceit had resulted in a distinct benefit to her and had been
+perpetrated solely with that idea, but this fact he ignored
+entirely.  And no murderer could have been more anxious to hide his
+guilty secret than was he.  So, for the first few days after his
+return with the light keeper's money, he was inclined to be
+thoughtful and nervous, to fall into troubled trances at table or
+in the middle of a conversation, and to start rather violently when
+aroused from those trances.  Primmie was disposed to attribute
+these lapses to disease.  She confided her fears to her employer.
+
+"You know what I think 'tis makes him act so, Miss Martha?" she
+asked, on one occasion.
+
+"Makes who act how?"
+
+"Makes Mr. Bangs set there and go moonin' off and not pay no
+attention and then jump when you wake him up as if you'd stuck a
+pin in him.  You know what I think 'tis?  I think maybe it's
+dropsy."
+
+"WHAT?"
+
+"Um-hm.  I had a great-aunt once; had a slew of 'em, fur's that
+goes, 'cause my grandmother on the starboard side--"
+
+"WHAT side?"
+
+"Eh!  Oh, that's what pa used to call his side of the family, the
+starboard side.  All ma's folks was port side, 'cordin' to his
+tell.  He'd worked aboard vessels, pa had; that is, as much as he
+ever worked anywheres.  Well, anyhow, his grandmother she had eight
+sisters and three brothers, so I had great-aunts thicker'n
+miskeeters in a swamp hole--my savin' soul, yes!  Well, anyhow, one
+of 'em, Aunt Lucifer 'twas--"
+
+"PRIMMIE!  WHAT was her name?"
+
+"Lucifer.  Ma and us children always called her Aunt Lucy, though;
+she liked it better."
+
+"Heavens and earth!  I should think she might.  WHAT possessed
+anybody to name a child Lucifer?  And a girl-child at that!"
+
+"Does sound kind of funny, don't it?  Folks 'most always used to
+laugh when they heard what her name was.  That is, fust along they
+did; but they never laughed but once when she was around.  Talk
+about makin' anybody mad!  And temper--my Lord of Isrul!  Why, if
+they laughed at her name she was li'ble to grab hold of the fust
+thing come to hand, flatiron or frying pan or chunk of stove wood
+or anything, and let 'em have it rattlety-bang-jing.  _I_ never
+seen her do it, of course--all that was afore MY time--but pa used
+to say it never made no difference whether 'twas the man come
+tryin' to collect the store bill or the minister or anybody, she'd
+up and flatten him just the same.  Course pa said 'twas a whole lot
+more li'ble to be the bill man than the minister 'cause there was
+precious few ministers ever--"
+
+"There, there, Primmie!  I can't stop to listen any longer, I'm
+busy.  But do tell me why they named the poor thing Lucifer?  How
+did they ever hear the name, anyway; way over in those Mashpaug
+woods?"
+
+"Oh, there was a story about that, kind of a pretty story 'twas,
+too.  'Cordin' to pa's tell, the fust time Aunt Lucy's ma--my great
+grandmother, and the land knows what HER name was, _I_ don't--the
+fust time she went out after the baby was born she went to camp
+meetin'.  And one of the ministers there he talked some consider'ble
+about a critter name of Lucifer that was a fallen-down angel,
+whatever that is.  Well, my great-grandmother she didn't understand
+much about what he was talkin' about--I cal'late none of 'em did
+fur's that goes, and no wonder--but the name of Lucifer sort of
+stuck in her head 'cause she thought 'twas kind of pretty.  And when
+she got back home they told her the baby had fetched loose from the
+bed where it had been asleep and fell onto the floor and pretty nigh
+busted itself in two.  And it never hardly cried at all--was a
+reg'lar angel they said--and that made her think about the
+fallen-down angel she'd just heard tell of to camp meetin' and
+its name was Lucifer.  And they hadn't named the baby yet, so--"
+
+"I see.  Ha, ha!  Primmie, you are--well, there aren't many like
+you, I'm sure.  Now I must go.  Well, what is it?"
+
+"Oh, nothin', only I ain't told you why I think Mr. Bangs may be
+comin' down with dropsy.  You see, Aunt Lucy--this Lucifer one I've
+been tellin' you about--she had it.  I only remember her 'long
+towards her last.  She wan't heavin' any teakittles at folks then;
+my savin' soul, no!  She used to set in a big rockin'-chair over by
+the stove and was all puffed-up like--like a featherbed, you might
+say; and she'd kind of doze along and doze along and you could
+holler your head off and she wouldn't pay no attention, and then
+she'd kind of wake up, as you might say, and sing out, 'Hey?  What
+say?' just like Mr. Bangs, for all the world.  And 'twas dropsy she
+had, so now you see, don't you, Miss Martha?"
+
+"Yes, yes, Primmie, I see.  Tut, tut, tut!  You certainly have a
+great imagination, of its kind.  I shouldn't worry about Mr. Bangs'
+disease, if I were you.  The poor man isn't really strong yet and
+he has been runnin' back and forth to Boston lately altogether too
+much for his own good.  He is tired and his nerves are tired, too;
+so we must make it as easy as we can for him, Primmie, you and I."
+
+"Yes'm.  He's a good man, ain't he?"
+
+"Indeed he is!"
+
+"Yes'm.  Even if he is so kind of--of funny."
+
+Often, in earlier conversations with her housemaid, Miss Phipps had
+agreed that her lodger was, to say the least, "funny"; but now she
+seemed to resent the word.
+
+"Humph!" she observed, crisply, "if he is, I presume likely he has
+the right to be.  And I know this, if there were more 'funny'
+people like him in this world it would be a big improvement.
+Primmie, go and do your sweepin'."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+With the end of the following week spring came in earnest to
+Gould's Bluffs, not yet as a steady boarder--spring in New England
+is a young lady far too fickle for that--but to make the first of
+her series of ever-lengthening visits.  Galusha found her, indeed,
+a charming young person.  His walks now were no longer between
+snowdrifts or over frozen fields and hills.  Those hills and fields
+were still bare and brown, of course, but here and there, in
+sheltered hollows, tiny bits of new green began to show.  In April,
+by disturbing the layers of dead leaves and sodden vegetation
+through which these hints of greenness peeped, one was likely to
+come upon fragrant treasures, the pink and white blossoms of the
+trailing arbutus.
+
+There was a superfluity of mud, of course, and as Miss Phipps often
+informed him, Galusha's boots and lower trouser legs were "sights
+to see" when he came back from those walks.  He expressed
+contrition and always proclaimed that he should be much more
+careful in future--much more, yes.  But he was not, nor did he care
+greatly.  He was feeling quite well again, better than he had felt
+for years, and spring was in his middle-aged blood and was
+rejuvenating him, just as it was rejuvenating the world and its
+creatures about him, including Lucy Larcom, Martha's ancient and
+rheumatic Thomas cat.  Lucy--an animal as misnamed as Primmie's
+"Aunt Lucifer"--instead of slumbering peacefully and respectably in
+his cushioned box in the kitchen, which had been his custom of
+winter nights, now refused to come in at bedtime, ignored his
+mistress' calls altogether, and came rolling home in the morning
+with slit ears and scarred hide and an air of unrepentant and
+dissipated abandon.
+
+Galusha, inspecting the prodigal's return one morning, observed:
+"Luce, when I first met you, you reminded me strongly of my Aunt
+Clarissa.  The air of--ah--dignity and respectable disapproval with
+which you looked me over was much like hers.  But now--now, if you
+wore a hat on one side and an--ah--exuberant waistcoat, you would
+remind me more of Mr. Pulcifer."
+
+With April came the fogs, and the great foghorn bellowed and howled
+night after night.  Galusha soon learned to sleep through the
+racket.  It was astonishing, his capacity for sleep and his
+capability in sleeping up to capacity.  His appetite, too, was
+equally capable.  He was, in fact, feeling so very well that his
+conscience began troubling him concerning his duty to the
+Institute.  He wrote to the directors of that establishment
+suggesting that, as his health was so greatly improved, perhaps he
+had better return to his desk.  The reply was prompt.  The
+directors were, so the letter said, much pleased to hear of his
+improved health, but they wished him to insure the permanence of
+that improvement by remaining away for another six months at least.
+"We have," the writer added, "a plan, not yet definite and
+complete, although approaching that condition, which will call for
+your knowledge and experienced guidance.  Our plan will probably
+materialize in the fall or winter.  I can say no more concerning it
+now, except to add that we feel sure that it will be acceptable to
+you and that you should take every precaution to gain strength and
+health as a preparatory measure."
+
+Galusha could not guess what the plan might be, but he was a bit
+surprised to find himself so willing to agree to the directors'
+mandate that he remain in East Wellmouth for the present.  His
+beloved desk in his beloved study there in Washington had been torn
+from him, or rather he had been torn from it, and for a time it had
+really seemed as if the pangs of severance might prove fatal.  By
+all that was fit and proper he should fiercely resent the order to
+remain away for another six months.  But he did not resent it
+fiercely; did not resent it at all; in fact, to be quite honest, he
+welcomed it.  He was inwardly delighted to be ordered to remain in
+East Wellmouth.  Such a state of mind was surprising, quite
+nonunderstandable.
+
+And, day by day and week by week, the fear that his guilty secret
+concerning the Wellmouth Development stock might be discovered
+became less and less acute.  Captain Jethro never mentioned it;
+Martha Phipps, when she found that he preferred not to discuss it,
+kept quiet, also.  Perhaps, after all, no one would ever know
+anything about it.  And the change in Martha's spirits was glorious
+to see.
+
+He and Lulie Hallett had many quiet talks together.  Ever since the
+evening of the seance when, partially by craft and partially by
+luck, he had prevented her father's discovering young Howard's
+presence in the house, she had unreservedly given him her
+friendship.  And this gift Galusha appreciated.  He had liked her
+when they first met and the liking had increased.  She was a
+sensible, quiet, unaffected country girl.  She was also an
+extremely pretty girl, and when a very pretty girl--and sensible
+and unaffected and the rest--makes you her confidant and asks your
+advice concerning her love affair and her heart's most precious
+secrets, even a middle-aged "mummy duster," whose interest in the
+female sex has, until very recently, centered upon specimens of
+that sex who have been embalmed several thousand years--even such a
+one cannot help being gratified by the subtle flattery.
+
+So when Lulie asked his advice Galusha gave it, such as he happened
+to have in stock, whole-heartedly and without reserve.  He and she
+had many chats and the subjects of these chats were almost
+invariably two--her father and Nelson Howard.  How could she
+reconcile the one with and to the other?  Mr. Bangs' council was,
+of course, to wait and hope, but a council of procrastination is,
+to say the most, but partially satisfying.
+
+One afternoon, in the middle of May, he met her on the way back
+from the village and, as they walked on together, he asked her if
+there were any new developments in the situation.  She looked
+troubled.
+
+"I don't exactly know what you mean by developments," she said.
+"If you mean that father is any more reconciled to Nelson, he
+isn't, that's all.  On any other subject he is as nice as he can
+be.  If I wanted anything in the world, and he had money enough to
+buy it, I do believe I could have it just for the asking.  That is
+a good deal to say," she added, with a half smile, "considering how
+fond father is of money, but honestly, Mr. Bangs, I think it's
+true."
+
+Galusha declared that he had no doubt of its truth, indeed, no.
+
+"But, you see," continued Lulie, "the one thing I do want--which is
+for father to like Nelson--can't be bought with money.  I try to
+talk with him, and argue with him; sometimes when he is especially
+good-natured and has been especially nice to me, I try to coax him,
+but it always ends in one way; he gets cross and won't listen.
+'Don't talk to me about that Howard swab, I won't hear it.'  That's
+what he always says.  He always calls Nelson a 'swab.'  Oh, dear!
+I'm so tired of it all."
+
+"Yes--ah--yes, I'm sure you must be.  Ah--um--swab?  Swab?  It
+doesn't sound agreeable.  What is a--ah--swab, may I ask?"
+
+"Oh, I believe it's a kind of mop that the sailors use aboard ship
+to clean decks with.  I believe that is what it is."
+
+"Indeed?  Yes, yes, of course.  Now that is quite interesting,
+isn't it?  A mop--yes.  But really, I don't see why Mr. Howard
+should be called a--ah--mop.  There is nothing about him which
+suggests a mop to me.  Now in my case--why, this very morning Miss
+Mar--Miss Phipps suggested that my hair needed cutting very badly.
+I hadn't noticed it, myself, but when she called my attention I
+looked in the mirror and--ah--really, I was quite a sight.  Ah--
+shaggy, you know, like a--like a yak."
+
+"A what?"
+
+"A yak.  The--ah--Tibetan animal.  I spent a season in Tibet a
+number of years ago and they use them there for beasts of burden.
+They have a great deal of hair, you know, and so did I--ah--this
+morning.  Dear me, yes; I was quite yaklike."
+
+Lulie turned an amused glance at him.  "So Martha tells you when--"
+she began, and then stopped, having spoken without thinking.  But
+her companion was not offended.
+
+"Oh, yes, yes," he said cheerfully.  "She tells me many things for
+my own good.  She quite manages me.  It is extremely good of her,
+for goodness knows I need it.  Dear me, yes!"  He thoughtfully
+rubbed his shorn neck and added, "I told that barber that my hair
+needed cutting badly.  I--ah--fear that is the way he cut it. . . .
+I read that joke in the paper, Miss Lulie; it isn't original,
+really."
+
+He smiled and she burst out laughing.  But she did not laugh long.
+When she next spoke she was serious enough.
+
+"Mr. Bangs," she said, "you don't think it dishonorable, or mean to
+father, for me to keep on seeing Nelson, do you?  Father keeps
+ordering me not to, but I never say I won't.  If he asked me I
+should tell him that I did."
+
+Galusha's answer was promptly given.
+
+"No, I don't think it dishonorable," he said.  "Of course, you must
+see him.  It is too bad that you are obliged to see him in--ah--ah--
+dear me, what is the word I want?  Clan--clan--sounds Scottish,
+doesn't it?--oh, yes, clandestine!  It is too bad you are obliged
+to see him clandestinely, but I suppose your father's attitude
+makes anything else impossible.  I am very sorry that my claiming
+to be the evil influence has had so little effect.  That was a
+mistake, I fear."
+
+"Don't say that, Mr. Bangs.  You saved us all from a dreadful
+scene, and father himself from--I hate to think what.  Don't ever
+say that it was a mistake, please.  But I do so hate all this
+hiding and pretending.  Some day it will have to end, but how I
+don't know.  Nelson comes first, of course; but how can I leave
+father?  I shall see him--Nelson, I mean--to-night, Mr. Bangs.  He
+has written me saying he is coming over, and I am going to meet
+him.  He says he has good news.  I can't think what it can be.  I
+can't think of any good news that could come for him and me, except
+that father has stopped believing in Marietta Hoag's spirits and
+has gotten over his ridiculous prejudice; and that WON'T come--
+ever."
+
+"Oh, yes, it will!  I'm sure it will.  Dear me, you mustn't lose
+heart, you know."
+
+"Mustn't I?  No, I suppose I mustn't.  Thank you, Mr. Bangs.
+Nelson and I are ever and ever so much obliged to you.  You are a
+great comfort to me.  I told Martha that very thing yesterday," she
+added.
+
+Galusha could not help looking pleased.  "Did you, indeed?" he
+observed.  "Well, well--ah--dear me, that was a rather rash
+statement, wasn't it?"
+
+"Not a bit.  And do you want to know what she said?  She said you
+were a great comfort to a good many people, Mr. Bangs.  So there;
+you see!"
+
+That evening the moon rolled, like a silver bowl, over the liquid
+rim of the horizon, and, upsetting, spilled shimmering, shining,
+dancing fire in a broad path from sky edge to the beach at the foot
+of Gould's Bluffs.  At the top of that bluff, in the rear of a
+clump of bayberry bushes which shielded them from the gaze of
+possible watchers at the lighthouse, Nelson Howard and Lulie,
+walking slowly back and forth, saw it rise.
+
+Nelson told her the good news he had mentioned in his letter.  It
+was that he had been offered a position as operator at the great
+wireless station in Trumet.  It was what he had been striving for
+and hoping for and his war record in the radio service had made it
+possible for him to obtain it.  The pay was good to begin with and
+the prospect of advancement bright.
+
+"And, of course, the best of it is," he said, "that I shall be no
+further away from you than I am now.  Trumet isn't a bit farther
+than South Wellmouth.  There!  Don't you think that my good news IS
+good news?"
+
+Of course she did and said so.
+
+"And I'm awfully proud of you, too," she told him.
+
+"Nothing to be proud of; I'm lucky, that's all.  And don't you see,
+dear, how this is going to help us?  I shall be earning good pay
+and I shall save every cent possible, you can bet on that.  Rooms
+are furnished by the company for single men, and houses, nice,
+comfortable houses, for the married ones.  In three months, or in
+six at the most, I shall have added enough to what I have saved
+already to make it possible for us to be married.  And we WILL be
+married.  Just think of you and me having one of those pretty
+little houses for our own, and being there together, in our home!
+Just think of it!  Won't it be wonderful!"
+
+He looked down into her face and smiled and she, looking up into
+his, smiled, too.  But she shook her head, nevertheless.
+
+"Yes, dear," she said, "it would be wonderful.  But it's too
+wonderful to be true, I'm afraid."
+
+"Why?  Nonsense!  Of course it can be true.  And it's going to be,
+too, in six months, perhaps sooner."
+
+But still she shook her head.
+
+"It can't be, Nelson," she said, sadly.  "Don't you see it can't?
+There is father."
+
+"Your father will be all right.  That's one of the good things
+about this new job of mine.  You will be only a little way from
+him.  He'll be here at the light, with Zach to look after him, and
+you can come over every few days to make sure things are going as
+they should.  Why--"
+
+She touched his lips with her fingers.
+
+"Don't, dear," she begged.  "You know you're only talking just
+because it is nice to make-believe.  I like to hear you, too; but
+what is the use when it's ONLY make-believe?  You know what
+father's health really is; you know how nervous he is.  Doctor
+Powers told me he must not be overexcited or--or dreadful things
+might happen.  You saw him at that horrid seance thing."
+
+He shrugged.  "If I didn't see I heard," he admitted.
+
+"Yes, you heard.  And you know how near--  Now suppose I should
+tell him that you and I intended getting married and going to
+Trumet to live; what do you think would happen?"
+
+"But, look here, Lulie:  You've got to tell him some time, because
+we ARE going to be married, you know."
+
+"Are we?  Yes, I--I hope we are.  But, oh, Nelson, sometimes I get
+almost discouraged.  I CAN'T leave him in that way, you know that.
+And, in a sense, I don't want to leave him, because he is my father
+and I love him."
+
+"But, confound it, you love me, too, don't you?"
+
+"You know I do.  But--but--oh, dear!  What can I do?"
+
+He did not answer at once.  After a moment he said, rebelliously:
+"You have got your own life to live.  Your father has lived the
+biggest part of his.  He hasn't any right to prevent your being
+happy.  It would be different if he had any excuse for it,
+reasonable excuse.  I'm a--well, I'm not a thief--or a fool, quite,
+I hope.  I can provide for you comfortably and I'll do my level best
+to be a good husband to you.  If there was any excuse for his hating
+me, any except that idiotic spirit craziness of his.  And what right
+has he to order you around?  A hundred years or so ago fathers used
+to order their sons and daughters to marry this one or the other,
+and if they didn't mind they disinherited 'em, or threw 'em out of
+doors, or some such stuff.  At least, that's the way it worked,
+according to the books and plays.  But that doesn't go nowadays.
+What right has he--"
+
+But again she touched his lips.
+
+"Don't, Nelson, please," she said, gently.  "Rights haven't
+anything to do with it, of course.  You know they haven't, don't
+you?  You know it's just--just that things are AS they are and
+that's all.  If father was as he used to be, his real self, and he
+behaved toward you as he is doing, I shouldn't hesitate at all.  I
+should marry you and feel I was doing exactly right.  But now--"
+
+She stopped and he, stooping, caught a gleam of moisture where the
+moonlight touched her cheek.  He put his arm about her waist.
+
+"Don't, dear," he said, hastily.  "I'm sorry.  Forgive me, will
+you?  Of course you're dead right and I've been talking like a
+jackass.  I'll behave, honest I will. . . .  But what ARE we going
+to do?  I won't give you up, you know, no matter if every spirit
+control in--in wherever they come from orders me to."
+
+She smiled.  "Of course we're not going to give each other up," she
+declared.  "As for what we're going to do, I don't know.  I suppose
+there is nothing to do for the present except to wait and--and hope
+father may change his mind.  That's all, isn't it?"
+
+He shook his head.  "Waiting is a pretty slow game," he said.  "I
+wonder, if I pretended to fall in love with Marietta Hoag, if those
+Chinese spooks of hers would send word to Cap'n Jeth that I was
+really a fairly decent citizen.  Courting Marietta would be hard
+medicine to take, but if it worked a cure we might try it.  What do
+you think?"
+
+"I should be afraid that the remedy might be worse than the
+disease.  Once in Marietta's clutches how would you get away?"
+
+"Oh, that would be easy.  I'd have Doctor Powers swear that I had
+been suffering from temporary softening of the brain and wasn't
+accountable for what I'd been doing."
+
+"She might not believe it."
+
+"Maybe not, but everybody else would.  Nothing milder than
+softening of the brain would account for a fellow's falling in love
+with Marietta Hoag."
+
+A little later, as they were parting, she said, "Nelson, you're an
+awfully dear fellow to be so thoughtful and forbearing and--and
+patient.  Sometimes I think I shouldn't let you wait for me any
+longer."
+
+"Let me!  How are you going to stop me?  Of course I'll wait for
+you.  You're the only thing worth waiting for in the world.  Don't
+you know that?"
+
+"I know you think so.  But, oh, dear, it seems sometimes as if
+there never would be any end to the waiting, and as if I had no
+right to ask--"
+
+"There, there!  Don't YOU begin talking about rights.  There's
+going to be an end and the right kind of end.  No Chinese spooks
+are going to keep us apart, my girl, not if I can help it."
+
+"I know.  But can you help it? . . .  I must go now.  Yes, I must,
+or father will wonder where I am and begin looking for me.  He
+thinks I am over at Martha Phipps', you know.  Good-night, dear."
+
+"Good-night, girlie.  Don't worry, it's coming out all right for
+us, I'm sure of it.  This new job of mine is the first step in that
+direction.  There!  Kiss me and run along.  Good-night."
+
+They kissed and parted, Lulie to hasten back along the path to the
+light and Nelson to stride off in the opposite direction toward
+South Wellmouth.  Neither of them saw two figures which had, the
+moment before, appeared upon the summit of the knoll about thirty
+yards from the edge of the bluff and directly behind them.  But the
+pair on the knoll saw them.
+
+Martha Phipps had been standing by the window of the sitting room
+in her home looking out.  She had been standing there for some
+minutes.  Galusha Bangs, in the rocking-chair by the center table,
+was looking at her.  Suddenly Martha spoke.
+
+"I declare!" she exclaimed.  "I do believe that's the loveliest
+moon I ever saw.  I presume likely," she added, with a laugh, "it's
+the same moon I've always seen; it just looks lovelier, that's all,
+seems to me.  It will be beautiful to look at from the top of the
+bluff, the light on the water, I mean.  You really ought to walk
+over and see it, Mr. Bangs."
+
+Galusha hesitated, rubbed his spectacles, and then was seized with
+an inspiration.
+
+"I--I will if you will go, too," he said.
+
+Martha turned to see if he was in earnest.
+
+"Mercy me!" she exclaimed.  "Why should I go?  I've seen that moon
+on that same water more times than I like to count."
+
+"But you haven't seen it--ah--recently.  Now have you?"
+
+"Why, no, I don't know as I have.  Come to think of it, I don't
+believe I've been over to the top of the bank to see the moonlight
+since--well, since father died.  Father loved to look at salt water
+by sunlight or moonlight--or no light.  But, good gracious," she
+added, "it seems awfully foolish, doesn't it, to go wading through
+the wet grass to look at the moon--at my age?"
+
+"Why, not at all, not at all," persisted Galusha.  "I must be--ah--
+vastly older than you, Miss Phipps, and--"
+
+"Nonsense!"
+
+"Oh, but I am, really.  One has only to look at me to see.  And
+there are times when I feel--ah--incredibly ancient; indeed, yes.
+Now in your case, Miss Martha--"
+
+"In my case I suppose I'm just a slip of a girl.  For mercy sakes,
+don't let's talk ages, no, nor think about 'em, either. . . .  Do
+YOU want to go out to-night to look at that moon, Mr. Bangs?"
+
+"Why, yes--I--if you--"
+
+"Then get your rubbers and cap.  I'll be ready in a minute."
+
+The moon was well up now and land and sea were swimming in its
+misty radiance.  There was not a breath of wind and the air was as
+mild as if the month had been June and not May.  Under their feet
+the damp grass and low bushes swished and rustled.  An adventurous
+beetle, abroad before his time, blundered droning by their heads.
+From the shadow of a bunch of huckleberry bushes by the path a
+lithe figure soared lightly aloft, a furry paw swept across, and
+that June bug was knocked into the vaguely definite locality known
+as the "middle of next week."
+
+Martha uttered a little scream.  "Goodness gracious me!" she
+exclaimed.  "Lucy Larcom, you bad cat, how you did scare me!"
+
+Lucy leaped soundlessly over the clump of huckleberry bushes and
+galloped gayly into the distance, his tail waving like a banner.
+
+"WELL!" observed his mistress; "for a cat as old as you are I must
+say!"
+
+"He feels young to-night," said Galusha.  "It must be the--ah--
+moonlight, I think.  Really, I--ah--I feel surprisingly young,
+myself.  I do, indeed!"
+
+Martha laughed blithely.  They came to the abrupt little slope at
+the southwestern edge of the government property and when he
+offered to help her down she took his hand and sprang down herself,
+almost as lightly and easily as Lucy could have done it.  Galusha
+laughed, too, light-heartedly as a boy.  His spectacles fell off
+and he laughed at that.
+
+The minute afterward they arrived at the crest of the knoll.
+Another moment and the silhouetted figures of Lulie Hallett and
+Nelson Howard appeared from behind the clump of bayberry bushes and
+walked onward together, his arm about her waist.  The pair on the
+knoll saw the parting.
+
+Lulie ran up the path and the door of the light keeper's cottage
+closed behind her.  Howard disappeared around the bend of the hill.
+Martha and Galusha turned hastily and began walking toward home.
+Neither spoke until they were almost there.  Then Miss Phipps,
+apparently feeling that something should be said, observed:  "The
+moon was--was real pretty, wasn't it, Mr. Bangs?"
+
+Galusha started.  "Eh?" he queried.  "Oh, yes! yes, indeed!  Ah--
+quite so."
+
+He made the next remark also; it was quite irrelevant.
+
+"Youth," he said, musingly.  "Youth is a wonderful thing, really it
+is."
+
+Possibly his companion understood his thought, or had been thinking
+along the same line herself.  At all events she agreed.  "Yes, it
+is," she said.  "It is so.  And most of us don't realize how
+wonderful until it's gone."
+
+From the shadows by the gate Lucy Larcom sprang aloft to knock
+another beetle galley-west.  Lucy was distinctly a middle-aged cat,
+but he did not allow the fact to trouble him.  He gathered his June
+bugs while he might and did not stop to dream vain dreams of
+vanished youth.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+Early June came to Gould's Bluffs.  The last of the blossoms fell
+from the apple and pear trees in the Phipps' orchard, there were
+young swallows in the nests beneath the eaves of the shed, and
+tulips and hyacinths gave color and fragrance to the flower beds in
+the front yard.  Down in the village Ras Beebe began his twice-a-
+year window dressing, removing the caps, candy, sweaters, oil
+heaters, patent medicines and mittens to substitute bathing suits,
+candy, straw hats, toy shovels, patent medicines and caps.  Small
+boys began barefoot experiments.  Miss Tamson Black departed for
+Nantucket to visit a cousin.  Mr. Raish Pulcifer had his wife
+resurrect his black-and-white striped flannel trousers from the
+moth chest and hang them in the yard.  "No use talkin'," so Zach
+Bloomer declared, "summer is headin' down our way.  She'll be here
+afore we know it."
+
+She was.  One pleasant morning Galusha, emerging from the Phipps'
+"side door," saw workmen about the premises of the Restabit Inn.
+For a week thereafter the neighborhood echoed with hammer blows and
+reeked with the smell of new paint.  The Restabit Inn, shaking off
+its winter shabbiness, emerged scrubbed, darned, patched and
+pressed, so to speak, in its last--and several "lasts before that"--
+summer suit made over, ready to receive callers.
+
+On the twentieth of the month the callers began to arrive.  East
+Wellmouth broke out, as a child breaks out with the measles, in
+brilliant speckles, the disease in this instance being unmistakably
+a pronounced case of summer boarders.  The "speckles" were
+everywhere, about the post office, in Ras Beebe's store, about the
+lighthouse, on the beaches, and far and wide over the hills and
+hollows.  They picknicked in the pine groves, they giggled in the
+back seats on prayer meeting nights, they sang noisily on the way
+back to the hotel after evening mail sorting, they danced jazzily
+in the hotel parlor and on the porches.
+
+Martha did not mind them; she said they were rather nice, on the
+whole, because they helped to remind her that all creation wasn't
+East Wellmouth.  Galusha didn't object to them, except when they
+were TOO noisy at midnight or thereabouts and interfered with his
+slumbers.  Primmie condescended to them and aired her knowledge of
+local celebrities and traditions.  Captain Jethro ignored them
+utterly and Lulie was popular among them.  Only Zacheus, the
+philosopher, seemed to find them unmitigated nuisances.  Somehow or
+other the summer visitor got under Mr. Bloomer's hard shell and
+upon his salt-seasoned nerves.
+
+"Blast 'em!" grumbled Zach, "I don't know why 'tis, but they rile
+me like fury.  Prob'ly it's because I ain't never been much used to
+'em the way I would have been if I'd been keepin' light ashore all
+my days.  Out on the old Hog's Back we never had no visitors to
+speak of and we used to hanker for 'em.  Here, by Godfreys, they
+don't give us no time to hanker for nothin'.  And they ask such
+foolhead questions!  One woman, she says to me yesterday, she says--
+I was showin' her the foghorn, and says she:  'Do you have to turn
+a crank to make it go?'  Think of that!  A hand crank to make the
+fourth highest-power foghorn on the coast blow!  I lost my
+patience.  'No ma'am,' says I, 'a crank ain't necessary.  I just
+put my mouth to the touch-hole,' I says, 'and breathe natural and
+she chirrups.'  She believed it, too.  I cal'late I'll catch
+thunder from Cap'n Jeth if he finds out what I told her, but I
+can't help it; there's limits, by Godfreys domino, limits!"
+
+Galusha found, except for the slight annoyance of too many of these
+sojourners, that summer at Gould's Bluffs and vicinity was even
+more delightful than the fall and spring had been.  His friends,
+the Halls, whose invitation to their cottage at Wellmouth had been
+the cause of his coming to the Cape, were not occupying that
+cottage this summer; they had rented it for the season and gone
+abroad.  So he had no old friends to call upon.  But his new
+friendships were enjoyable and dependable.  His health improved
+steadily; he gained in strength, and the fear that his guilt in the
+affair of the Wellmouth Development stock might be discovered grew
+less and less.  Only one thing troubled him, and that was so vague
+that it was scarcely a trouble.  The Institute people had written
+him of some great plan for his professional services, a plan which
+was to develop in the fall.  Now, by all that was right and proper,
+he should have been tremendously curious concerning that plan,
+should have been eagerly guessing what it might be and counting the
+days until the time came for his return to work and its immediate
+development.  But he was not curious, he did not count the days;
+for some weird and unnatural reason--or for no reason whatever--he
+was not eager to return to work.  He, Galusha Bangs, whose life had
+been devoted to his pet science, who had had no thought except for
+that science, had labored for it and in it every day for twenty
+years and had dreamed about it at night--he did not seem to care to
+go back to it.  He did not seem to want to go anywhere.  Contentment
+for him was apparently right there at Gould's Bluffs and nowhere
+else.  Amazing but true.  And no less disgraceful than amazing.  It
+was a state of mind, of course, a psychological state due to
+physiological causes and doubtless was but temporary.  Nevertheless,
+it troubled him a bit.
+
+One morning in July he received a shock.  Zacheus, returning from
+the post office, met him at the Phipps' gate and handed him a
+letter.
+
+"Come in last night's mail," explained Zach.  "I happened to be
+cruisin' up to the village so I thought I might as well fetch it
+down to you, Mr. Bangs."
+
+Galusha thanked him and put the letter in his pocket.  After
+dinner, having gone to his room, he was searching his pockets for a
+handkerchief; finding his handkerchief invariably entailed a
+search, because he was quite as likely to have put it in his
+waistcoat pocket as in those of his trousers, and just as likely to
+find it at last in the pocket of his overcoat downstairs on the
+rack.  In this case he did not find it at all, having dropped it on
+the road, but he did find the letter.  Still wondering where he
+could have put the handkerchief, he absently tore open the envelope
+and began to read, as follows:
+
+
+"Professor Galusha C. Bangs,
+East Wellmouth, Mass.
+
+"DEAR SIR:
+
+"Mr. Augustus Cabot wishes me to inform you that he has returned to
+this office, having, so he feels, quite regained his health.  He
+sends his regards to you and hopes that you, too, are getting on
+toward complete recovery."
+
+
+Galusha, having read so far, leaned back in his chair.  Cousin
+Gussie well again!  Back again at his Boston office!  Why, this was
+unexpected news!  He was gratified and pleased, of course.
+Nevertheless, coupled with the gratification was a slight feeling
+of uneasiness.  Nevada--well, Nevada was such a long and safe way
+off; whereas Boston was so very and dangerously near.  To a person
+with a guilty conscience, one with a secret to conceal, the
+advantages of Nevada as a residence for a possibly inquisitive
+relative were obvious.  And was Thomas writing merely to impart the
+news of his employer's return?  Or were there other reasons?
+
+
+"You will remember" [began the next sentence of the letter],
+"writing him some time ago, while he and I were in Nevada, asking
+his advice concerning some corporation, the stock of which a friend
+of yours was considering, either as a purchase or sale, I do not
+remember which."
+
+
+Galusha closed his eyes and passed an agitated hand across his
+forehead.  His question was answered; there WERE other reasons.
+
+
+"You may not be aware" [the letter continued], "of the forest fire
+which, on April seventeenth, destroyed the sanitarium and camps in
+which Mr. Cabot and I were staying.  The entire institution,
+including our own camp, was burned and with it were destroyed all
+my business records, letters received, copies of letters sent, etc.
+At the time we were not at all concerned with this loss, being
+fearful of the effect which the excitement might have upon Mr.
+Cabot's health.  I am glad to say, however, that the effect, if
+any, was not injurious.  But the loss of all correspondence,
+including that with you, is now causing some annoyance.  My
+recollection is that I advised your friend not to buy any stock of
+the nature you described, or, if he owned any, not to attempt a
+forced sale.  As we have heard nothing further from you since, and
+as neither our Mr. Minor nor Mr. Barbour report your consulting
+them on the subject, I take it your interest in the matter is
+closed."
+
+
+Again Galusha leaned back in his chair.  But this time he drew a
+long breath of relief.  Mr. Thomas "took it" that his interest in
+the matter was closed, did he?  Well, it was, indeed it was.  The
+sole interest he now had in the Wellmouth Development Company was
+to forget it utterly.
+
+And yet, if it was not concerning the Development matter that
+Thomas was writing, what was it?  The beatific smile which had
+followed the sigh of relief faded from his face and he began to
+read again.
+
+
+"In looking over your affairs which, among others, have kept me
+very busy since my return, I find," wrote Thomas, "that Mr.
+Barbour, at your request, sent you a check on March 13th, for
+fourteen thousand three hundred and ten dollars and thirty-eight
+cents, the same being your share of the Tinplate reorganization
+profits.  On March 15th, you came personally to this office and
+exchanged that check for five thousand dollars in cash and another
+check for ninety-three hundred and ten dollars and thirty-eight
+cents.  On March 24th, according to our records, you again came in
+person and exchanged this new check for eighty-two hundred dollars
+in cash and a third check for eleven hundred and ten dollars and
+thirty-eight cents.  This third check we do not find has as yet
+been presented for payment nor has it been deposited to your
+account with us.  Considering the lapse of time since the check was
+drawn, this seems somewhat unusual and so I am writing to ask
+concerning it.  Mr. Cabot wishes me to add, also, that as thirteen
+thousand, two hundred dollars, the amount of cash drawn by you on
+the two occasions mentioned, is a large sum, he is, as your
+financial guardian--this is the term he requests me to use--a
+trifle anxious concerning it.  He cannot, he says, conceive of a
+use to which you could put such a sum, particularly in your present
+location on the Cape.  He wishes me to ask you to write him
+particulars in the matter.  To his request I am adding my own
+concerning the missing check.  A prompt reply will greatly oblige
+us both.  Apologizing for the inconvenience which this may cause
+you, and with Mr. Cabot's sincere regards and good wishes, I am,
+
+"Yours respectfully,
+
+"GEORGE L. THOMAS."
+
+
+Mr. Bangs' smiles, beatific or otherwise, had so far vanished by
+this time that he could not summon them again that day.  He
+attempted to appear cheerful during supper that evening and
+breakfast next morning, but it was a sorrowful cheer.  Martha asked
+if he was sick.  He said he was not, indeed no, really, but she
+looked as if she did not believe him.  Primmie's suspicions of
+dropsy, or some equally distressing ailment, revived.  She watched
+him for signs of relapse.
+
+The letter requested an immediate reply.  That reply was neither
+written nor sent.  Mr. Bangs could not think of a reply which would
+embrace the two elements, safety and sanity.  It was impossible to
+tell the truth and dangerous to attempt to tell anything else.  So
+he did not answer the Thomas letter.
+
+In a week he received a second one, asking if he had gotten the
+first.  This simply HAD to be acknowledged, so he did so.  He wrote
+that his friend was no longer interested in the stock concerning
+which he had inquired.  Also he returned the check for the balance
+of the Tinplate payment--it had been lying in his bureau drawer
+ever since he brought it from Boston--but he made no mention of
+what he had done with the eighty-two hundred dollars in cash nor
+the five thousand which he had previously drawn.  He did not refer
+to these sums at all.  He requested that the check for the Tinplate
+balance be deposited to his account and sent it in the envelope
+with his letter to Thomas.  Then he fearfully awaited the next
+blow.
+
+It came, and in a new fashion, about a week later.  He and Martha
+were in the sitting room after supper when the telephone bell rang.
+
+"Pardon me, Miss Martha," said Galusha, "but wasn't that our--I
+should say your ring?"
+
+Martha smiled.  "I didn't notice," she said.  "You're always
+thinkin' you hear our ring, Mr. Bangs.  The last time you heard it
+and called me to the 'phone, it turned out to be Emulous Dodd, the
+undertaker.  He said, 'I don't want you.'  I told him I was
+thankful for that."
+
+Her lodger shook his head.  "I'm very sorry," he said.  "These
+telephone calls down here--'Two long and three short' and--ah--the
+like--they do confuse me, I admit.  I really can't seem to get
+accustomed to them.  Now . . .  Oh, but that IS your ring, isn't
+it, Miss Martha?"
+
+It was.  Martha took down the receiver.
+
+"Yes . . . yes," she said.  "Yes, this is Phipps. . . .  Oh, all
+right. . . .  The girl says it's a long-distance call," she added,
+turning to Galusha.  "Who can be callin' ME from long distance? . . .
+Yes . . . yes. . . .  This is Miss Phipps speakin' now. . . .
+Who? . . .  Oh, Mr. Bangs?  Yes, he's right here.  It's for you,
+Mr. Bangs."
+
+Galusha took the receiver from her hand.  "Ah--hello!" he hailed.
+The wire buzzed and sang.  Then, in his ear and with surprising
+clearness and nearness, a voice said, brusquely:  "Hello!  Hello,
+there!  Is that you, Loosh?"
+
+Galusha recognized the voice.  He had not heard it for a long time,
+but he recognized it at once.  And, recognizing it, something like
+panic seized him.
+
+"Hello!" shouted the voice again.  "Hello, Galusha! Is that you?"
+
+Galusha glanced fearfully over his shoulder.  Martha was gazing at
+him.  She looked alarmed.
+
+"Oh, what is it, Mr. Bangs?" she asked.  "It--it's not bad news, is
+it?"
+
+"No--ah--no," he faltered.  "I--I--"
+
+"Eh?  What's that?" demanded the voice in the receiver, impatiently.
+"Hello!  Who is this, anyway?"
+
+"Is there somebody sick or--or anything?" asked Martha.  "No--no,
+Miss Martha.  It's all right, really.  Yes, indeed, I--  Oh, quite
+right.  Yes."
+
+"But you look so frightened."
+
+"Do I?  Oh, not in the least.  That is, I . . .  Yes, yes, I hear.
+Yes, this is Bangs speaking."
+
+"Oh, it is!  Well, I'm glad you're speaking at last.  You're
+Galusha Bangs, you say?"
+
+"Yes.  Yes, I--I think so."
+
+"You THINK so!  That's good!  Don't you know whether you are or
+not?"
+
+"I meant I--I thought I said so.  I am Galusha Bangs.  Yes."
+
+"Good!  Then we've settled so much.  You know who I am, of course?"
+
+Did he?  Oh, if he only did not!  He cast another alarmed glance in
+his landlady's direction.  He wondered if the voice which was so
+distinctly audible in his ear could be heard and understood in the
+room.  Oh, this was dreadful, dreadful!
+
+"HELLO!" roared the voice again.  "Hello, Bangs!  Are you there?"
+
+"Oh, yes--ah--yes.  I am here.  Quite so--yes."
+
+"Well, I'm glad.  I thought you might have gone clamming or
+something.  Well, I asked if you knew who this was?  Do you?"
+
+Galusha swallowed, shut his eyes, and then faced the inevitable.
+
+"It--it is Cousin Gussie.  isn't it?" he faltered.
+
+He heard, or imagined that he did, a little gasp of surprise from
+Miss Phipps.  He did not dare look again in her direction.
+
+"That's right," said the voice.  "You're a good guesser.  How are
+you, anyway?"
+
+Galusha stammered that he was very well.  He added that he was glad
+to see his relative.  The relative promptly observed that his
+eyesight must be remarkably good.
+
+"You know what I've called you up for, of course?" she added.
+
+Martha had risen and was leaving the room on tiptoe.
+
+"You and your cousin can talk better alone, I know," she whispered.
+"I want to see Primmie a minute, anyway."
+
+Her lodger regarded her mutely.  The expression of dumb misery on
+his face caused her to pause for an instant.
+
+"You're SURE there's no bad news, Mr. Bangs?" she asked, anxiously.
+
+He managed to smile, but the smile was not a convincing success.
+"Oh, yes--ah--quite, quite," he protested.  "It--it is--ah--
+extremely pleasant, really. . . .  Yes--yes, Cousin Gussie, I am--
+I am still here."
+
+"Oh, you are!  Fine!  I thought probably you had gone to dig
+another quahaug.  Why don't you answer letters?"
+
+Galusha glanced desperately at the kitchen door.  Thank heaven, it
+was closed.
+
+"I answered yours," he declared.
+
+"You did not.  You only half answered it.  That idiot Barbour sent
+you a check for over fourteen thousand dollars.  Of course, if I
+had been well and here he wouldn't have done any such fool thing.
+He says you told him to."
+
+"Ah--did I?"
+
+"Did you?  Don't you know whether you did or not?  Well, never
+mind.  You came up here on two separate occasions, so they tell me,
+and drew thirteen thousand of that in cash and took it away with
+you.  Now what on earth did you do that for?"
+
+Galusha did not answer.  Cabot immediately demanded to know if he
+was still there.  Assured of this, he repeated his question.
+
+"I--I wanted it," faltered Galusha.
+
+"You WANTED it!  Wanted thirteen thousand two hundred dollars in
+cash down there on the clam flats?  What did you want it FOR?"
+
+"I--I--  Well, you see--you see--"
+
+"No, I don't see.  Now, look here, old man: I realize you're of
+age and that your money is your own, and all that.  It isn't,
+legally speaking, one single bit my business if you take every cent
+you've got and sink it in the middle of Cape Cod Bay.  But I
+promised your aunt before she died that I would try and see that
+you didn't do that kind of thing.  She knew you couldn't take care
+of money; I knew it; why, confound it, you knew it, too!  You and I
+talked that whole matter over and we agreed I wasn't to give you
+any large sums of your money, no matter how hard you begged for
+them, unless you told me why you wanted them and I was satisfied it
+was all right.  Didn't we agree to that?  Isn't that so?"
+
+"Why--why, yes, Cousin Gussie.  You have been very kind.  I
+appreciate it, I assure you."
+
+"Oh, be hanged!  I haven't been kind.  I've only been trying to
+keep you from being TOO kind to people who work you for a good
+thing, that's all.  Look here, Loosh: _I_ know what you've done
+with that thirteen thousand dollars."
+
+Galusha shot one more pitiful glance in the direction of the
+kitchen.
+
+"Ah--ah--do you?" he stammered.
+
+"Yes.  You've given it away, haven't you?"
+
+"Well--well, you see--"
+
+"You have?  I knew it!  And I know whom you've given it to."
+
+There was no answer to be made to this appalling assertion.  Poor
+Galusha merely clung to the receiver and awaited his death
+sentence.
+
+"You've given it to some mummy-hunter to fit out another grave-
+robbing expedition.  Now, haven't you?"
+
+"Why--why--"
+
+"Be a sport now, Loosh!  Tell me the truth.  That's what you've
+done, isn't it?"
+
+Galusha hesitated, closing his eyes, struggled with his better
+nature, conquered it, and faltered:  "Why--why--in a way of
+speaking, I suppose--"
+
+"I knew it!  I bet Minor a dinner on it.  Well, confound you,
+Loosh; don't you realize they're only working you for what they can
+get out of you?  Haven't I told you not to be such an ass?  You
+soft-headed old . . .  Here!  What's the matter with this wire?
+Hello, Central!  Hello! . . ."
+
+The Cabot oration broke off in the middle and was succeeded by a
+series of rattles and thumps and jingles like a barrel of
+kitchenware falling downstairs; this was followed by a startling
+stillness, which was, in turn, broken by an aggrieved voice
+wailing:  "Say, Central, why can't I get that twenty-seven ring
+fourteen Bayport?  I bet you you've given me every other d----
+number on Cape Cod!"
+
+Galusha hung up the receiver.  Then he sat down in the rocker and
+gazed at the opposite wall.  His secret was safe.  But that safety
+he had bought at the price of another falsehood--told to Cousin
+Gussie this time.  He did not seem to be the same Galusha Cabot
+Bangs at all.  That Galusha--the former Galusha--had considered
+himself a gentleman and would no more have told a lie than he would
+have stolen his neighbor's spoons.  This one--his present self--
+lied not only once but twice and thrice.  He told one untruth to
+cover another.  He lived in an atmosphere of blackest falsehood and
+deception.  The sole ray of light in the darkness was the knowledge
+that Martha Phipps did not know his real character.  She considered
+him honest and truthful.  In order that she might continue to think
+him so, he would go on prevaricating forever, if necessary.
+
+It preyed upon his conscience, nevertheless.  The thought uppermost
+in his mind was expressed in a reply which he made to a question
+asked by Mr. Bloomer on an afternoon of that week.  Zach and
+Primmie were, as so often happened, involved in an argument and, as
+also so often happened, they called on him to act as referee.
+
+"We was talkin' about names, Mr. Bangs," explained Primmie.  "He's
+always makin' fun of my name.  I told him my name was pretty enough
+to get put into poetry sometimes.  You know--"
+
+"I told her," broke in Zach, solemnly, but with a wink at Galusha,
+"that the only thing I could think of to rhyme with 'Primrose' was
+'Jim Crows.'"
+
+"I never said it rhymed," protested Miss Cash, hotly.  "You can
+have your name in poetry without its rhymin', I guess likely.
+You're always tellin' me about how 'Zacheus he, climbed up a tree--'
+Now if your name had to rhyme 'twould have to be--er--er--well,
+nothing'," triumphantly; "'cause nothin' COULD rhyme with Zacheus."
+
+Mr. Bloomer, solemn as ever, shook his head.
+
+"Yes, it could," he declared.  "What's the name of that plant
+Lulie's got in the settin' room window over home?  The one with the
+prickers on it.  Cat-tailed--no, rat-tailed--um--"
+
+"Cactus."  Galusha supplied the word.
+
+"That's it," said Zach.  "That would do it.
+
+
+     'Old man Zach'us
+      Shinned up a cactus--'
+
+
+Have to step lively, wouldn't he?" he added, with a chuckle.
+
+Primmie sniffed.  "Silly!" she retorted.  "What was that pretty
+piece of poetry you told me the other day that had my name in it,
+Mr. Bangs?  The one about it bein' so and so and not much else?
+You know the one."
+
+Galusha obliged.
+
+
+     "'A primrose by the river's brim
+       A yellow primrose was to him,
+         And it was nothing more.'"
+
+
+"There!" said Primmie, triumphantly.  "Do you hear that, Zach
+Bloomer?  That's poetry, the real kind.  And it's got my name in
+it, too."
+
+Zach shook his head.
+
+"You ain't a yellow primrose, Posy," he said.  "You're a red one-
+red and speckled.  Mr. Bangs," he added, before the outraged
+Primmie could reply, "I think consider'ble about names, havin' such
+a out-of-common sort of a one myself.  I never heard your name
+afore. . . .  Galusha. . . .  Godfreys!  Was you named for somebody
+in the family?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I see.  Yes, yes.  Most generally names like that, the tough ones,
+come out of the Bible in the fust place.  Is your name in Scriptur'
+anywheres?"
+
+"I don't know.  I--ah--presume I should, but I don't."
+
+"Um-hm.  Queer names in the Bible. . . .  Um-hm.  And some good
+ones, too. . . .  I've always been a good deal interested in names.
+Used to set around hours at a stretch, when I was aboard the old
+lightship, and try to pick out what name in Scriptur' I cal'lated
+I'd ruther be called.  Finally I got down to two--John and Paul.
+Both of 'em short and sensible, no frills to 'em.  Of the two I
+figgered maybe Paul would fit me best.  Paul, he was shipwrecked
+one time, you remember, and I've been wrecked no less'n three. . . .
+Paul. . . .  Um-hm. . . .  Say, Mr. Bangs, have you ever tried
+to fit yourself with a Bible name?"
+
+Galusha smiled and said he never had.  Primmie, who had been silent
+for almost three minutes, could remain so no longer.
+
+"I think Solomon would be the right name for you, Mr. Bangs," she
+cried, enthusiastically.  "You know such a terrible lot--about some
+kinds of things."  This last a hasty addition.
+
+Zach snorted.  "Solomon!" he repeated.  "Dan Beebe--Ras Beebe's
+cousin over to Trumet--named his boy Solomon, and last week they
+took the young-one up to the State home for feeble-minded.  What
+name would you pick out of the Bible for yourself, Mr. Bangs?"
+
+It was then that Galusha made the reply to which reference has been
+made.  His smile changed and became what Primmie described as "one
+of his one-sided ones."
+
+"Ah--um--well--Ananias, perhaps," he said, and walked away.
+
+Zach and Miss Cash stared after him.  Of course, it was the latter
+who spoke first.
+
+"Ananias!" she repeated.  "Why, Ananias was the feller that--that
+lied so and was struck down dead.  I remember him in Sunday school.
+Him and his wife Sophrony.  Seems to me 'twas Sophrony; it might
+have been Maria, though.  But, anyhow, they died lyin'."
+
+"That so?  I thought they lied dyin'."
+
+"Oh, be still!  But what did Mr. Bangs pick out THAT name for--of
+all names?  Can you tell me that?"
+
+Zacheus could not, of course, nor did he attempt it.  Instead, he
+rose and gazed sadly at his companion.
+
+"He said it for a joke, Buttercups," he observed.  "Joke.  YOU
+know, a joke.  One of them things that--  I tell you what:  You
+look up 'joke' in the dictionary and then, after you've found out
+what 'tis, I'll lend you a patent-medicine almanac with one or two
+of 'em in it. . . .  Well, I've got to be gettin' under way.  So
+long, Posy."
+
+Possibly Primmie might have inquired further into the reasons which
+led the Phipps' lodger to select for himself the name of the person
+who "died lying," but that very afternoon, while on an errand in
+the village, she heard the news that Nelson Howard had been offered
+a position as operator at the Trumet wireless station, had accepted
+and was already there and at work.  Every professional gossip in
+East Wellmouth was talking about it, not only because of its
+interest as a piece of news, but because of the astonishing fact
+that no one but those intimately interested had previously known of
+the offer.
+
+"Why in the world," said Becky Blount, expressing the opinion of
+what Captain Jethro Hallett would have called her "tribe," "he felt
+'twas necessary to hide it as if 'twas something to be ashamed of,
+_I_ don't see.  Most folks would have been proud to be offered such
+a chance.  But that Nelse Howard's queer, anyhow.  Stuck-up, I call
+him; and Lulie Hallett's the same way.  She nor him won't have
+anything to do with common folks in this town.  And it'll be worse
+NOW."
+
+This was quite untrue, of course, for Lulie and Nelson were
+extremely friendly with all except the Blounts, Marietta Hoag, and
+a few more of their kind.  The solid, substantial people in the
+village liked them, just as they liked and respected Martha Phipps.
+These people took pains to congratulate young Howard and to whisper
+a hope to Lulie that her father's unreasonable opposition to the
+former might be lessened by the news of his advancement.
+
+Primmie, returning home with the sensation, was disappointed to
+find it no sensation at all.  Lulie had told both Miss Phipps and
+Galusha shortly after Nelson told her.  She had told her father
+also, but he had not expressed gratification.  Instead, the
+interview between them had ended unpleasantly.
+
+"The first thing he did," said Lulie, when telling the story to her
+confidants at the Phipps' home, "was to ask me how I knew about it.
+I told him that Nelson told me."
+
+Martha lifted her brows.  "My!" she exclaimed.  "You did?"
+
+"Yes, I did.  I don't know why exactly.  Somehow I felt just then
+as if I didn't care."
+
+"And what did he say?"
+
+"He didn't say as much as I thought he would.  He turned and stared
+at me under those big eyebrows of his, and then he said:  'When did
+you see him?'  I said, 'Yesterday.'  'When did you see him before
+that?'  I said, 'About a week ago.  Nelson and I usually see each
+other about once a week, father,' I told him."
+
+"My!" exclaimed Martha, again.  "That was plain enough, to be
+sure."
+
+"Yes, wasn't it?  I wonder now that I had the courage.  He didn't
+flare up as I expected he would, as I am sure he would have done
+last fall, for instance.  He just looked and looked at me.  Then he
+said:  'Are you really planning to marry that fellow, Lulie?'  I
+thought that as I had gone so far, I might as well go the rest, so
+I said:  'Yes, father, some day.  Not as long as you want me or
+need me, but some day, if he is willing to wait for me.'  He just
+kept on pulling his beard and looking at me.  At last, when he did
+speak, he asked, 'In spite of me and--and your mother?'  It made me
+feel dreadfully wicked; I almost cried, I guess.  But I had to go
+through with it then, so I said:  'I don't want to marry "in spite"
+of any one, father.  You know I don't.  And I shall never leave
+you--never.  But can't you PLEASE see Nelson as he is and not--and
+not--'  He interrupted me there; in fact, I doubt if he heard me.
+'Your mother has warned me against that young fellow,' he said.
+'You know she has, Lulie.'  'I know you THINK she has, father,' I
+said."
+
+Martha's hands fell in her lap.  Galusha shook his head.
+
+"Dear me!" he observed.  "Dear me!"
+
+Lulie nodded.  "Yes, I know," she said.  "As soon as I said it I
+thought 'Dear me,' too.  But I don't believe he heard that, either.
+He seemed to be thinking and didn't speak for ever so long.  Then
+he said, 'The revelations from above ain't to be set aside.  No,
+no, they lay a duty on us.'  Then he stopped again and turned and
+walked away.  The last words he said, as he was going out of the
+room, were, 'Don't let me ever see that Howard around this house.
+You hear me?'  And that is the way it ended.  He hasn't mentioned
+the subject since.  But, at least," said Lulie, with an attempt at
+a smile, "he didn't call Nelson a 'swab.'  I suppose that is some
+comfort."
+
+Martha and Galusha agreed that it was.  The latter said:  "It seems
+to me that you may consider it all quite encouraging, really.  It
+is only the--ah--spirits which stand in the way now."
+
+"Yes, but oh, Mr. Bangs, they always will stand in the way, I'm
+afraid.  Other things, real things or real people we might change
+or persuade, but how can you change a--a make-believe spirit that
+isn't and never was, except in Marietta Hoag's ridiculous
+imagination?  Oh, Martha," she added, "you and Mr. Bangs don't
+think I'm horrid to speak like this, do you?  Of course, if I
+believed, as father does, that it was really my mother's spirit
+speaking, I should--well, I should be. . . .  But what is the use?
+I CAN'T believe such a thing."
+
+"Of course you can't, child," said Martha.  "I knew your mother and
+if she was comin' back to this earth she wouldn't do it through
+Marietta Hoag's head.  She had too much self-respect for that."
+
+Galusha stroked his chin.  "I suppose," he said, "if there were
+some way in which we might influence that imagination of Miss--ah--
+Hoag's, a change might be brought about.  It would be difficult to
+reach the said imagination, however, wouldn't it?  I once found a
+way to reach a tomb of the XIIIth Dynasty which had been buried for
+thousands of years under thirty-three feet of rock and sand.  I
+located it by accident--that is, in a way, it was an accident; of
+course, we had been searching for some time.  I happened to strike
+the earth at a certain point with my camera tripod and it sounded
+quite hollow.  You see, there was a--ah--sort of shaft, as one
+might say, which came quite close to the surface at that point.  It
+sounded surprisingly hollow, like a--like something quite empty,
+you know.  Yes."
+
+Martha nodded.  "If you struck Marietta's head anywhere," she
+observed, "it would sound the same way.  She's got about as much
+brains as a punkin lantern."
+
+"Yes--ah--yes, but I fear we should gain little by doing that.  We
+shouldn't get at our 'spirit' that way.  But perhaps we may find a
+way.  There are obstacles, but there were obstacles above and about
+that tomb also.  Dear me, yes.  We must consider, Miss Lulie; we
+must, so to speak, consider."
+
+His advice to Nelson was similar.
+
+"I should say the situation was a bit more encouraging, Mr.
+Howard," he said.  They had been discussing Lulie's talk with her
+father.  Nelson nodded.
+
+"Perhaps it is, a little bit," he admitted.  "It seems barely
+possible that the old man is not quite as bitter against me as he
+was.  For instance, I met him yesterday at the post office and said
+'Good-morning, Cap'n Jeth.'  I always speak to him whenever I meet
+him, make it a point to, but he never speaks to me.  He didn't
+speak yesterday, but he did bow.  It was more of a bob than a bow
+and he looked savage enough to bite me; but, at least, he went so
+far as to show he knew I was on earth.  That was rather funny, too,
+his doing that.  I wonder why he did."
+
+Galusha reflected a moment.  Then he said:  "I shouldn't be greatly
+surprised if your new position at the radio station may be the
+cause, Captain Hallett is--ah--not unmindful of success in
+business.  Miss Mar--ah--that is, Miss Phipps says he is a very
+shrewd business man.  My own experience," he added, meditatively,
+"would lead me to that conclusion, also."
+
+Nelson was surprised.
+
+"Have you had business dealings with the cap'n?" he asked.  "I
+never thought of you as a business man, Mr. Bangs."
+
+Galusha started and seemed embarrassed.
+
+"Oh--ah--ah--I'm not, Mr. Howard," he declared, hastily.  "Indeed,
+no."
+
+"But you spoke of your business experience with Cap'n Jeth; or I
+thought you did."
+
+The little archaeologist looked very solemn.
+
+"Such experiences as I have had with Captain Hallett," he observed,
+"have been--ah--most unbusinesslike."
+
+They parted a few minutes later.  Said Nelson, gloomily:
+
+"I'm afraid the situation hasn't changed a whole lot, after all,
+Mr. Bangs.  Cap'n Jeth may think more of my new job than he did of
+my old one, but he doesn't think any better of me as a son-in-law.
+And he won't, so long as he believes in that fool spirit stuff."
+
+Galusha stroked his chin.  "We must consider those spirits, Mr.
+Howard," he said.  "Dear me, yes; we must seriously consider those
+spirits."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+August is the banner month at all northern seaside resorts.  August
+at East Wellmouth crowded the Restabit Inn to overflowing.  On
+pleasant Sundays the long line of cars flying through the main road
+of the village on the way to Provincetown met and passed the long
+line returning Bostonward.  The sound of motor horns echoed along
+the lane leading to Gould's Bluffs.  Galusha found it distinctly
+safer and less nerve-racking to walk on the grass bordering that
+lane than in the lane itself, as had hitherto been his custom.  The
+harassed Zacheus led more visitors than ever up and down the
+lighthouse stairs, expressing his opinion of those visitors, after
+their departure, with fluency and freedom.  Mr. Bloomer's
+philosophy helped him through most annoyances but it broke down
+under the weight of the summer boarder and his--or--her questions.
+
+Galusha, in his daily walks, kept far afield, avoiding the traveled
+ways.  His old resort, the Baptist cemetery, he seldom visited now,
+having examined and re-examined all the interesting stones within
+its borders.  He had discovered another ancient burial ground, over
+on the South Wellmouth road, and occasionally his wanderings took
+him as far as that.  The path to and from this cemetery led over
+the edge of the bluff and wound down to the beach by the creek and
+landlocked harbor where his hat--the brown derby--had put to sea
+that Sunday morning in the previous October.  The path skirted the
+creek for a little way, then crossed on a small bridge and climbed
+the pine-clad hills on the other side.
+
+Late one afternoon in August, Galusha, returning along this path,
+met a man coming in the other direction.  The man was a stranger to
+him and obviously not a resident of East Wellmouth.  He was a
+stout, prosperous-looking individual, well-dressed and with a brisk
+manner.  When Mr. Bangs first saw him he was standing at a point
+near the foot of the bluff, and gazing intently at the view.
+Galusha turned the corner above the bridge where the path re-entered
+the pine grove.  When he emerged again the man had walked on to the
+little rise by the farther edge of the creek.  He was standing
+there, as he had stood at the point where Galusha first noticed
+him, looking about, up and down the creek, across the little
+harbor, at the beaches, the sand cliffs, the pines and the sea.
+
+Galusha crossed the bridge and approached along the path.  The
+stranger heard his step and turned.
+
+"Good-afternoon," said Galusha.
+
+The man nodded and returned the greeting.
+
+"Nice view from here," he observed.  Galusha agreed that the view
+was very nice, indeed.  He passed on and turned to climb the bluff.
+Then the stranger called to him.
+
+"Excuse me," he said.  "But may I ask you a question or two?  Don't
+want to keep you if you are in a hurry, though."
+
+Galusha declared himself to be not in the least hurried.  The man
+walked toward him.
+
+"Are you acquainted about here?" he asked.
+
+"Why--why--ah--yes, to some extent.  Yes."
+
+"I mean do you know the lay of the land in this vicinity?"
+
+"Why--ah--yes, I think so.  Fairly well."
+
+"I see.  Can you tell me how much water there is in that channel
+out yonder?"  He pointed toward the mouth of the inlet, where the
+two lines of creaming breakers approached each other, but did not
+meet.
+
+"No--no, I am sorry, but I can't."
+
+"How deep is it off here opposite where we're standing?"
+
+"Dear me!  I'm afraid I don't know that, either.  When you asked
+concerning the lay of the land I didn't understand you meant the--
+ah--lay of the water.  I'm very sorry."
+
+The man laughed.  "That's all right," he said.  "Asked my question
+the wrong way, didn't I?  Well, tell me a little about the land,
+then.  Are the woods the other side of that hill or only on this?"
+
+Galusha informed him concerning the extent of the pine grove.  The
+stranger asked some questions about the course of the creek above
+the bridge, the distance from the main highway, whether the land
+beyond the hill was settled or unoccupied.  His final question was
+concerning the Restabit Inn.
+
+"Any other hotels around here within ten miles?" he asked.  When
+told there were not, he merely nodded, making no comment.
+
+"Well, I'm much obliged," he said.  "I was just loafing around and
+a little curious, that's all.  Thanks.  Hope I haven't kept you too
+long.  Good-day."
+
+Galusha followed the winding path up the face of the high bluff.
+When, having reached its top, he paused to get fresh breath in
+place of that he had lost, he looked down and saw his questioner
+standing where he had left him and, apparently, still admiring the
+view.
+
+The following afternoon they saw each other again.  This time the
+stranger was on the other side of the creek, wandering about at the
+edge of the pine grove.  He acknowledged Galusha's bow with a wave
+of the hand, but he did not come nearer to ask more questions.
+
+That evening, at the supper table, Mr. Bangs mentioned the meeting.
+Primmie, who prided herself upon knowing every visitor in town and
+where he or she came from, was ready with the information in this
+case.
+
+"I know who he is," she declared.  "His name's Williams and him and
+his wife's stoppin' at the Restabit.  They never meant to stay
+there only one night, but his automobile blowed up or busted out
+somethin' and they had to send to Boston to get a new one.  It's a
+dreadful expensive kind of a one, the auto is, one of them--them
+Pieced-Arrows, all upholstery and drapery window curtains and
+places to put bouquets and your feet in winter to warm 'em--your
+feet, I mean, not the bouquets--and--"
+
+"There, there, Primmie," said Martha.  "That will do.  For mercy
+sakes, how did you find out all that?"
+
+"Their chauffeur told me.  I know him, too.  Him and me was
+introduced last night when he stopped in to get a drink of water.
+His name is Kelly, and he--"
+
+"Wait a minute.  When you and he were introduced, you say?  Who
+introduced you?"
+
+"Why, he did, Miss Martha.  You see, he was comin' along by and he
+see me out settin' on the side steps, you know.  And he stopped and
+he says:  'You look lonesome' he says.  'Well,' says I, 'I may LOOK
+so, but I ain't; my savin' soul, no!'  Then he wanted to know if he
+couldn't have a drink of water and, of course--"
+
+"Yes, I see--of course.  I think you had better sit in the house
+this evenin', Primmie."
+
+The "Pieced-Arrow" car, with Mr. Kelly on the driver's seat and Mr.
+and Mrs. Williams inside, left East Wellmouth at the end of that
+week.  Yet once more before the season closed Galusha fancied that
+he caught a glimpse of that car's owner.  The time was the first
+week in September and Galusha, returning later than usual along the
+path from South Wellmouth, saw two figures walking along the beach
+of the inlet.  They were a good way off, but one certainly did
+resemble Williams as he remembered him.  The brisk step was like
+his and the swing of the heavy shoulders.  The other figure had
+seemed familiar, too, but it disappeared behind a clump of beach-
+plum bushes and did not come out again during the time that Galusha
+remained in sight.  On reflection the latter decided that he was
+mistaken.  Of course, Williams could not be one of the pair, having
+left the Cape.  It was too dark to see plainly; and, after all, it
+made little difference whether it was he or not.  Mr. Bangs stopped
+speculating on the subject and promptly forgot it entirely.
+
+On the morning after Labor Day there was a general exodus of city
+sojourners from the Inn and on September 15 it closed its doors.
+The weather was still beautiful and mild, even more so than during
+the previous month, but East Wellmouth's roads and lanes were no
+longer crowded.  The village entered upon its intermediate season,
+that autumn period of quiet and restful beauty, which those who
+know and love the Cape consider most delightful of the year.
+
+Galusha enjoyed its beauties hugely.  He could stroll where he
+pleased now and no charging and bellowing motor car was likely to
+awaken him from his daydreams and cause him to leap frantically
+into the gutter.  Sunsets over the western dunes and the Bay were
+hazily wonderful fantasies of crimson and purple and gold and
+sapphire, with the nets and poles of the distant fish weirs
+scattered here and there about the placid water like bits of fairy
+embroidery.  And then to end his walk by turning in at the Phipps'
+gate; the lamplight in the cozy dining room shining a welcome and
+Martha's pleasant, attractive face above the teacups.  It was like
+coming home, like coming to a real home, his home.  He dreaded to
+think of leaving it--even for his loved science and the promised
+"great plan" which the Institute people were to present him that
+very fall or winter.
+
+He had heard nothing further from them concerning the plan, but he
+knew he was likely to hear at any moment.  He was well, perfectly
+well now, and stronger than he had been for a long, long time.  He
+felt himself abundantly able to take charge of an exploring
+expedition, or to reorganize a department, to do anything which the
+Institute might ask him to do.  His guess was that the plan was for
+another archaeological expedition, one to go farther afield and
+equipped for more thorough research than any yet sent out.  He
+himself had urged the need of such an expedition many times, but
+when the war came all such ideas were given up.  The giving up had
+been, on his part, although he realized the necessity which
+prompted it and even urged the yielding to that necessity, a bitter
+disappointment.
+
+And now--well, now he could not seem to arouse an atom of real
+enthusiasm.  He should be too excited to sleep, but he did sleep
+well.  When he dreamed of Egypt and the tombs of the Ptolemies,
+there was always a Cape Cod cottage in the foreground.  And the
+cottage never varied in design; it was always the "Phipps' place,"
+and its mistress was always standing in the doorway.  That was the
+great trouble, he knew it.  He was going to be homesick for that
+cottage and its contents.  If they might only be transferred with
+him to Egypt, then the land of the Pharaohs would be even more
+paradisical than he used to think it.
+
+He told Martha of the promised plan and its call to duty.  Oddly
+enough, thereafter they discussed it but little.  Other subjects,
+although mere commonplaces, they seemed to find more interesting.
+One evening, however, they were together in the sitting room and
+Martha said:
+
+"I noticed you got a letter from Washin'ton to-day, Mr. Bangs."
+
+Galusha nodded.  "Yes," he said.  "It wasn't a letter exactly.
+Merely another of the regular reports, that is all."
+
+"I see. . . .  Well, I suppose you will be hearin' from them pretty
+soon about--about that other matter.  The plan they told you they
+had for you."
+
+He nodded again.  "Dear me, yes," he agreed.  "I suppose I shall."
+
+"Why do you say 'Dear me'?  You want to hear, don't you?  It will
+be a wonderful thing for you, I should think.  It is sure to be
+somethin' you will like, because they said so in their letter."
+
+"Yes--ah--yes."
+
+Both were silent for a brief interval, then Martha said:
+
+"I presume likely I shall be sittin' here in this very room this
+winter, doin' just the very same thing I'm doin' now, knittin' or
+sewin', with everything just as it is, cat and plants and Primmie
+and all the everyday things I've been amongst all my life.  And
+you'll be away off, goodness knows where, among goodness knows what
+sorts of queer people and queer places. . . .  Well," she added,
+with a smile, "you won't have any one to fret you about whether you
+put on rubbers or not.  That'll be a comfort for you, at any rate."
+
+He did not seem to find great comfort in the prospect.
+
+"I shall not put them on," he said.  "I know I sha'n't.  I shall
+forget all about them, and forget to eat at regular times, and to--
+ah--keep my head covered in the sun.  Why, do you know," he added,
+in a burst of confidence and quite as if he had not said the same
+thing before, "when I am by myself I always forget things like
+that, things that real people--ah--normal people, remember.  Then I
+have--ah--indigestion and headaches and all sorts of miserable
+ailments.  I shall forget again, of course, and my friends, the
+normal ones, will tell me, as they always do, that I need a--ah--
+keeper, so to speak.  Oh, dear, yes."
+
+She was indignant.  "A keeper!" she repeated.  "The idea!  I do
+wish you wouldn't keep speakin' of yourself as simple-minded or
+crazy, Mr. Bangs.  You are absent-minded, I know, but what of it?
+Whose business is that?"
+
+He rubbed his chin.  "Why, here," he observed, smiling slightly,
+"you have been kind enough to make it YOUR business, Miss Martha.
+The reason I do not have--ah--sunstrokes and colds and headaches
+here is that you take pains to see that I am protected against
+their causes.  I realize that.  And I realize, too," he added,
+"that in Egypt I shall miss your--your great kindness.  I shall
+miss all this--this room and all--very much, indeed.  I think--no,
+I know I have never spent such a pleasant year as this has been.
+And I fear I shall never spend another as pleasant."
+
+She laughed, but she looked pleased, nevertheless.
+
+"Nonsense!" she exclaimed.  "You'll have many more a great deal
+pleasanter, of course.  You're well now, Mr. Bangs, and good health
+makes such a difference.  You will enjoy your work more than ever."
+
+"Will I?  I don't believe I shall.  That is very odd, I know, but I
+think it is true.  I have been thinking about it a great deal of
+late and--ah--I--well, you know, I am very sure I shall be lonely."
+
+"Lonely?  You!  Lonesome over in Egypt, after all you've told me
+about your lovin' it so, Mr. Bangs!  Lonesome for what, for mercy
+sakes?"
+
+"Why, for--for the Cape, you know; and this house and this pleasant
+room and--and the kindness which has been shown me here."
+
+"Don't.  What do what you call kindnesses amount to--the little
+things Primmie and I have been able to do for you--what do they
+amount to compared to what you did for me?  I shouldn't be in this
+house, I shouldn't own it, if it wasn't for the interest you took
+and the trouble you went to.  Lonesome!  I think I'M goin' to be
+the real lonesome one this winter.  Since you've been livin' here,
+Mr. Bangs, I've had a chance to talk of somethin' beside the little
+two-for-a-cent things that most of us Gould's Bluffs people have to
+talk about from December to June.  I've had the chance to talk
+about somethin' besides Primmie's foolishness or Cap'n Jethro's
+'spirits,' or the post office gossip.  It has been wonderful for
+me.  When father was alive no gale that ever blew could keep him
+from trampin' up to the office after his mornin' paper.  He used to
+say that readin' the paper was the only way he could keep enough
+canvas drawing to pull him out of the doldrums.  More of his sea
+talk, that was, of course, but you understand what he meant."
+
+Galusha understood.  "We all have our--ah--doldrums," he observed.
+
+"Yes, seems as if we did.  But, there!" briskly picking up her
+knitting, "I don't know as it does us much good to sit and talk
+about 'em.  Primmie had a book around here last week, an old thing,
+one of Mrs. Southworth's it was; Primmie borrowed it somewhere.  I
+looked it over one afternoon, that was as much as I wanted to do
+with it, and I remember there was an old woman in it who seemed to
+spend most of her time dreamin' of her 'vanished past.'  She seemed
+to worry over that vanished past a good deal, but, so far as I
+could see, she didn't gain much by it.  She might have done some
+plain sewin' and gained more.  I can't see that you and I gain much
+by sittin' here and frettin' about next winter, Mr. Bangs.  I
+suppose when winter is really here you will be trottin' around
+Egypt on a camel, or some sort of menagerie animal, and I shall be
+sweepin' and dustin' and makin' pies.  And we both will be too busy
+to remember we're lonesome at all.  I--  Yes, Primmie, what is it?"
+
+Miss Cash's head and shoulders appeared between the door and the
+jamb.
+
+"Miss Martha," she whispered, hoarsely, "there's somebody come to
+see you."
+
+"Come to see me?  Who is it; Cap'n Jethro?"
+
+"No'm.  It's Raish--I mean Mr. Pulcifer.  And," confidentially, "he
+won't tell what he's come for, neither."
+
+"And I presume likely you asked him that very thing.  Well, bring
+him into the dinin' room and tell him I'll be right there.  Humph!"
+she added, after Primmie had departed, "I wonder what Raish
+Pulcifer wants to see me about.  I can't imagine, but I guess it
+isn't likely to be very important.  I'll be back in a few minutes,
+Mr. Bangs."
+
+It was, however, a full half hour before she re-entered the sitting
+room, and when she did so there was a puzzled expression on her
+face.
+
+"Now, that's funny," she observed, musingly; "that certainly is
+funny.  What is he drivin' at, I wonder?"
+
+"Mr. Pulcifer?" inquired Galusha.
+
+"Why, yes.  He didn't say so in so many words; in fact, he didn't
+really say much of anything right out.  He wouldn't be Raish
+Pulcifer if he was straight and plain.  He talked about the weather
+and how he hadn't seen me for some time and just thought he'd call,
+and so on.  That was just greasin' the ways for the launchin', as
+father would have said.  He edged around and edged around and
+finally brought up the thing I'm pretty sure he came to see me
+about, my two hundred and fifty shares of Wellmouth Development
+Company stock."
+
+Galusha caught his breath.  "Eh?" he exclaimed.
+
+"Yes; I think he came to see me about just those shares.  Of
+course, he thinks I've still got them.  He talked about his own
+shares and about the company in general and how it wasn't likely to
+amount to much and--oh, well, never mind; he talked a mile before
+he gained a foot.  But I think, Mr. Bangs, I THINK he came to see
+if I would sell him that stock of mine, and, if I would, what I
+would sell it for.  Considerin' that only a little while ago he
+told you he wouldn't touch the Wellmouth Development stock with a
+ten-foot pole, that's kind of funny, isn't it?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+Galusha had some difficulty in falling asleep that night.  The
+habit of dropping into a peaceful and dreamless slumber within five
+minutes after blowing out his lamp, a habit which had been his for
+the past month, was broken.  He had almost succeeded in forgetting
+the Wellmouth Development Company.  His distress of mind and
+conscience concerning his dealings with it had very nearly vanished
+also.  He had been forced into deceit to save Martha Phipps from
+great trouble, and the end justified the means.  Having reached
+that conclusion in his thinking, he had firmly resolved to put the
+whole matter from his mind.
+
+His one plunge into the pool of finance he had come to believe
+destined never to be revealed.  No one had mentioned the
+Development Company or its stock for weeks.  It was, apparently,
+dead and satisfactorily buried, and the Bangs' secret was entombed
+with it.
+
+And now, if Martha's surmise was correct, here was a "resurrection
+man," in the person of Mr. Horatio Pulcifer, hanging about the
+cemetery.  The capacity for hating was not in Galusha's make-up.
+He found it difficult to dislike any one strongly.  But he could
+come nearer to disliking Raish Pulcifer than any one else, and now
+to dislike was added resentment.  Why in the world should this
+Pulcifer person interfere with his peace of mind?
+
+In the morning, and with the bright September sunshine streaming
+into the room, his disquietude of the previous night seemed rather
+foolish.  No doubt Miss Martha had been mistaken; perhaps Horatio
+had not had any idea of buying her shares.  Martha herself seemed a
+little doubtful.
+
+"I've been thinkin' it over," she said, "and I wonder if I just
+imagined that's what he was after.  It seems almost as if I must
+have.  I can't think of any sensible reason why a man who was so
+dreadfully anxious to sell, and only a little while ago, should be
+wantin' to buy now.  Perhaps he didn't mean anything of the kind."
+
+Galusha comforted himself with the thought that this was, in all
+probability, the truth: Miss Martha had misinterpreted the Pulcifer
+purpose; Raish had not meant anything of the kind.
+
+But the comfort was short-lived.  A few days later Doctor Powers
+called at the Phipps' home.  After he had gone Martha came to the
+sitting room, where her lodger was reading the paper, and, closing
+the door behind her, said:
+
+"Mr. Bangs, I guess I was right, after all.  Raish Pulcifer WAS
+hintin' at buyin' my Wellmouth Development stock."
+
+Galusha dropped the paper in his lap.  "Oh, dear!  I--I mean, dear
+me!" he observed.
+
+"Yes, I guess there isn't much doubt of it.  Doctor Powers came
+here to tell me that he had sold his shares to him and that Eben
+Snow and Jim Henry Willis have sold theirs in the same place.  He
+says he doesn't know for certain, but he thinks Raish has bought
+out all the little stockholders.  He's been quietly buyin' the
+Development stock for the last week."
+
+Mr. Bangs took off his spectacles and put them on again.
+
+"Good gracious!" he stammered.
+
+"That's what Doctor Powers says.  He stopped in, just as an old
+friend, to drop the hint to me, so that I could be ready when Raish
+came to buy mine.  I asked him what the Pulcifer man was payin' for
+the stock.  He said as little as he had to, as near as he could
+find out.  Of course, no one was supposed to tell a word about it--
+Raish had asked 'em not to do that--but SOMEBODY told, and then it
+all began to come out.  As a matter of fact, you might as well ask
+water to run up hill as to ask Jim Willis to keep quiet about his
+own business or keep out of any one else's.  The price paid, so the
+doctor says he's heard, runs all the way from eight dollars a share
+up to fourteen and a half.  Poor old Mrs. Badger--Darius Badger's
+widow--got the eight dollars.  She was somethin' like me, I guess--
+had given up the idea of ever gettin' a cent--and so she took the
+first offer Raish made her.  Eben Snow got the fourteen and a half,
+I believe, the highest price.  He needed it less than anybody else,
+which is usually the way.  Doctor Powers sold his for twelve and a
+half.  Said he thought, when he was doin' it, that he was mighty
+lucky.  Now he wishes he hadn't sold at all, but had waited.
+'Don't sell yours for a penny less than fifteen, Martha,' he told
+me.  'There's somethin' up.  Either Raish has heard somethin' and
+is buyin' for a speculation, or else he's actin' as somebody else's
+agent.'  What did you say, Mr. Bangs?"
+
+Galusha had not said anything; and what he said now was neither
+brilliant nor original.
+
+"Dear me, dear me!" he murmured.  Martha looked at him, keenly.
+
+"Why, what is it, Mr. Bangs?" she asked.  "Raish's buyin' the stock
+won't make any difference to you, will it?"
+
+"Eh? . . . To ME?  Why--why, of course not.  Dear me, no.  Why--ah--
+how could it make any difference to me?"
+
+"I didn't mean you, yourself.  I meant to the Cabot, Bancroft and
+Cabot people, or whoever it was that bought my stock."
+
+"Oh--oh, oh!  To them?  Oh, yes, yes!  I thought for the moment you
+referred to me personally.  Ha, ha!  That would have been very--ah--
+funny, wouldn't it?  No, I don't think it will make any difference
+to Cousin--ah--I mean to the purchasers of your shares.  No, no,
+indeed--ah--yes.  Quite so."
+
+If Miss Phipps noticed a slight incoherence in this speech, she did
+not comment upon it.  Galusha blinked behind his spectacles and
+passed a hand across his forehead.  His landlady continued her
+story.
+
+"I asked Doctor Powers what reason Raish was givin' people for his
+buyin'.  The doctor said he gave reasons enough, but they weren't
+very satisfyin' ones to a thinkin' person.  Raish said he owned a
+big block of the stock himself and yet it wasn't big enough to give
+him much say as to what should be done with the company.  Of
+course, nothin' could be done with it at present, but still some
+time there might and so he thought he might as well be hung for an
+old sheep as a lamb and buy in what he could get, provided he could
+get it cheap enough.  He had come to the doctor first, he said.
+Ha, ha!  That was kind of funny."
+
+"Eh? . . .  Oh, yes, certainly. . . .  Of course."
+
+"But I haven't told you yet why it was funny.  It seems he told
+every person he went to that he or she was the first.  Doctor
+Powers prides himself on bein' a pretty good business man and I
+guess it provoked him to find that Raish had fooled him into takin'
+a lower price than some of the rest got.  He said as much to me.
+He said that he agreed with what Raish said, that about he might as
+well be hung for an old sheep as a lamb.  So long as he WAS hung,
+so the doctor said, he didn't care what it was for."
+
+She laughed again and her lodger smiled, although rather feebly.
+He murmured that it was very amusing.
+
+"Yes, wasn't it?" said Martha.  "Well, the doctor was very anxious
+that I should not sell at a cent less than fifteen dollars a share.
+I wonder what he, or Raish Pulcifer either, would say if they knew
+I HAD sold already, and for as much as father paid, too.  Oh, I
+wonder if Raish has been to see Cap'n Jeth yet.  He won't buy HIS
+shares for any eight dollars a piece, he can be sure of that."
+
+Galusha nodded; he was sure of it, too.
+
+"But," said Martha, ending the conversation for the time, "why do
+you suppose Raish is buyin' at all?  What is goin' on, anyway?"
+
+She was by no means the only one who was asking that question.
+Three days later Captain Jethro asked Galusha the same thing.  They
+met in the lane leading to the village and the light keeper
+approached the subject without preamble.
+
+"Say, Mr. Bangs," he demanded, "what's Raish Pulcifer cal'late he's
+doin'?"
+
+Galusha smiled.  "I thank you for the compliment, Captain Hallett,"
+he said, "but my intuition cannot keep pace with Mr. Pulcifer's--
+ah--calculations.  No, indeed."
+
+Jethro pulled his beard.  "I asked you," he said, solemnly, "what
+Raish Pulcifer cal'lated he was doin' buyin' up Development stock?
+Do you know?"
+
+"No.  Is he buying it?"
+
+"If you ain't heard that he is, you're about the only one in East
+Wellmouth.  Ain't you heard it?"
+
+Galusha would have liked to change the subject, but with Jethro
+Hallett that was not an easy task, as he knew from experience.  He
+did not immediately make the attempt.
+
+"Why--ah--yes," he admitted.  "I have heard that he has bought--ah--
+some."
+
+"Um-hm.  Who told you; Martha?"
+
+"Why--why--really, Captain, I don't know that I ought--  You'll
+pardon me, but--"
+
+"Been tryin' to buy Martha's, has he?"
+
+Galusha sighed.  "Have you noticed," he suggested, "what a
+remarkable view one gets from this point?  The village and the bay
+in front, and, in the rear, the--ah--light and the--ah--rest.
+Quite remarkable, don't you think so, Captain?"
+
+Captain Jethro looked gravely at the view.
+
+"Raish been to see Martha about buyin' her stock, has he?" he
+asked.
+
+Galusha rubbed his chin.  "I have often wondered," he said, "why no
+summer cottage has been built just here.  The spot would seem to
+possess very marked advantages.  Very--ah--very much so."
+
+The light keeper cleared his throat.  "Zach said he see Raish
+comin' out of your gate t'other day," he said.  "Been to see Martha
+about her shares then, had he?"
+
+"The--ah--proximity to the main road is an advantage in particular,"
+Galusha continued.  "One would be near it and yet, so to speak,
+secluded from it.  Really, a very exceptional spot, Captain
+Hallett."
+
+Captain Jethro stroked his beard, frowned, and gazed steadily at
+the face of the little archaeologist.  Galusha gazed serenely and
+with a pleased interest at the view.  After a moment the light
+keeper said:  "He's been after mine, too."
+
+"Eh? . . .  Oh, indeed?  You mean--"
+
+"I mean Raish Pulcifer's been tryin' to buy my Development stock
+same as he has Martha's.  Hey?  What say?"
+
+"I said nothing, Captain.  Not a word, really"
+
+"Humph! . . .  Well, he's been tryin' to buy mine, anyway.  And,
+nigh's as I can find out, he's bought every loose share there is.
+All hands are talkin' about it now; some of 'em are wonderin' if
+they hadn't better have hung on.  Eben Snow came to me this mornin'
+and he says, 'I don't know whether I did right to let go of that
+stock of mine or not,' he says.  'What do you think, Jeth?'  I
+haven't got much use for Eben, and ain't had for years; I went to
+sea with him one v'yage and that generally tells a man's story.
+I've seen him at church sociables--in the days when I wasted my
+time goin' to such things--spend as much as five minutes decidin'
+whether to take a doughnut or a piece of pie.  He couldn't eat
+both, but he was afraid whichever he took the other might turn out
+to be better.  So when he asked me my opinion about his sellin' his
+Development, I gave it to him.  'You've been wantin' to sell, ain't
+you?' says I.  'I've heard you whinin' around for months because
+you couldn't sell.  Now you HAVE sold.  What more do you want?'  He
+got mad.  'You ain't sold YOUR holdin's at any fourteen dollars a
+share, have you?' he says.  I told him I hadn't.  'No, and I'll bet
+you won't, either,' says he.  I told him he'd make money if he
+could get somebody to take the bet.  Humph! the swab!"
+
+For the first time Galusha asked a direct question.
+
+"Did--ah--Mr. Pulcifer actually--ah--bid for your Development
+shares, Captain Hallett?" he inquired.
+
+"Oh, he come as nigh to doin' it as I'd let him.  Hinted maybe that
+he'd give me as much as he did Snow, fourteen fifty.  I laughed at
+him.  I asked him what made him so reckless, when, the last time he
+and I talked, he was tryin' to sell me his own shares for ten.  And
+now he wanted to buy mine at fourteen and a half!"
+
+"And--ah--what reason did he give for his change of heart?  Or
+didn't he give any?"
+
+"Humph!  Yes, he gave a shipload of reasons, but there wouldn't any
+one of 'em float if 'twas hove overboard.  He ain't buyin' on his
+own account, that I KNOW."
+
+"Oh--ah--do you, indeed.  May I ask why you are so certain?"
+
+"For two reasons.  First, because Raish ain't got money enough of
+his own to do any such thing.  Second, and the main reason why I
+know he ain't buyin' for himself is because he says he is.  Anybody
+that knows Raish knows that's reason enough."
+
+Galusha ventured one more question.
+
+"When he--ah--approached you, did you--that is, what excuse did you
+give him for--for your lack of interest, so to speak?"
+
+"Hey?  I didn't give him any.  And I didn't tell him I wasn't
+interested.  I am interested--to see how far he'll go.  I sha'n't
+tell him I've sold already, Mr. Bangs; your Boston friends needn't
+worry about that.  When I sign articles I stick to my contract."
+
+They had reached the Phipps' gate by this time and there they
+parted.  The light keeper strode off, rolling heavily, his beard
+blowing across his shoulder.  He had been, for him, remarkably
+good-humored and talkative.  Galusha was inclined to attribute the
+good humor to the fact that Captain Jethro considered he had made a
+good bargain in selling his own shares at a price so much higher
+than that obtained by Snow and the rest.  The next time they
+conversed the good humor was not as apparent.  But that occasion
+was almost a fortnight later.
+
+And, meantime, Mr. Pulcifer had become the center of interest in
+East Wellmouth and its neighborhood.  An important figure he always
+was, particularly in his own estimation, but now the spotlight of
+publicity which beat upon his ample figure had in its rays the blue
+tinge of mystery.  The question which all Wellmouth was asking was
+that which Captain Jethro had asked Mr. Bangs:  "What is Raish up
+to now?"
+
+And Mr. Pulcifer firmly refused to answer that question.  Or, to
+be more exact, he always answered it, but the answers were not
+considered convincing.  Some pretended to be satisfied with his
+offhand declaration that he "had a little chunk of the stock and
+just presumed likely I might as well have a little more.  Ain't
+nothin' to make a fuss about, anyhow."  A few pretended to accept
+this explanation as bona fide, but the remainder, the majority,
+received it with open incredulity.
+
+The oddest part of it all was the fact that the great Horatio
+appeared to dislike the prominent position which his activities
+held in the community mind.  Ordinarily prominence had been the
+delight of his soul.  In every political campaign, wherever the
+limelight shone brightest there had strutted Mr. Pulcifer, cigar in
+mouth, hat over one eye, serene self-satisfaction in the possession
+of mysterious knowledge radiating from his person.  He loved that
+sort of thing; to be the possessor of "inside information," however
+slight, or even to be popularly supposed to possess it, had
+hitherto been the meat upon which this, Wellmouth's, Caesar, fed
+and grew great.
+
+But Raish was not enjoying this particular meal.  And his attitude
+was not pretense, either; it was obvious that the more East
+Wellmouth discussed his buying the Development stock the less he
+liked it.  When his fellow townsmen questioned him he grew peevish.
+
+"Oh, forget it!" he exclaimed to one of the unfortunate who came
+seeking information.  "You make me tired, Jim Fletcher, you and Ras
+Beebe and the whole gang.  By cripes, a feller can't as much as
+take a five cent cigar out of his pocket without all hands tryin'
+to make a--a molehill out of it.  Forget it, I tell you!"
+
+Mr. Fletcher was a simple soul, decidedly not one of East
+Wellmouth's intellectual aristocracy, but he was persistent.
+
+"Aw, hold on, Raish," he expostulated, "I never said a word about
+your takin' a five cent cigar out of your pocket. . . .  Er--er--
+you ain't taken one out, have you?"
+
+"No, and I ain't goin' to--not now."
+
+"All right--all right.  _I_ never asked you.  All I said was--"
+
+"I know what you said."
+
+"Why, no, you don't neither.  You're all mixed up.  Nobody's said
+anything about cigars, or makin'--er--er--  What was it you said
+they made?"
+
+"Oh, nothin', nothin'.  A molehill is what I said."
+
+"What kind of a hill?"
+
+"A molehill.  Didn't you ever hear of a ground mole, for heaven
+sakes?"
+
+"Course I've heard of a ground mole!  But what's a ground mole got
+to do with a cigar, I want to know?  And you said a moleHILL.
+What's a ground mole doin' up on a hill?"
+
+"Not up ON one--IN one.  A molehill is what a ground mole lives in,
+ain't it?  It's just a sayin'. . . .  Oh, never mind!  Go on!  Take
+a walk."
+
+"_I_ don't want to walk.  And a ground mole lives in a hole, not a
+hill, like a--like a ant.  You know that as well as I do.  And,
+anyhow, nobody said anything about ground moles, or--or mud turtles
+neither, far's that goes.  No, nor five cent cigars.  Now, Raish,
+I'll tell you what they're sayin'; they say--"
+
+"And I'll tell YOU!  Listen!  Listen, now, because this is the last
+time I'll tell anybody anything except to go--"
+
+"Sshh, shh, Raish!  Alvira's right in the kitchen and the window's
+open. . . .  No, 'tain't, it's shut.  Where will they go?"
+
+"Listen, you!  I've bought those few extra shares of Development
+because I had some myself and thought I might as well have a few
+more.  I bought 'em and I paid for 'em.  Nobody says I ain't paid
+for 'em, do they?"
+
+"No, no.  Don't anybody say that.  All they say IS--"
+
+"Be still!  Now I bought those shares.  What of it?  It's my
+business, ain't it?  Yes.  And I haven't bought any more.  You can
+tell 'em that:  I HAVEN'T BOUGHT ANY MORE."
+
+"Oh, all right, Raish, all right.  I'll tell 'em you ain't.  But--"
+
+"That's all.  Now forget it!  For-GET it!"
+
+Which should, perhaps, have been sufficient and convincing.  But
+there were still some unconvinced.  For example, Martha happened to
+meet one morning, while on an errand in the village, the president
+of the Denboro Trust Company.  He explained that he had motored
+over, having a little matter of personal business to attend to.
+
+"I haven't seen you for some time, Miss Phipps," he observed.  "Not
+since our--er--little talk about the Wellmouth Development stock.
+That was the last time, wasn't it?"
+
+Martha said that it was.  He lowered his voice a very little and
+asked, casually:  "Still holding on to your two hundred and fifty
+shares, are you?"
+
+"Why, that was what you told me to do, wasn't it?"
+
+"Yes, yes.  I believe it was.  Humph!  Just so, yes.  So you've
+still got those shares?"
+
+Martha smiled.  "I haven't sold 'em to Raish Pulcifer, if that's
+what you're hintin' at," she said.
+
+He seemed a bit embarrassed.  "Well," he admitted, with a laugh, "I
+guess I'll have to own that I did mean that.  There seems to be a
+good many who have sold to Pulcifer.  All the little fellows, the
+small holders.  You haven't, you say?"
+
+"I haven't sold a share to him."
+
+"Humph!  Neither has Cap'n Jeth Hallett; he told me so just
+now. . . .  Hum! . . . What is Raish buying for?  What's the reason
+he's buying?  Have you heard?"
+
+"I've heard what he's told other folks; that's all I know about
+it."
+
+"Hum. . . .  Yes, yes.  Well, here's my advice, Miss Phipps:  If I
+were you--if I were you, I say, and he came to me and wanted to
+buy, I shouldn't be in too big a hurry to sell.  Not in too big a
+hurry, I shouldn't."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+He glanced at her quickly.  "Oh, he HAS been to see you about
+buying your shares, then?" he suggested.
+
+She shook her head.  "I didn't say he had," she replied.  "I just
+asked why I shouldn't sell if he wanted to buy, that's all.  Why
+shouldn't I?"
+
+He seemed more embarrassed and a trifle irritated.
+
+"Why--why--  Oh, well, I suppose you should, perhaps, if he offers
+you enough.  But I wish you wouldn't until--until--  Well, couldn't
+you let me know before you give him his answer?  Would you mind
+doing that?"
+
+And now she looked keenly at him.  "What would I gain by that?" she
+asked.  "YOU aren't thinkin' of buyin' more of that stock, are you?
+The other time when we talked, you told me the Trust Company had
+all they cared to own and were keepin' it because they had to.  I
+would have been glad--yes, awfully glad, to sell you my shares.
+But you wouldn't even consider buyin'.  Do you want to buy now?"
+
+He frowned.  "I don't know what I want," he said, impatiently.
+"Except that the one thing we want to find out is why Pulcifer is
+buying.  The Trust Company holds a big block of that stock and--and
+if there is anything up we want to know of it."
+
+"What do you mean by 'anything up'?"
+
+"Oh, I mean if some other people are trying to get--er--into the
+thing.  Of course, it isn't likely, but--"
+
+He did not finish the sentence.  She asked another question.
+
+"Has Raish been to see you about buyin' the Trust Company stock?"
+she asked.
+
+"No.  He hasn't been near us."
+
+"Perhaps he would if you told him you wanted to sell."
+
+"I don't know that we do want to sell.  That's a pretty good piece
+of property over there and some day--  Ahem!  Oh, well, never mind.
+But I wish you would let us know before you sell Pulcifer your
+holdings.  It might--I can't say positively, you know--but it MIGHT
+be worth your while."
+
+Martha, of course, made no promise, but she thought a good deal
+during her walk homeward.  She told her lodger of the talk with the
+Trust Company official, and he thought a good deal, also.
+
+His thoughts, however, dealt not with the possible rise in value of
+the six hundred and fifty shares which, endorsed in blank, reposed,
+presumably, somewhere in the vaults of Cabot, Bancroft and Cabot.
+He thought not at all of anything like that.  He had gotten rid of
+those certificates and hoped never to hear of them again.  But now,
+with all this stir and talk, there was distinct danger that not
+only he but others might hear of them.  Galusha Bangs and Raish
+Pulcifer had, just now, one trait in common, both detested the
+publicity given their dealings in the securities of the Wellmouth
+Development Company.
+
+But, in spite of this detestation, Horatio still seemed anxious to
+deal in those securities.  He visited the Phipps' home twice that
+week, both times after dark and, as the watchful Primmie observed
+and commented upon, each time coming not by the lane, but across
+the fields.  And when he left, at the termination of his second
+visit, the expression upon his face was by no means one of triumph.
+
+And Martha, of course, told her lodger what had transpired.
+
+"I declare," she said, after her caller had gone, "I shall really
+begin to believe somethin' IS up in that Development Company, just
+as the Trust Company man said.  Raish certainly wants to buy the
+two hundred and fifty shares he thinks I've got.  This is the third
+time he's been to see me, sneakin' across lots in the dark so
+nobody else would see him, and each time he raised his bid.  He got
+up to eighteen dollars a share to-night.  And, I do believe, if I
+had given him the least bit of encouragement, he would have gone
+higher still.  What do you think of that, Mr. Bangs?"
+
+Galusha did not know what to think of it; he found it extremely
+unpleasant to think of it at all.
+
+"Have you--ah--have you told him you do not intend selling?" he
+asked.
+
+"Why, no, I haven't.  You see, if I do he'll think it's awfully
+queer, because he knows how anxious I was, a while ago, TO sell.  I
+just keep puttin' him off.  Pretty soon I suppose I shall HAVE to
+tell him I won't sell no matter what he offers; but we'll try the
+puttin' off as long as possible."  She paused, and then added, with
+a mischievous twinkle, "Really, Mr. Bangs, I am gettin' a good deal
+of fun out of it.  A few months ago I was the one to go to him and
+talk about that stock.  Now he comes to me and I'm just as high and
+mighty as he ever was, you can be sure of that.  'Well, Raish,' I
+said to him to-night, 'I don't know that I am very much interested.
+If the stock is worth that to you, I presume likely it's worth it
+to me.'  Ha, ha!  Oh, dear! you should have seen him squirm.  He
+keeps tryin' to be buttery and sweet, but his real feelin's come
+out sometimes.  For instance, to-night his spite got a little too
+much for him and he said:  'Humph!' he said, 'somebody must have
+willed you money lately, Martha.  Either that or keepin' boarders
+must pay pretty well.'  'Yes,' said I, 'it does.  The cost of livin
+is comin' down all the time.'  Oh, I'm havin' a beautiful game of
+tit-for-tat with Raish."
+
+She laughed merrily.  Galusha did not laugh.  The game was
+altogether too risky for him to enjoy it.  A person sitting on a
+powder barrel could scarcely be expected to enjoy the sight of a
+group of children playing with matches in close proximity.  An
+explosion, sooner or later, might be considered certain.  But the
+children continued to play and day after day went by, and no blow-
+up took place.  Galusha sat upon his barrel pondering apprehensively
+and--waiting.  There were times when, facing what seemed the
+inevitable, he found himself almost longing for the promised summons
+from the Institute.  An expedition to the wilds of--of almost
+anywhere, provided it was remote enough--offered at least a means of
+escape.  But, to offset this, was the knowledge that escape by
+flight involved giving up East Wellmouth and all it had come to mean
+to him.  Of course, he would be obliged to give it up some day and,
+in all probability, soon--but--well, he simply could not bring
+himself to the point of hastening the separation.  So he shifted
+from the powder barrel to the sharp horn of the other dilemma and
+shifted back again.  Both seats were most uncomfortable.  The idea
+that there was an element of absurdity in his self-imposed martyrdom
+and that, after all, what he had done might be considered by the
+majority as commendable rather than criminal, did not occur to him
+at all.  He would not have been Galusha Cabot Bangs if it had.
+
+He meditated much and Primmie, always on the lookout for new
+symptoms, noticed the meditations.  When Primmie noticed a thing
+she never hesitated to ask questions concerning it.  She was
+dusting the sitting room one morning and he was sitting by the
+window looking out.
+
+"You're thinkin' again, ain't you, Mr. Bangs?" observed Primmie.
+
+Galusha started.  "Eh?" he queried.  "Thinking?  Oh, yes--yes!--I
+suppose I was thinking, Primmie.  I--ah--sometimes do."
+
+"You 'most always do.  I never see anybody think as much as you do,
+Mr. Bangs.  Never in my born days I never.  And lately--my savin'
+soul!  Seems as if you didn't do nothin' BUT think lately.  Just
+set around and think and twiddle that thing on your watch chain."
+
+The thing on the watch chain was a rather odd charm which Mr. Bangs
+had possessed for many years.  "Twiddling" it was a habit of his.
+In fact, he had twiddled it so much that the pivot upon which it
+had hung broke and Martha had insisted upon his sending the charm
+to Boston for repairs.  It had recently been returned.
+
+"What is that thing, Mr. Bangs?" asked Primmie.  "I was lookin' at
+it t'other day when you left your watch chain layin' out in the
+sink."
+
+"In the sink?  You mean BY the sink, don't you, Primmie?"
+
+"No, I don't, I mean IN it.  You'd forgot your watch and Miss
+Martha she sent me up to your room after it.  I fetched it down to
+you and you and her was talkin' in the kitchen and you was washin'
+your hands in the sink basin.  Don't you remember you was?"
+
+"Was I?  I--I presume I was if you say so.  Really I--I have
+forgotten."
+
+"Course you have.  And you forgot your watch, too.  Left it layin'
+right alongside that tin washbasin full of soapsuds.  'Twas a mercy
+you didn't empty out the suds on top of it.  Well, I snaked it out
+of the sink and chased out the door to give it to you and you was
+halfway to the lighthouse and I couldn't make you hear to save my
+soul.  'Twas then I noticed that charm thing.  That's an awful
+funny kind of thing, Mr. Bangs.  There's a--a bug on it, ain't
+there?"
+
+"Why--ah--yes, Primmie.  That charm is a very old scarab."
+
+"Hey?  A what?  I told Miss Martha it looked for all the world like
+a pertater bug."
+
+Galusha smiled.  He held out the charm for her inspection.
+
+"I have had that for a long time," he said.  "It is a--ah--souvenir
+of my first Egyptian expedition.  The scarab is a rather rare
+example.  I found it myself at Saqqarah, in a tomb.  It is a scarab
+of the Vth Dynasty."
+
+"Hey?  Die--what?"
+
+"The Vth Dynasty; that is the way we classify Egyptian--ah--relics,
+by dynasties, you know.  The Vth Dynasty was about six thousand
+years ago."
+
+Primmie sat down upon the chair she had been dusting.
+
+"Hey?" she exclaimed.  "My Lord of Isrul!  Is that bug thing there
+six thousand year old?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"My savin' soul!  WHAT kind of a bug did you say 'twas?"
+
+"Why, I don't know that I did say.  It is a representation of an
+Egyptian beetle, Ateuchus Sacer, you know.  The ancient Egyptians
+worshiped the beetle and so they--"
+
+"Wait!  Wait a minute, Mr. Bangs.  WHAT did you say they done to
+it?"
+
+"I said they worshiped it, made a god of it, you understand."
+
+"A god!  Out of a--a pertater bug!  Go long, Mr. Bangs!  You're
+foolin', ain't you?"
+
+"Dear me, no!  It's quite true, Primmie, really.  The ancient
+Egyptians had many gods, some like human beings, some in the forms
+of animals.  The goddess Hathor, for example, was the goddess of
+the dead and is always represented in the shape of a cow."
+
+"Eh!  A cow!  Do you mean to sit there and tell me them folks--er--
+er--went to church meetin' and--and flopped down and said their
+prayers to a COW?"
+
+Galusha smiled.  "Why, yes," he said, "I presume you might call it
+that.  And another god of theirs had the head of a hawk--the bird,
+you know.  The cat, too, was a very sacred animal.  And, as I say,
+the beetle, like the one represented here, was--"
+
+"Hold on, Mr. Bangs!  HO-OLD on!  Don't say no more to me NOW.  Let
+me kind of--of settle my stomach, as you might say, 'fore you fetch
+any more onto the table.  Worshipin' cows and--and henhawks and--
+and cats and bugs and--and hoptoads and clams, for what _I_ know!
+My savin' soul!  What made 'em do it?  What did they do it FOR?
+Was they all crazy?"
+
+"Oh, no, it was the custom of their race and time."
+
+"WELL!" with a heartfelt sigh, "I'm glad times have changed, that's
+all I've got to say.  Goin' to cow meetin' would be too much for
+ME!  Mr. Bangs, where did you get that bug thing?"
+
+"I found it at a place called Saqqarah, in Egypt.  It was in a tomb
+there."
+
+"A tomb!  What was you doin' in a tomb, for the land sakes?"
+
+"I was opening it, looking for mummies and carvings, statues,
+relics, anything of the kind I might find.  This scarab was in a
+ring on the finger of the mummy of a woman.  She was the wife of an
+officer in the royal court.  The mummy case was excellently
+preserved and when the mummy itself was unwrapped--"
+
+"Wait a minute!  Hold on just another minute, won't you, Mr. Bangs?
+You're always talkin' about mummies.  A mummy is a--a kind of an
+image, ain't it?  I've seen pictures of 'em in them printed report
+things you get from that Washin'ton place.  An image with funny
+scrabblin' and pictures, kind of, all over it.  That's a mummy,
+ain't it, Mr. Bangs?"
+
+"Why, not exactly, Primmie.  A mummy is--"
+
+He proceeded to tell her much concerning mummies.  From that he
+went on to describe the finding of the particular mummy from whose
+finger the scarab had been taken.  Miss Cash listened, her mouth
+and eyes opening wider and wider.  She appeared to be slowly
+stiffening in her chair.  Galusha, growing interested in his own
+story, was waxing almost eloquent, when he was interrupted by a
+gasp from his listener.  She was staring at him, her face
+expressing the utmost horror.
+
+"Why, dear me, Primmie, what is it?" he begged.
+
+Primmie gasped again.  "And you set there," she said, slowly, "and
+tell me that you hauled that poor critter that had been buried six
+thousand years out of--of--  My Lord of Isrul!  Don't talk no more
+to me now, Mr. Bangs.  I sha'n't sleep none THIS night!"  She
+marched to the door and there, turning, looked at him in awe-
+stricken amazement.
+
+"And to think," she said, slowly, "that I always cal'lated you was
+meek and gentle and--and all like that--as Moses's grandmother.
+WELL, it just shows you can't tell much by a person's LOOKS.
+Haulin' 'em out of their graves and--and unwrappin' 'em like--like
+bundles, and cartin' 'em off to museums.  And thinkin' no more of
+it than I would of--of scalin' a flatfish.  My savin' soul!"
+
+She breathed heavily once more and departed.  That evening she came
+to her mistress with a new hint concerning the reason for the
+Bangs' absent-mindedness.
+
+"It's his conscience," she declared.  "He's broodin', that's what
+he's doin'.  Broodin' and broodin' over them poor remains in the
+showcases in the museums.  He may be a good man; I don't say he
+ain't.  He's just lovely NOW, and that's why his conscience keeps
+a-broodin', poor thing.  Oh, I know what I'm talkin' about, Miss
+Martha.  You ask him some time where he got that bug thing--a Arab,
+he calls it--that he wears on his watch chain.  Just ask him.
+You'll hear somethin' THEN, I bet you!  Whew!"
+
+Galusha found considerable amusement in talks like those.  Primmie
+was a distinct relief, for she never mentioned the troublesome
+Development Company.  Talk in the village concerning it was dying
+down and Mr. Pulcifer's assertion that he had bought only the
+shares of the small holders was becoming more generally believed.
+But in the Gould's Bluffs settlement this belief was scoffed at.
+Captain Jeth Hallett told Galusha the truth and his statement was
+merely a confirmation of Martha Phipps'.
+
+"Raish is hotfoot after that stock of mine," growled the light
+keeper.  "He's 'round to see me every day or two.  Don't hint any
+more neither; comes right out and bids for it.  He's got to as high
+as nineteen a share now.  And he'd go higher, too.  HOW far he'll
+go I don't know, but I cal'late I'll keep him stringin' along till
+I find out."
+
+He pulled at his beard for a moment and then added:
+
+"It's plain enough, of course, that Raish is agent for somebody
+that wants to buy in that stock.  Who 'tis, though, I can't guess.
+It ain't your Cabot, Bancroft and Cabot crowd, Mr. Bangs.  That's
+plain enough, too."
+
+Galusha tried to look innocently interested.
+
+"Oh--ah--yes," he said.  "Is it?"
+
+"Sartin 'tis.  THEY wouldn't need to be sendin' anybody to buy my
+shares, would they?  They've bought 'em already.  The whole thing
+is queer.  Look here!  Why should anybody be chasin' ME for those
+shares?  Why don't they get a list of stockholders from the books?
+Those transfer books ought to show that I've sold, hadn't they?
+They would, too, if any transfer had been made.  There ain't been
+any made, that's all the answer I can think of.  I signed those
+certificates of mine in blank, transferred 'em in blank on the
+back.  And somebody--whoever 'twas bought 'em--ain't turned 'em in
+for new ones in their own name, but have left 'em just the way they
+got 'em.  That's why Raish and his crowd think I've still got my
+stock.  Now ain't that funny, Mr. Bangs?  Ain't that strange?"
+
+It was not at all funny to Galusha.  Nor strange.  The light keeper
+tugged at his beard and his shaggy brows drew together.  "I don't
+know's I did right to let go of that stock of mine, after all," he
+said, slowly.  "Don't know as I did, no."
+
+Galusha asked him why.
+
+"Because I don't know as I did, that's all.  If I'd hung on I might
+have got more for it.  Looks to me as if Raish's crowd, whoever
+they are, are mighty anxious to buy.  And the Denboro Trust Company
+folks might bid against 'em if 'twas necessary.  They've got too
+much of that stock to let themselves be froze out.  Humph! . . .
+Humph!  I ain't sure as I did right."
+
+"But--but you did get a profit, Captain Hallett.  The profit you--
+ah--expected."
+
+"Humph!  I got a profit, but how do I know 'twas the profit Julia
+meant?  I ought to have gone and asked her afore I sold, that's
+what I ought to have done, I cal'late."
+
+He frowned heavily and added, in a tone of gloomy doubt:  "I
+presume likely I've been neglectin' things--things like that,
+lately, and that's why punishments are laid onto me.  I suppose
+likely that's it."
+
+Galusha, of course, did not understand, but as the captain seemed
+to expect him to make some remark, he said:  "Oh--ah--dear me!
+Indeed?  Ah--punishments?"
+
+"Yes.  I don't know what else they are.  When your own flesh and
+blood--"  He stopped in the middle of his sentence, sighed, and
+added:  "Well, never mind.  But I need counsel, Mr. Bangs,
+counsel."
+
+Again Galusha scarcely knew what to say.
+
+"Why--ah--Captain Hallett," he stammered, "I doubt if my advice
+would be worth much, really, but such as it is I assure you it--"
+
+Captain Jethro interrupted.
+
+"Counsel from this earth won't help me any, Mr. Bangs," he
+declared.  "It's higher counsel that I need.  Um-hm, higher."
+
+He walked away without saying more.  Galusha wondered what had set
+him off upon that tack.  That afternoon, while in the village, he
+met Nelson Howard and the latter furnished an explanation.  It
+seemed that the young man had been to see Captain Jethro, had dared
+to call at the light with the deliberate intention of seeing and
+interviewing him on the subject of his daughter.  The interview had
+not been long, nor as stormy as Nelson anticipated; but neither had
+it been satisfactory.
+
+"It's those confounded 'spirits' that are rocking the boat,"
+declared Nelson.  "The old man practically said just that.  He
+seems to have gotten over some of his bitterness against me--
+perhaps it is, as you say, Mr. Bangs, because I have a better
+position now and good prospects.  Perhaps it is that, I don't know.
+But he still won't consider my marrying Lulie.  He seems to realize
+that we could marry and that he couldn't stop us, but I think he
+realizes, too, that neither Lulie nor I would think of doing it
+against his will.  'But why, Cap'n Hallett?' I kept saying.  'WHY?
+What is the reason you are so down on me?'  And all I could get out
+of him was the old stuff about 'revelations' and 'word from above'
+and all that.  We didn't get much of anywhere.  Oh, pshaw!
+Wouldn't it make you tired?  Say, Mr. Bangs, the last time you and
+I talked you said you were going to 'consider' those Marietta Hoag
+spirits.  I don't know what you meant, but if you could consider
+some sense into them and into Cap'n Jeth's stubborn old head, I
+wish you would."
+
+Galusha smiled and said he would try.  "I don't exactly know what I
+meant, myself, by considering them," he admitted.  "However, I--ah--
+doubtless meant something and I'll try and--ah--consider what it
+was.  It seems to me that I had a vague thought--not an idea,
+exactly, but--  Well, perhaps it will come back.  I have had a
+number of--ah--distractions of late.  They have caused me to forget
+the spirits.  I'm very sorry, really.  I must try now and
+reconsider the considering.  Dear me, how involved I am getting!
+Never mind, we are going to win yet.  Oh, I am sure of it."
+
+The distractions to which he referred were, of course, the recent
+and mysterious machinations of Raish Pulcifer.  And he was to be
+again distracted that very afternoon.  For as, after parting with
+Howard, he was walking slowly along the main road, pondering deeply
+upon the problem presented by the love affair of his two young
+friends and its spirit complications, he was awakened from his
+reverie by a series of sharp clicks close at his ear.  He started,
+looked up and about, and saw that he was directly opposite the
+business office of the great Horatio.  He heard the clicks again
+and realized that they were caused by the tapping of the windowpane
+by a ring upon a masculine finger.  The ring appeared to be--but
+was not--a mammoth pigeon-blood ruby and it ornamented, or set off,
+the hand of Mr. Pulcifer himself.
+
+Galusha stared uncomprehendingly at the hand and ring.  Then the
+hand beckoned frantically.  Mr. Bangs raised his eyes and saw,
+through the dingy pane, the face of the owner of the hand.  The
+lower portion of the face was in eager motion.  "Come in," Mr.
+Pulcifer was whispering.  "Come on in!"
+
+Galusha wonderingly entered the office.  He had no desire for
+conversation with its proprietor, but he was curious to know what
+the latter wanted.
+
+"Ah--good-afternoon, Mr. Pulcifer," he said.
+
+Raish did not answer immediately.  His first move was to cross to
+the door by which his visitor had entered, close and lock it.  His
+next was to lower the window shade a trifle.  Then he turned and
+smiled--nay, beamed upon that visitor.
+
+"Set down, set down, Perfessor," he urged, with great cordiality.
+"Well, well, well!  It's good to see you again, be hanged if it
+ain't now!  How's things down to the bluffs?  Joggin' along,
+joggin' along in the same old rut, the way the feller with the
+wheelbarrer went to market?  Eh?  Haw, haw, haw!  Have a cigar,
+Perfessor?"
+
+Galusha declined the cigar.  He would also have declined the
+invitation to sit, but Mr. Pulcifer would not hear of it.  He all
+but forced his caller into a chair.
+
+"Set down," he insisted.  "Just as cheap settin' as standin' and
+consider'ble lighter on shoe leather, as the feller said.  Haw,
+haw!  Hey?  Yes, indeed.  Er--  Have a cigar?"
+
+But Galusha was still resolute as far as the cigar was concerned.
+Raish lighted one himself and puffed briskly.  To a keen observer
+he might have appeared a trifle nervous.  Galusha was not a
+particularly keen observer and, moreover, he was nervous himself.
+If there had been no other reason, close proximity to a Raish
+Pulcifer cigar was, to a sensitive person, sufficient cause for
+nervousness.
+
+Mr. Pulcifer continued to talk and talk and talk, of the weather,
+of the profits of the summer season just past, of all sorts of
+trivialities.  Mr. Bangs' nervousness increased.  He fidgeted in
+his chair.
+
+"Really," he stammered, "I--I fear I must be going.  You will
+excuse me, I hope, but--ah--I must, really."
+
+Pulcifer held up a protesting hand.  It was that holding the cigar
+and he waved it slowly back and forth.  One of Galusha's
+experiences had been to be a passenger aboard a tramp steamer
+loaded with hides when fire broke out on board.  The hides had
+smoked tremendously and smelled even more so.  As the dealer in
+real estate slowly waved his cigar back and forth, Galusha suddenly
+remembered this experience.  The mental picture was quite vivid.
+
+"Wait, Perfessor," commanded Horatio.  "Throttle her down.  Put her
+into low just a minute.  Say, Perfessor," he lowered his voice and
+leaned forward in his chair:  "Say, Perfessor," he repeated, "do
+you want to make some money?"
+
+Galusha gazed at him uncomprehendingly.
+
+"Why--ah--  Dear me!" he faltered.  "I--that is--well, really, I
+fear I do not fully grasp your--ah--meaning, Mr. Pulcifer."
+
+Raish seemed to find this amusing.  He laughed aloud.  "No reason
+why you should yet awhile, Perfessor," he declared.  "I'll try to
+get it across to you in a minute, though.  What I asked was if you
+wanted to make money.  Do, don't you?"
+
+"Why--why, I don't know.  Really, I--"
+
+"Go 'way, boy!" derisively.  "Go 'way!  Don't tell me you don't
+want money.  Everybody wants it.  You and me ain't John D.'s yet,
+by a consider'ble sight.  Hey?  Haw, haw!  Anyhow _I_ ain't, and
+I'll say this for you, Perfessor, if you are, you don't look it.
+Haw, haw!"
+
+He laughed again.  Galusha glanced despairingly at the locked door.
+Mr. Pulcifer leaned forward and gesticulated with the cigar just
+before his visitor's nose.  The visitor leaned backward.
+
+"If--if you don't mind," he said, desperately, "I really wish you
+wouldn't."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Put that thing--that cigar quite so near.  If you don't mind."
+
+Raish withdrew the cigar and looked at it and his companion.
+
+"Oh, yes, yes; I see!" he said, after a moment.  "You object to
+tobacco, then?"
+
+Galusha drew a relieved breath.  "Why--ah--no," he said, slowly,
+"not to--ah--tobacco."  Then he added, hastily:  "But, really, Mr.
+Pulcifer, I must be going."
+
+Pulcifer pushed him back into the chair again.  His tone became
+brisk and businesslike.  "Hold on, Perfessor," he said.  "You say
+you want to make money?"
+
+Galusha had not said so, but it seemed scarcely worth while to deny
+the assertion.  And Raish waited for no denial.  "You want to make
+money," he repeated.  "All right, so do I.  And I've got a scheme
+that'll help us both to make a little.  Now listen.  But before I
+tell you, you've got to give me your word to keep it dark; see?"
+
+Galusha promised and Raish proceeded to explain his scheme.
+Briefly it amounted to this:  Galusha Bangs, being a close
+acquaintance of Martha Phipps and Jethro Hallett, was to use that
+acquaintanceship to induce them to sell their shares in the
+Development Company.  For such an effort, if successful, on the
+part of Mr. Bangs, he, Horatio Pulcifer, was prepared to pay a
+commission of fifty dollars, twenty-five when he received Martha's
+shares and twenty-five when Jethro's were delivered.
+
+"There," he said, in conclusion, "is a chance I'm offerin' you, as
+a friend, to clean up fifty good, hard, round dollars.  What do you
+say, old man?"
+
+The "old man"--Galusha winced slightly at the appellation--did not
+seem to know what to say.  His facial expression might have
+indicated any or all of a variety of feelings.  At last, he
+stammered a question.  Why did Mr. Pulcifer wish to obtain the
+Development stock?  This question Raish would not answer.
+
+"Never mind," he said.  "I do, that's all.  And I've got the money
+to do it with.  I'll pay cash for their stock and I'll pay you cash
+when you or they hand it over.  That's business, ain't it?"
+
+"But--but, dear me, Mr. Pulcifer, why do you ask ME to do this?
+Why--"
+
+"Ain't I told you?  You're a friend of mine and I'm givin' you the
+chance because I think you need the money.  That's a reason, ain't
+it?"
+
+"Why--yes.  It is--ah--a reason.  But why don't you buy the stock
+yourself?"
+
+For an instant Raish's smoothness deserted him.  His temper flared.
+
+"Because the cussed fools won't sell it to me," he snapped.  "That
+is, they ain't said they'd sell yet.  Perhaps they're prejudiced
+against me, I don't know.  Maybe they will sell to you; you and
+they seem to be thicker'n thieves.  Er--that is, of course, you
+understand I don't mean--  Oh, well, you know what I mean,
+Perfessor.  Now what do you say?"
+
+Galusha rose and picked up his hat from the floor.
+
+"I'm afraid I must say no," he said, quietly, but with a firmness
+which even Raish Pulcifer's calloused understanding could not miss.
+"I could not think of accepting, really."
+
+"But, say, Perfessor--"
+
+"No, Mr. Pulcifer.  I could not."
+
+"But why not?  IF--  Well, I tell you, maybe I might make it sixty
+dollars instead of fifty for you."
+
+"No.  I couldn't, Mr. Pulcifer. . . .  If you will kindly unlock
+the door?"
+
+Pulcifer swore.  "Well, you must be richer'n you look, that's all
+I've got to say," he snarled.  He kicked the wastebasket across the
+room and growled:  "I'll get the stuff away from 'em yet, just the
+same.  What the fools are hangin' on for is more'n I can see.
+Martha Phipps was down on her knees beggin' me to buy only a little
+spell ago.  Old Jeth, of course, thinks his 'spirits' are backin'
+HIM up.  Crazy old loon!  Spirits!  In this day and time!  God
+sakes!  Humph!  I wish to thunder I could deal with the spirits
+direct; might be able to do business with THEM.  Perfessor, now
+come, think it over.  There ain't anything crooked about it. . . .
+Why, what is it, Perfessor?" eagerly.  "Changed your mind, have
+you?"
+
+Galusha's expression had changed, certainly.  He looked queerly at
+Mr. Pulcifer, queerly and for an appreciable interval of time.
+There was an odd flash in his eye and the suspicion of a smile at
+the corner of his lips.  But he was grave enough when he spoke.
+
+"Mr. Pulcifer," he said, "I appreciate your kindness in--ah--
+considering me in this matter.  I--it is impossible for me to
+accept your offer, of course, but--but--"
+
+"Now, hold on, Perfessor.  You think that offer over."
+
+"No, I cannot accept.  But it has occurred to me that perhaps . . .
+perhaps . . . Mr. Pulcifer, do you know Miss Hoag?"
+
+"Hey?  Marietta Hoag?  KNOW her?  Yes, I know her; know her too
+well for my own good.  Why?"
+
+"Have you any--ah--influence with her?  That is, would she be
+likely to listen to a suggestion from you?"
+
+"Listen!  SHE?  Confound her, I've got a note of hers for seventy-
+five dollars and it's two months overdue.  She'd BETTER listen!
+Say, what are you drivin' at, Perfessor?"
+
+Galusha deposited his hat upon the floor again, and sat down in the
+chair he had just vacated.  Now it was he who, regardless of the
+cigar, leaned forward.
+
+"Mr. Pulcifer," he said, "an idea occurred to me while you were
+speaking just now.  I don't know that it will be of any--ah--value
+to you.  But you are quite welcome to it, really.  This is the
+idea--"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+If Ras Beebe or Miss Blount or some others of the group of East
+Wellmouthians who guessed Galusha Bangs to be "a little teched in
+the head," had seen that gentleman walking toward home after his
+interview with Mr. Pulcifer in the latter's office--if they had
+seen him on his way to Gould's Bluffs that day, they would have
+ceased guessing and professed certain knowledge.  Galusha meandered
+slowly along the lane, head bent, hands clasped behind him,
+stumbling over tussocks and stepping with unexpected emphasis into
+ruts and holes.  Sometimes his face wore a disturbed expression,
+almost a frightened one; at other times he smiled and his eyes
+twinkled like those of a mischievous boy.  Once he laughed aloud,
+and, hearing himself, looked guiltily around to see if any one else
+had heard him.  Then the frightened expression returned once more.
+If Primmie Cash had been privileged to watch him she might have
+said, as she had on a former occasion, that he looked "as if he was
+havin' a good time all up one side of him and a bad one all down
+t'other."
+
+As a matter of fact, this estimate would not have been so far
+wrong.  Galusha was divided between pleasurable anticipation and
+fear.  There was adventure ahead, adventure which promised
+excitement, a probable benefit to some individuals and a grievous
+shock to others, and surprise to all.  But for him there was
+involved a certain amount of risk.  However, so he decided before
+he reached the Phipps' gate, he had started across the desert and
+it was too late to turn back.  Whether he brought his caravan over
+safely or the Bedouins got him was on the knees of the gods.  And
+the fortunes of little Galusha Bangs had been, ere this, on the
+knees of many gods, hawk-headed and horned and crescent-crowned,
+strange gods in strange places.  It was quite useless to worry now,
+he decided, and he would calmly wait and see.  At the best, the
+outcome would be good, delightful.  At the worst, except for him--
+well, except for him it could not be much worse than it now was.
+For him, of course--he must not think about that.
+
+He endeavored to assume an air of light-hearted, care-free
+innocence and sometimes overdid it a bit.  Primmie, the eagle-eyed,
+remarked to her mistress:  "Well, all's I can say is that I never
+see such a change in a body as there is in Mr. Bangs.  He used to
+be so--so quiet, you know, all the time, and he is yet most of it.
+When I used to come along and find him all humped over thinkin',
+and I'd ask him what he was thinkin' about, he'd kind of jump and
+wake up and say, 'Eh?  Oh, nothin', nothin,' Primmie, really.  Er--
+quite so--yes.'  And then he'd go to sleep again, as you might say.
+But he don't do so now; my savin' soul, no!  This mornin' when I
+says, 'What you thinkin' about, Mr. Bangs?' he says, 'Nothin',
+nothin', Primmie,' same as usual; but then he says, 'DON'T look at
+me like that, Primmie.  I wasn't thinkin' of anything, I assure
+you.  Please don't DO it.'  And then he commenced to sing, sing out
+loud.  I never heard him do it afore and I don't know's I exactly
+hanker to have him do it again, 'cause 'twas pretty unhealthy
+singin', if you ask ME.  But what--"
+
+"Oh, now run along, run along, Primmie, for mercy's sakes!  I never
+heard any one use so many words and get so little good out of 'em
+in my life.  Let Mr. Bangs alone."
+
+"_I_ ain't doin' nothin' to him.  Lord of Isrul, no!  But, Miss
+Martha, what started him to singin' all to once?  If 'twas somebody
+else but him and I didn't know the cherry rum was all gone, I--"
+
+"What?  What's that?  How did you know the cherry rum was all
+gone?"
+
+Primmie blinked and swallowed hard.  "Why--er--why--er--Miss
+Martha," she stammered, "I--I just happened to find it out--er--
+sort of by accident.  Zach--Zacheus Bloomer, I mean--over to the
+lighthouse, you know--"
+
+"There, there!  Know?  Of course I know Zach Bloomer, I should
+think I might.  Don't be any sillier than the Lord made you,
+Primmie.  It isn't necessary."
+
+"Well--well, you see, Miss Martha, Zach he was over here one time a
+spell ago and--and--  Well, we got to--to kind of arguin' with one
+another--er--er--arguin', you know."
+
+"Yes, I know.  I ought to.  Go on."
+
+"Yes'm.  And Zach he got to--to bettin', as you might say.  And we
+got talkin' about--er--cherry rum, seems so.  It's kind of funny
+that we done it, now I come to think of it, but we did.  Seems to
+me 'twas Zach started it."
+
+"Um. . . .  I see.  Go on."
+
+"Well, we argued and argued and finally he up and bet me there
+wasn't a drink of cherry rum in this house.  Bet me five cents, he
+did, and I took him up.  And then I went and got the bottle out of
+the soup tureen in the closet and fetched it and showed it to him.
+'There!' says I.  'There's your drink, Zach Bloomer,' says I.  'Now
+hand over my five cents.'  'Hold on, Posy,' he says, 'hold on.  I
+said a drink.  There ain't a drink in that bottle.'  'Go 'long,'
+says I, 'the bottle's half full.'  But he stuck it out there wasn't
+a drink in it and afore he'd pay me my bet he had to prove it to
+himself.  Even then, after he'd swallowed the whole of it, he vowed
+and declared there wasn't a real drink.  But he had to hand over
+the five cents. . . .  And--and that's how I know," concluded
+Primmie, "that there ain't any cherry rum in the house, Miss
+Martha."
+
+Miss Phipps' remarks on the subject of the wily Mr. Bloomer and the
+rum drove the thoughts of Mr. Bangs' odd behavior from the mind of
+her maid.  But the consciousness of conspiracy was always present
+with Galusha, try as he might to forget it.  And he was constantly
+being reminded--of it.  Down at the post office at mail time he
+would feel his coat-tail pulled and looking up would see the face
+of Mr. Pulcifer solemnly gazing over his head at the rows of letter
+boxes.  Apparently Raish was quite unconscious of the little man's
+presence, but there would come another tug at the coat-tail and a
+barely perceptible jerk of the Pulcifer head toward the door.
+
+Feeling remarkably like a fool, Galusha would follow to the front
+steps of the post office.  There Raish would suddenly and, in a
+tone of joyful surprise, quite as if they had not met for years,
+seize his hand, pump it up and down and ask concerning his health,
+the health of the Gould's Bluffs colony and the "news down yonder."
+Then, gazing blandly up the road at nothing in particular, he would
+add, speaking in a whisper and from the corner of his mouth:
+"Comin' along, Perfessor.  She's a-comin' along.  Keep your ear out
+for signals. . . .  What say?  Why, no, I don't think it does look
+as much like rain as it did, Mr. Bangs."
+
+One evening Galusha, entering the Phipps' sitting room, found Lulie
+there.  She and Martha were in earnest conversation and the girl
+was plainly much agitated.  He was hurriedly withdrawing, but Miss
+Phipps called him back.
+
+"Come in, Mr. Bangs," she said.  "I think Lulie would like to talk
+to you.  She said she would."
+
+"Yes.  Yes, I would, Mr. Bangs," put in Lulie, herself.  "Could you
+spare just a minute or two?"
+
+Galusha cheerfully avowed that he had so many spare minutes that he
+did not know what to do with them.
+
+"If time were money, as they say it is," he added, "I should be a--
+ah--sort of mint, shouldn't I?"  Then he smiled and added:  "Why,
+no, not exactly that, either.  A mint is where they make money and
+I certainly do not make time.  But I have just as much time as if I
+did.  Yes--ah--quite so.  As our philosophizing friend Zacheus is
+so fond of saying, I have 'all the time there is.'  And if time IS
+money--why--ah. . . .  Eh?  Dear me, possibly you ladies know what
+I am talking about; _I_ don't."
+
+They both burst out laughing and he smiled and stroked his chin.
+Martha looked him over.
+
+"What makes you so nervous, Mr. Bangs?" she asked.  He started and
+colored.  He was a trifle nervous, having a shrewd suspicion as to
+what Miss Hallett wished to talk with him about.  She promptly
+confirmed the suspicion.
+
+"Mr. Bangs," she said, "I am in such trouble.  It's about father,
+as usual.  I'm afraid he is at it again."
+
+"Eh?  I beg pardon?  Oh, yes, certainly."
+
+Martha shook her head.  "He hasn't the slightest idea what you
+mean, Lulie," she declared.  "That's why he says 'Oh, yes,
+certainly.'  She means, Mr. Bangs, that Cap'n Jethro is beginnin'
+to break out with another attack of Marietta Hoag's spirits, and
+we've been tryin' to think of a way to stop him.  We haven't yet.
+Perhaps you can.  Can you?"
+
+Lulie went on to explain.  Her father had been more gloomy and
+thoughtful for the last week or two.  She had noticed it and so had
+Zach.  He talked with her less and less as the days passed, lapsed
+into silences at meals, and on nights when he was supposed to be
+off duty and asleep she often heard him walking about his room.  If
+she asked him, as, of course, she often did, what was the matter,
+if he was not feeling well or if there was anything troubling him,
+he only growled a negative or ordered her not to bother him.
+
+"And when, last Wednesday at supper," she went on, "Zach said
+something about the engine for the foghorn not working just as it
+should, father's answer showed us both what was in his mind.  I had
+guessed it before and Zach says he had, but then we knew."
+
+"Tell Mr. Bangs what he said," urged Martha.
+
+"He didn't say so very much, Mr. Bangs, but it was the way he said
+it.  He glowered at poor Zach, who hadn't said or done anything
+wrong, and pulled his beard as he always does.  Then he said:
+'There's no wonder the engine's out of kilter.  There's no wonder
+about that.  The wonder is that anything's right aboard here.
+We've been trying to steer without a compass.  We've got so we
+think we don't need a pilot or a chart, but are so everlasting
+smart we can cruise anywhere on our own hook.'  'Why, father,' said
+I, 'what do you mean?'  He glared at me then.  'Mean?' he asked.
+'I mean we've had guidance offered to us, offered to us over and
+over again, and we've passed it by on the other side.'"
+
+She paused.  Galusha looked puzzled.
+
+"Ah--um, yes," he observed.  "On the other side?  Yes--ah--quite
+so."
+
+"Oh, that was just his way of speaking, Mr. Bangs.  I tried to
+change the subject.  I asked him if he didn't think we should
+report the engine trouble to the inspector when he came next month.
+It was a mistake, my saying that.  He got up from his chair.  'I'm
+going to report,' he said.  'I'm going to make my report aloft and
+ask for guidance.  The foghorn ain't the only thing that's runnin'
+wild.  My own flesh and blood defies me.'"
+
+Martha interrupted.  "You hear that, Mr. Bangs?" she said.  "And we
+were all hopin' THAT snarl was straightenin' itself out."
+
+Galusha looked very uneasy.  "Dear me," he said.  "Really, now.
+Oh, dear!"
+
+"Well," continued Lulie, "that was enough, of course.  And the next
+day, last Thursday, Zacheus said Ras Beebe told him that Ophelia--
+that's his sister, you know--told him that Abel Harding told her
+that his wife said that Marietta Hoag told HER--I HOPE I've got all
+the 'hims' and 'hers' straight--that Cap'n Jeth Hallett was going
+to have another seance down at the light pretty soon.  Marietta
+said that father felt he needed help from 'over the river'. . . .
+What is it, Mr. Bangs?"
+
+"Oh, nothing, nothing.  For a moment I did not get the--ah--
+allusion, the 'over the river,' you know.  I comprehend now, the--
+ah--Styx; yes."
+
+But now Martha looked puzzled.
+
+"Sticks!" she repeated.  "Lulie didn't say anything about sticks.
+Neither did Cap'n Jethro.  Spirits he was talkin' about."
+
+"Yes, I know.  Certainly, quite so.  The shades beyond the Styx."
+
+"SHADES?  STICKS!  For mercy's sakes, Mr. Bangs--!"
+
+Lulie laughed aloud.  "He means the River Styx, Martha," she
+explained.  "Don't you know?  The river of the dead, that the
+ancients believed in, where Charon rowed the ferry."
+
+And now Martha laughed.  "My goodness gracious me!" she cried.
+"Yes, yes, of course.  I've read about it, but it was a long while
+ago.  Mr. Bangs, I'm dreadfully ignorant, I realize it about once
+every ten minutes when I'm with you.  Perhaps I've got a little
+excuse this time.  I've been figurin' I must buy new curtains for
+the dinin' room.  I was thinkin' about it all this forenoon.  And
+when YOU began to talk about shades and sticks, I--  Mercy me!  I
+am funny, I declare!"
+
+She laughed again and Lulie and Galusha joined her.  They were
+still laughing when the dining room door opened.  Mr. Bloomer's
+substantial if not elegant form appeared.
+
+"Ain't buttin' in, be I?" inquired Zach.  "I knew you was over
+here, Lulie, so I stopped to tell you the news.  It's all settled."
+
+"Settled?"  Lulie and Martha repeated the word together.  Zach
+nodded, portentously.
+
+"Um-hm," he declared.  "Settled's the word.  The whistle's piped
+to quarters.  All hands, alow and aloft, are ordered to report on
+board the good ship Gould's Bluffs Lighthouse, Cap'n Jethro Hallet
+commandin', on Friday next, the--er--I-forget-what of this month,
+at seven bells in the--"
+
+"Zach!  Zach!" broke in Lulie.  "Stop it!  What are you talking
+about?"
+
+"Talkin' about what I'm tryin' to tell you," said Zacheus, who
+seemed, for him, a good deal disturbed.  "All able believers,
+fo'mast hands, and roustabouts and all full-rated ghosts, spooks,
+sperits and Chinee controls are ordered to get together in the
+parlor next Saturday night and turn loose and raise-whatever 'tis
+they raise.  Signed, Marietta Hoag, Admiral, and Cap'n Jethro
+Hallett, Skipper.  There, by Godfreys!  Now if you don't know
+'tain't my fault, is it?  Yes, sir, there's goin' to be another one
+of them fool sea-ants, or whatever 'tis they call 'em, over to the
+house next Friday night.  And I think it's a darn shame, if you
+want to know what _I_ think.  And just as you and me, Lulie, was
+hopin' the old man was gettin' so he'd forgot Marietta and all her
+crew.  A healthy note, by Godfreys, ain't it now!"
+
+"A healthy note," or words to that effect, was exactly what it was;
+Martha and Lulie were in thorough accord with Zach as to that.
+Galusha did not say very much.  He rubbed his chin a good deal and
+when, after Bloomer had departed, Lulie came close to breaking down
+and crying, he still was silent, although nervous and evidently
+much disturbed.  Lulie bravely conquered her emotion.
+
+"Please don't mind me," she begged.  "It's awfully silly of me, I
+know.  But, you see, Nelson and I had really begun to think that
+perhaps father had broken away from--from all that.  For a time he
+was--oh, different.  Nelson told you that he bowed to him once and
+I told you how--  But what is the use?  Here he goes again.  And
+now goodness knows what dreadful ideas that Hoag woman will put
+into his head.  Nelson and I had hoped that perhaps--perhaps we
+might be married in six months or a year.  Now--  Oh, it is SO
+discouraging!"
+
+Martha soothed her, told her not to be discouraged, that no doubt
+this spirit outbreak would be only a mild one, that she was sure
+Captain Jeth would "come around all right" in time, and grasped at
+any other straws of comfort she found afloat.  Galusha stood
+awkwardly by, his face expressing concern, but his tongue silent.
+When Lulie declared she must go home, he insisted upon walking to
+the light with her.
+
+"But you don't need to, Mr. Bangs," she declared.  "It is a
+pleasant night and such a little way.  And you know I am used to
+running about alone.  Why, what on earth do you think would be
+likely to hurt me, down here in this lonesomeness?"
+
+Nevertheless, he insisted.  But, although she chatted during their
+short walk, it was not until they reached the light keeper's gate
+that he spoke.  Then he laid a hand on her arm.
+
+"Ah--ah--Miss Lulie--" he began, but she stopped him.
+
+"I thought we had settled long ago," she said, "that I wasn't to be
+'Miss' Lulie.  Now you are beginning again."
+
+"Yes--yes.  I beg your pardon, of course.  Well, Miss--  Oh, dear
+me, HOW ridiculous I am!  Well, Lulie, I should like to tell you a
+story.  May I?"
+
+It seemed a queer place and an odd time to tell stories, but she
+said of course he might.
+
+"It wasn't a very long story," he went on, "but it is a true one.
+I happened to think of it just now while we were talking, you and I
+and--ah--Miss Martha.  It is about me.  On one of my expeditions in
+Egypt, Miss Lu--  Oh, good gracious!--  On one of my Egyptian
+expeditions, Lulie, I was in search of a certain tomb, or group of
+tombs.  It was on this expedition, by the way, that we found the
+very remarkable statue of Amenemhait; Amenemhait III, you know."
+
+Lulie smiled.  "I DON'T know," she said, "but it doesn't matter."
+
+"Eh?  Oh, no, not at all, not in the least.  He was a Pharaoh of
+the first Theban period.  But that doesn't matter either; and he
+hasn't anything to do with this story.  We had learned of the
+existence of this group of tombs, or that they had existed at one
+time, and of their approximate location, from an inscription dug up
+by myself at--"
+
+The door of the light keeper's cottage swung open with a bang.  A
+voice roared across the night.
+
+"Lulie!" shouted Captain Jethro.  "Lulie!"
+
+The Bangs' story broke off in the middle.  Its narrator and his
+young companion turned startled faces toward the sound.
+
+"Lulie!" bellowed Captain Jeth, again.  "Lulie!"
+
+Lulie answered.  "Why, yes, father," she said.  "I am right here,
+at the gate.  Why are you shouting so?  What is the matter?"
+
+The captain seemed much surprised.  He raised a hand to shield his
+eyes from the lamplight in the room behind him.
+
+"Hey?" he queried.  "Where be you?  You ain't right there at the
+gate, are you?"
+
+"Why, yes, of course I am."
+
+"Humph! . . ."  Then, with renewed suspicion, "Who's that with
+you?"
+
+"Mr. Bangs.  I ran over to Martha's for a minute or two, and he
+walked home with me."
+
+"Good-evening, Captain Hallett," hailed Galusha.  Captain Jethro
+pulled his beard.
+
+"Humph!" he grunted.  "Humph!  Mr. Bangs, eh? . . .  Humph!  I
+thought--  Cal'late I must have fell asleep on the sofy and been
+dreamin'. . . .  Humph! . . .  Lulie, you better come in now, it's
+chilly out here.  Mr. Bangs can come, too, I suppose likely--if he
+wants to."
+
+It was not the most cordial of invitations and Galusha did not
+accept it.
+
+"I must get back to the house, Captain," he said.  "It IS chilly,
+as you say.  No doubt he is right, Lulie.  You mustn't stay.  Good-
+night."
+
+"But, Mr. Bangs, you haven't finished your story."
+
+"Eh?  Dear me, so I haven't.  Well--"
+
+"Lulie!"  Captain Jethro's voice was fretful.  "Lulie, you come
+along in now.  I want you."
+
+Lulie shook her head resignedly.  "Yes, father," she replied, "I'm
+coming this minute.  You see?" she whispered.  "He is getting back
+all the impatience and--and strangeness that he had last fall.  It
+is that dreadful spirit business.  Oh, dear!"
+
+Galusha softly patted her shoulder.  "I won't finish my story," he
+said, in a low tone.  "It isn't necessary, because I can tell you
+the--ah--moral, so to speak, and that will do as well.  We found
+those tombs at last by doing a thing which, we were all sure, was
+the worst thing we could possibly do.  It turned out to be that
+'worst thing' which saved us.  And--and I wish you would think that
+over, Lulie," he added, earnestly.  "It looked to be the very worst
+thing and--and it turned out to be the best. . . .  Ah--good-night."
+
+But she detained him.  "I don't understand, Mr. Bangs," she said.
+"What do you mean?  You said you were going to tell me the moral of
+your story.  That isn't a moral, is it?"
+
+"Eh?  No--ah--no.  I suppose it isn't.  But--but you think it over,
+to please me, you know.  A--a something which looked to be the
+worst that could happen was the miracle that gave us our tombs.
+Perhaps the--perhaps what you dread most may give you yours.  Not
+your tomb; dear me, no!  I hope not.  But may be the means of--of
+saving the situation.  There, there, I must go.  Good-night."
+
+"Wait, wait, Mr. Bangs. . . .  Oh, yes, father, I'm coming now. . . .
+Mr. Bangs, what DO you mean?  What I dread the most?  What I
+dread--I think I dread that silly seance next Saturday night more
+than anything else.  Mr. Bangs, you don't mean--"
+
+"Now, now, now, Lulie.  I mustn't say a word more.  I--I have said
+too much, I know.  Just think over the--ah--moral, that's all.
+Think it over--but don't mention it to any one else, please.  Good-
+night.  Good-night, Captain Hallett."
+
+He hurried away.  Lulie stared after him, wonderingly; then she
+turned and walked slowly and thoughtfully to the door.  Her father
+regarded her with a troubled expression.
+
+"I dreamed," he said, slowly, "that Julia come to me and said
+somethin' about you.  I don't seem to recollect just what 'twas she
+said.  But 'twas somethin' about you--somethin' about me lookin'
+out for you. . . .  Seem's if," he added, doubtfully, "as if she
+said you'd look out for me, but that's just foolishness and
+wouldn't mean nothin'.  It couldn't be, that couldn't. . . .
+Humph!  Well, come on in."
+
+The remainder of that week the seance to be held in the light
+keeper's cottage on Saturday evening was much talked about.  The
+devout, including the Beebes, the Hardings and the Blounts were
+quite excited about it.  The scoffers derided and waxed sarcastic.
+Of these scoffers the most outspoken was Horatio Pulcifer.  He
+declared that the whole fool business made him tired.  Old Cap'n
+Jeth Hallett must be getting cracked as one of them antique plates.
+He wasn't sure that the selectmen hadn't ought to stop the thing, a
+lot of ninnies sitting in a round circle holding hands and
+pretending to get spirit messages.  Huh!  Just let 'em get a
+message that proved something, that meant something to somebody,
+and he'd believe, too, he'd be glad to believe.  But he was from
+Missouri and they'd got to show him.  With much more to the same
+effect.
+
+In private, and in the ear of Galusha Bangs, he made a significant
+remark.
+
+"Go?" he repeated.  "Me go to that seance thing?  Not so you'd
+notice it, Perfessor.  I'm what they call a wise bird.  I get up
+early, a consider'ble spell before breakfast.  Um-hm, a consider'ble
+spell.  Saturday night I'm goin' to be a long ways from Gould's
+Bluffs lighthouse, you bet on that."
+
+Galusha expressed surprise and gave reasons for that emotion.
+Raish winked and nodded.
+
+"Yes, I know," he said, "but I'm goin' to have what they call an
+alibi.  You ain't been to court much, I presume likely, Perfessor,
+so you may not be on to what alibi is.  When Bill Alworthy was
+hauled up for sellin' without a license we had an alibi for him.
+He proved he was fourteen mile away from where he sold the stuff--
+I mean from where they said he sold it--and it was that what got him
+off.  Well, on Saturday night I'm goin' to have an alibi.  I'm
+goin' to be settin' in at a little penny-ante in Elmer Rogers' back
+room over to the Centre.  An alibi's a nice thing to have in the
+house, Perfessor.  Hey?  Haw, haw, haw!  Yes, sir-ee!  In case
+there's any talk they won't be able to pin much on your Uncle
+Raish, not much they won't."
+
+He nudged the Bangs' ribs and walked off, chuckling.  Galusha, too,
+smiled as he watched him go.  Both he and Mr. Pulcifer seemed to
+find amusement in the situation.  Yet, and Galusha realized it,
+there was also for him that element of risk.
+
+On Thursday Captain Jethro stopped at the Phipps' home to invite
+its inmates to the Saturday evening meeting.  His invitation was
+not precisely whole-hearted, but the reason he gave for offering it
+caused its acceptance.
+
+"Lulie seems to want you and Mr. Bangs," he said, "so come along if
+you feel like it.  I know you're one of the don't-believers,
+Martha, and I guess likely Bangs is, but never mind.  The door's
+open if you want to come.  Maybe you'll hear somethin' that'll lead
+you to the light; let's hope so.  Anyhow, Lulie wants you."
+
+It will be noticed that Primmie's name was not mentioned in the
+invitation, but that did not prevent her acceptance.  That evening,
+after the supper dishes were washed, Miss Phipps heard agonized
+wails coming from the kitchen and, going there, found her maid
+seated in a chair, swaying back and forth, and, as Zach Bloomer
+once described a similar performance, "tootin' her everlastin' soul
+into the harmonica."
+
+"I'm practicin' up for Saturday night," she informed her mistress,
+cheerfully.  "I've been tryin' to think up some other hymn tunes
+and I've thought of one, but I can't remember what 'tis, the whole
+of it, I mean.  You know, Miss Martha, the one about:
+
+
+     'Oh, what a sight 'twill be
+      When the somethin'-or-other host we see,
+      As numberless as the sands on the seashore.'
+
+
+What kind of a host is it, Miss Martha?  All I can think of is
+'rancid' and I'm plaguy sure 'tain't THAT."
+
+Martha burst out laughing.  "It is 'ransomed,' Primmie," she said.
+"But if you're figurin' on playin' that thing over at the seance,
+I'm afraid you'll be disappointed.  Cap'n Jethro has had the old
+melodeon repaired, I believe.  And, so far as I've heard, you
+haven't been asked to come, have you?"
+
+Primmie became a statue of despair.
+
+"Oh, Miss Martha," she pleaded, "CAN'T I go?  Can't I please go?
+You're goin' and so's Mr. Bangs, and--and I do like 'em so, those
+spirit meetin's.  They scare me 'most to death and I just love 'em.
+PLEASE can't I go, Miss Martha?"
+
+Martha took pity on her.  "Well, all right, Primmie," she said.
+"Go, if you want to.  I don't believe Jethro will care.  And," with
+a shrug, "I don't know as another idiot, more or less, added to the
+rest of us, will make much difference."
+
+Saturday, the eventful day, or the day of the eventful evening, was
+fine and clear.  At noon an unexpected event, the first of several,
+occurred; Zacheus, bringing the mail from the post office, brought
+a large and heavy letter addressed to Galusha Bangs, Esq., and
+stamped in the upper left-hand corner with the name of the National
+Institute of Washington.  Galusha opened it in his room alone.  It
+was the "plan," the long-ago announced and long-expected plan in
+all its details.  An expedition was to be fitted out, more
+completely and more elaborately than any yet equipped by the
+Institute, and was to go to the Nile basin for extended and careful
+research lasting two years at least.  And he was offered the
+command of that expedition, to direct its labors and to be its
+scientific head.  Whatever it accomplished, he would have
+accomplished; the rewards--the understanding gratitude of his
+fellow archaeologists the world over would be his, and his alone.
+
+He sat there in his room and read and reread the letter.  The terms
+in which the offer had been made were gratifying in the extreme.
+The confidence in his ability and scientific knowledge were
+expressed without stint.  But, and more than this, between the
+lines he could read the affection of his associates there at the
+Institute and their pride in him.  His own affection and pride were
+touched.  A letter like this and an offer and opportunity like
+these were wonderful.  The pride he felt was a very humble pride.
+He was unworthy of such trust, but he was proud to know they
+believed him worthy.
+
+He sat there, the many sheets of the letter between his fingers,
+looking out through the window at the brown, windswept hollows and
+little hills and the cold gray-green sea beyond.  He saw none of
+these.  What he did see was the long stretch of ridged sand,
+heaving to the horizon, the brilliant blue of the African sky, the
+line of camels trudging on, on.  He saw the dahabeah slowly making
+its way up the winding river, the flat banks on either side, the
+palm trees in silhouetted clusters against the sunset, the
+shattered cornice of the ruins he was to explore just coming into
+view.  He saw and heard the shrieking, chattering laborers digging,
+half naked, amid the scattered blocks of sculptured stone and,
+before and beneath them, the upper edge of the doorway which they
+were uncovering, the door behind which he was to find--who knew
+what treasures.
+
+"Mr. Bangs," called Martha from the foot of the stairs, "dinner's
+ready."
+
+Galusha was far away, somewhere beyond the Libyan desert, but he
+heard the summons.
+
+"Eh?" he exclaimed.  "Oh, yes, yes, Miss Martha, I am coming."
+
+As he descended the stairs, it occurred to him that the voices
+calling him to dinner across the sands or beneath the palms would
+be quite different from this one, they would be masculine and
+strange and without the pleasant, cheerful cordiality to which he
+had become accustomed.  Martha Phipps called one to a meal as if
+she really enjoyed having him there.  There was a welcome in her
+tones, a homelike quality, a . . . yes, indeed, very much so.
+
+At table he was unusually quiet.  Martha asked him why he looked at
+her so queerly.
+
+"Eh?  Do I?" he exclaimed.  "Oh, I'm so sorry!  I wasn't aware.  I
+beg your pardon.  I hope you're not offended."
+
+She laughed.  "Mercy me," she said, "I'm not offended so easily.
+And if your absent-mindedness could make me take offense, Mr.
+Bangs, we should have quarreled long ago.  But I should like to
+know what you were thinkin' about.  You sat there and stared at me
+and your face was as solemn as--as Luce's when it is gettin' past
+his dinner time.  You looked as if you had lost your best friend."
+
+He did not smile even then.  Nor did he make any reply worth
+noting.  As a matter of fact, he was awakening to the realization
+that if he accepted the call to Egypt--and accept he must, of
+course--he would in solemn truth lose his best friend.  Or, if not
+lose her exactly, go away and leave her for so long that it
+amounted to a loss.  He must leave this dining room, with its
+plants and old pictures and quaint homeliness, leave the little
+Phipps' cottage, leave its owner. . . .  The dazzling visions of
+sands and sphinxes, of palms and pyramids, suddenly lost their
+dazzle.  The excitement caused by the reading of the letter dulled
+and deadened.  The conviction which had come upon him so often of
+late returned with redoubled vigor, the conviction that he had been
+happy where he was and would never be as happy anywhere else.  Egypt,
+even beloved Egypt with all the new and wonderful opportunities it
+now offered him, did not appeal.  The thought was alarming.  When he
+did not want to go to Egypt there must be something the matter with
+him, something serious.  What was it?
+
+After dinner he told her of the offer which had been made him.
+
+"Perhaps you would like to see the letter," he said.  "It is a very
+kind one.  Dear me, yes.  Much kinder than I deserve."
+
+She read the long letter through, read the details of the great
+plan from end to end.  When the reading was finished she sat
+silent, the letter in her lap, and she did not look at him.
+
+"They are very kind to me, aren't they?" he said, gravely.  "Very
+kind and generous.  The thought of it quite--ah--overwhelms me,
+really.  Of course, I know what they say concerning my--ah--the
+value of my service is quite ridiculous, overstated and--and all
+that, but they do that thinking to please me, I suppose.  I . . .
+Why--why, Miss Martha, you--you're not--"
+
+She smiled, a rather misty smile.  "No," she said, "I'm not.  But I
+think I shall if you keep on talkin' in that way."
+
+"But--but, Miss Martha, I'm so sorry.  I assure you I did not mean
+to hurt your feelings.  If I have said anything to distress you I'm
+VERY sorry.  Dear me, dear me!  What did I say?  I--"
+
+She motioned him to silence.  "Hush, hush!" she begged.  "You
+didn't say anything, of course, except what you always say--that
+what you have done doesn't amount to anything and that you aren't
+of any consequence and--all that.  You always say it, and you
+believe it, too.  When I read this letter, Mr. Bangs, and found
+that THEY know what you really are, that they had found you out
+just as--as some of your other friends have, it--it--"
+
+She paused.  Galusha turned red.  "I--I--" he stammered.  "Oh, you
+mustn't talk so, Miss Martha.  It's all nonsense, you know.  Really
+it is."
+
+She shook her head and smiled once more.
+
+"All right," she argued.  "Then we'll call it nonsense; but it's
+pretty glorious nonsense, seems to me.  I do congratulate you, Mr.
+Bangs.  And I congratulate the Institute folks a great deal more.
+Now tell me some more about it, please.  Where is this place they
+want you to go to?"
+
+That afternoon Galusha spent in wandering about the countryside.
+He went as far from home as the old graveyard in South Wellmouth.
+He took a long walk and it should have been a pleasant one, but
+somehow it was not, particularly.  All he could think of was the
+two facts--one, that he had been offered a wonderful opportunity,
+for which he should be eagerly and hugely grateful; two, that he
+was not grateful at all, but resentful and rebellious.  And what on
+earth was the matter with him?
+
+Martha was setting the supper table when he came in.  He went to
+his room and when he came down supper was almost ready.  Primmie
+was in the kitchen, busy with the cooking.
+
+"We're having an early supper, Mr. Bangs," said Martha.  "That
+everlastin' seance begins about half past seven, so Cap'n Jethro
+took pains to tell me, and he'll be crosser'n a hen out in a
+rainstorm if we're not on time."
+
+Galusha looked surprised.  He had forgotten the seance altogether.
+Yes, he had quite forgotten it.  And, up to that noon, he had
+thought of very little else the entire week.  What WAS the matter
+with him?
+
+"Lulie is goin' to send Zach over to tell us when they're ready to
+set sail for Ghost Harbor," went on Martha.  "That will save us
+watchin' the clock.  What say?"
+
+But he had not said anything and she went on arranging the dishes.
+After an interval she asked a question.
+
+"How soon--that is, when will you have to leave us--leave here, Mr.
+Bangs?" she asked.  She was not looking at him when she asked it.
+
+Galusha sighed.  "In about two weeks, I--ah--suppose," he said.
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"Ah--yes."
+
+There was another silent interval.  Then Martha turned her head to
+listen.
+
+"Wasn't that an automobile I heard then?" she asked.  "Yes, it is.
+It can't be the Spiritualist crowd comin' so soon.  No, it is
+stoppin' here, at our gate.  Is it Doctor Powers, I wonder?"
+
+She went to the window, pulled aside the shade and looked out.
+
+"It is a big car," she said.  "It isn't the doctor, that's sure.
+There's a man gettin' out, a big man in a fur coat.  Who on
+earth--?"
+
+Steps sounded without upon the walk, then there was a knock upon
+the side door, that of the dining room.  Martha opened the door.
+A man's voice, a brisk, businesslike voice, asked a question.
+
+"Why, yes," replied Miss Phipps, "he lives here.  He's right here
+now.  Won't you step in?"
+
+The man who had asked the question accepted the invitation and
+entered the dining room.  He was a big, broad-shouldered man in a
+raccoon motor coat.  He took off a cap which matched the coat and
+looked about the room.  Then he saw Galusha.
+
+"Why, hello, Loosh!" he said.
+
+Galusha knew him, had recognized the voice before he saw its owner.
+His mouth opened, shut, and opened again.  He was quite pale.
+
+"Ah--ah--why, Cousin Gussie!" he stammered.
+
+For the man in the fur coat standing there in Martha Phipps' dining
+room was the senior partner of Cabot, Bancroft and Cabot.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+For perhaps thirty seconds after the exchange of greetings, the
+trio in the Phipps' dining room stood where they were, practically
+without moving.  Mr. Cabot, of course, was smiling broadly, Miss
+Phipps was gazing in blank astonishment from one to the other of
+the two men, and Galusha Bangs was staring at his relative as
+Robinson Crusoe stared at the famous footprint, "like one
+thunderstruck."
+
+It was Cabot who broke up the tableau.  His smile became a hearty
+laugh.
+
+"What's the matter, Loosh?" he demanded.  "Great Scott, old man, I
+expected to surprise you, but I didn't expect to give you a
+paralytic stroke.  How are you?"
+
+He walked over and held out his hand.  Galusha took it, but he
+looked as if he was quite unaware of doing so.  "Cousin Gussie!" he
+repeated, faintly.  Then he added his favorite exclamation.  "Dear
+me!"
+
+Even Martha, who by this time was used to his eccentricities,
+thought his conduct strange.
+
+"Why, Mr. Bangs," she cried, "are you sick?  What is it?"
+
+Galusha blinked, put a hand to his forehead, knocked off his
+spectacles, picked them up again and, in doing so, appeared to pick
+up a little of his normal self.
+
+"Why, Cousin Gussie," he observed, for the third time; adding, "I--
+I am surprised."
+
+His cousin's laugh made the little room echo.
+
+"Good, Loosh!" he exclaimed.  "I guessed as much; you looked it.
+Well, it is all right; I'm here in the flesh.  Aren't you glad to
+see me?"
+
+Galusha stammered that he was very glad to see him--yes, indeed--
+ah--quite so--very, of course.
+
+"Ah--ah--won't you sit down?" he asked.
+
+Martha could stand it no longer.  "Why, mercy's sakes, Mr. Bangs,"
+she exclaimed, "of course he'll sit down!  And he'd probably take
+off his coat, if you asked him."
+
+This pointed hint had an immediate effect.  Her lodger sprang
+forward.
+
+"Oh, dear me!" he cried.  "I'm so sorry.  Of course, of course.  I
+BEG your pardon, Cousin Gussie."
+
+He hindered a little more than he helped with the removal of the
+coat and then stood, with the garment in his arms, peering over the
+heap of fur like a spectacled prairie-dog peeping out of a hole.
+
+"Ah--sit down, sit down, please," he begged.  "I--ah--please do."
+
+Again Martha interrupted.  "Here, let me take that coat, Mr.
+Bangs," she said, and took it forthwith.  Galusha, coming to
+himself still more, remembered the conventionalities.
+
+"Oh, Miss Phipps," he cried, "may I introduce my--ah--cousin, Mr.
+Cabot.  Mr. Cabot, this is the lady who has taken charge of me, so
+to speak."
+
+Both Martha and Cabot burst out laughing.
+
+"That sounds as if I had arrested him, doesn't it?" observed the
+former.  "But it is all right, Mr. Cabot; I've only taken him to
+board."
+
+"I understand.  Well, unless he has changed a lot since I used to
+know him, he needs some one to take charge of him.  And it agrees
+with him, too.  Why, Loosh, I thought you were an invalid; you look
+like a football player.  Oh, pardon me, Miss Phipps, but don't
+trouble to take that coat away.  I can stay only a little while.
+My chauffeur is waiting outside and I must get on to the hotel or
+I'll be late for dinner."
+
+Martha, who was on her way to the hall and the coat rack, turned.
+"Hotel?" she repeated.  "What hotel, Mr. Cabot?"
+
+"Why, the Something-or-other House over in the next town.  The
+Robbins House, is it?  Something like that."
+
+"Robbins House?  There isn't any.  Oh, do you mean Roger's Hotel at
+the Centre?"
+
+"Why, yes, that is it.  I was told there was a hotel here, but
+they forgot to tell me it was open only in the summer.  What sort
+of place is this Roger's Hotel?"
+
+Martha looked at him and then at Galusha.
+
+"Altogether too bad for any relation of Mr. Bangs's to go to," she
+declared.  "At least, to eat supper.  You and Mr. Bangs will excuse
+me, won't you?  I'll be right back."
+
+She hung the fur coat upon the rack and hastened back through the
+dining room and out into the kitchen.  Cabot took a chair and
+turned toward Galusha.
+
+"She is a capable woman," he observed, with a jerk of his head
+toward the kitchen door.  "She has certainly taken good care of
+you.  You look better than when I saw you last and that was--
+Good Lord, how long ago was it?"
+
+Galusha replied that it was a good many years ago and then switched
+the subject to that which was causing painful agitation in his
+bosom at the moment, namely, the reason for his cousin's appearance
+in East Wellmouth.
+
+Cousin Gussie laughed.  "I came to see you, Loosh," he declared.
+"Family ties, and all that.  I thought I would run down and get you
+to picnic on the beach with me.  How is the bathing just now?"
+
+The chill October wind rattled the sash and furnished answer
+sufficient.  Galusha smiled a sad sort of acknowledgment of the
+joke.  He did not feel like smiling.  The sensation of sitting on a
+powder barrel had returned to him, except that now there was no
+head to the barrel and the air was full of sparks.
+
+"I--I did not expect you," he faltered, for the sake of saying
+something.  Cabot laughed again.
+
+"Of course you didn't," he said.  "Well, to tell you the truth, I
+didn't come purposely to see you, old man.  There has been a little
+business matter down here which hasn't gone as I wanted it to, and
+I decided, pretty much on the spur of the moment, to motor down and
+see what was the matter.  The friend for whom I was trying to
+handle the thing--it is only a little matter--was coming with me,
+but this morning I got a wire that he was detained and couldn't
+make it.  So, as it was a glorious day and my doctor keeps telling
+me to forget business occasionally, I started alone.  I didn't
+leave town until nearly eleven, had some motor trouble, and didn't
+reach here until almost five.  Then I found the fellow I came to
+see had gone somewhere, nobody knew where, and the hotel was closed
+for the season.  I inquired about you, was given your address at
+the post office, and hunted you up.  That's the story."
+
+Galusha's smile was less forced this time.  He nodded reflectively.
+
+"That explains it," he said, slowly.  "Yes, quite so.  Of course,
+that explains it."
+
+"Explains what?"
+
+"Why--ah--it explains why you came here, you know."
+
+"Well, I hope it does.  That was the idea.  If it doesn't I don't
+know what will."
+
+Miss Phipps entered briskly from the kitchen.  She proceeded to set
+another place at the supper table.
+
+"Mr. Bangs," she said, "hadn't you better take Mr. Cabot up to your
+room?  Probably he'd like to clean up after ridin' so far.  Better
+go right away, because supper is nearly ready.  Mr. Cabot, it is
+Saturday night and you'll get a Saturday night supper, beans and
+brown bread.  I hope you won't mind."
+
+Galusha's relative was somewhat taken aback.
+
+"Why, Miss Phipps," he protested, "of course I can't think of
+dining here.  It is extremely kind of you, but really I--"
+
+Martha calmly interrupted.  "It isn't kind at all," she said.  "And
+it isn't dinner, it is supper.  If you don't stay I shall think it
+is because you don't like baked beans.  I may as well tell you,"
+she added, "that you will get beans and nothin' else over at Elmer
+Roger's.  They won't be as good as these, that's all.  That isn't
+pride," she continued, with a twinkle in her eye.  "Anybody's beans
+are better than Elmer's, they couldn't help bein'."
+
+The visitor still hesitated.  "Well, really, Miss Phipps," he said,
+"I--  Well, I should like to stay.  I should, indeed.  But, you
+see, my chauffeur is outside waiting to take me over to the Roger's
+House."
+
+Martha smiled.  "Oh, no, he isn't," she said.  "He is havin' his
+supper in the kitchen now.  Run along, Mr. Bangs, and you and your
+cousin hurry down as soon as you can."
+
+On the way upstairs Cabot asked a question.
+
+"She is a 'reg'lar' woman, as the boys say," he observed.  "I like
+her.  Does she always, so to speak, boss people like that?"
+
+Galusha nodded, cheerfully.  "When she thinks they need it," he
+replied.
+
+"Humph!  I understand now what you meant by saying she had taken
+charge of you.  Does she boss you?"
+
+Another cheerful nod.  "I ALWAYS need it," answered Galusha.
+
+Martha, of course, presided at the supper table.  Primmie did not
+sit down with the rest.  She ate in the kitchen with the Cabot
+chauffeur.  But she entered the dining room from time to time to
+bring in hot brown bread or beans or cookies, or to change the
+plates, and each time she did so she stared at Cousin Gussie with
+awe in her gaze.  Evidently the knowledge that the head of Cabot,
+Bancroft and Cabot was sitting there before her had impressed her
+hugely.  It was from Cabot, Bancroft and Cabot, so Primmie
+remembered, that Mr. Bangs had procured the mammoth pile of bank
+notes which she had seen upon her mistress's center table.  She had
+never actually been told where those notes came from, but she had
+guessed.  And now the proprietor of the "money factory"--for that
+is very nearly what it was in her imagination--was there, sitting
+at the Phipps' 'dining table, eating the baked beans that she
+herself had helped prepare.  No wonder that Primmie was awe-
+stricken, no wonder that she tripped over the mat corner and just
+escaped showering the distinguished guest with a platterful of
+those very beans.
+
+Mr. Cabot seemed to enjoy his supper hugely.  He was jolly,
+talkative, and very entertaining.  He described his camp sojourn in
+Nevada and, according to him, life in a mountain sanitarium, under
+the care of a doctor and two husky male nurses, was a gorgeous
+joke.  Martha, who, to tell the truth, had at first secretly shown
+a little of Primmie's awe, was soon completely at ease.  Even
+Galusha laughed, though not as often.  It was hard for him to
+forget the powder barrel sensation.  Each time his cousin opened
+his mouth to speak, he dreaded to hear reference to a dangerous
+subject or to be asked a question which would set fire to the fuse.
+
+The clock struck seven.  Martha glanced at it and suddenly uttered
+an exclamation.
+
+"My goodness gracious!" she exclaimed.  "I declare, Mr. Bangs, you
+and I have forgotten all about that blessed seance.  And half past
+seven was the time for it to begin.  Good gracious me!"
+
+Galusha started.  "Dear me, dear me!" he cried.  "So it was.  I had
+completely forgotten it, really I had."
+
+He put his hand to his forehead.
+
+"I shall have to go to it," declared Martha.  "Lulie begged me to
+come and the cap'n won't like it if I stay away.  But I don't see
+that you need to, Mr. Bangs.  You and your cousin can stay right
+here and talk and be comfortable.  He is goin' to stay overnight.
+Oh, yes, you are, Mr. Cabot.  I wouldn't let a stray cat go to
+Elmer Roger's hotel if I could help it, to say nothin' of Mr.
+Bangs' cousin.  The spare room's all ready and Primmie is up there
+now, airin' it.  She took your bag up with her; I had your
+chauffeur bring it in from the car."
+
+Her guest stared at her for a moment, laughed and shook his head.
+
+"Well, really, Miss Phipps," he said, "I don't know what to say to
+you.  You rather take me off my feet.  It is very kind of you and,
+of course, I am very much obliged; but, of course, too, I couldn't
+think of staying."
+
+"Now, please, Mr. Cabot!  It isn't the least little bit of trouble,
+and that's honest.  Mr. Bangs, you tell him to stay."
+
+Galusha, thus appealed to, tried to say something, but succeeded
+only in looking distressed.
+
+"We WANT him to stay, don't we, Mr. Bangs?" urged Martha.
+
+"Why--why, certainly.  Oh, yes, indeed.  Ah--yes," faltered
+Galusha.  If there was one thing which he distinctly did not want,
+it was just that.  And there was no doubt that Cabot was wavering.
+
+"But, you see, Miss Phipps," said Cousin Gussie, "it will be quite
+impossible.  My chauffeur--"
+
+"Yes, I know.  I'm awfully sorry I haven't got a room for him.  I
+wish I had.  But he can go to Elmer's.  He wouldn't mind so much--
+at least I hope he wouldn't--and there's a garage for the car over
+there.  I spoke to him about it and he's only waitin' for you to
+say the word, Mr. Cabot."
+
+The visitor protested a bit more and then yielded.  "Frankly, Miss
+Phipps," he said, "I have been wanting to stay ever since I entered
+your door.  This house takes me back to my boyhood, when I used to
+visit my great-uncle Hiram down at Ostable.  You remember him,
+Galusha, Uncle Hiram's dining room had the same wholesome, homey
+atmosphere that yours has, Miss Phipps.  And I honestly believe I
+haven't enjoyed a meal since those old days as I have enjoyed this
+supper of yours."
+
+Martha colored with pleasure.  Galusha, forgetting his powder
+barrel, beamed in sympathy.
+
+"But there is just one more thing," continued Cousin Gussie.  "You
+and Bangs were going out somewhere, were expected at some--er--
+social affair, weren't you?"
+
+Miss Phipps and her lodger exchanged looks.  Both appeared
+embarrassed.
+
+"Well--well, you see," faltered the former.  Then, after a moment's
+reflection, she added, "Well, I'll tell you, Mr. Cabot."
+
+She did tell him, briefly, of Captain Hallett's spirit obsession,
+of her friendship and sympathy for Lulie.  She said nothing, of
+course, concerning the latter's love story.
+
+"So," she said, in conclusion, "although I haven't the least bit of
+belief in Marietta Hoag or any of her seances, I am sorry for Cap'n
+Jethro and I am very fond of Lulie.  She is worried, I know, and
+she has asked me to be there tonight.  You and Mr. Bangs will
+excuse me, everything considered, won't you?"
+
+But Galusha had something to say.  "Miss Martha," he said, "I am
+afraid I must go, too.  I promised Mr.--ah--um--I mean I promised
+Lulie I would be there.  And this is going to be a very important
+seance."
+
+Martha turned to him.
+
+"It is?" she asked.  "Important--how?  What do you mean?"
+
+Her lodger looked as if he had said more than he intended.  Also as
+if he did not know what to say next.  But Cabot saved him the
+trouble.
+
+"I wonder if I might attend this--er--function?" he suggested.  "It
+is in the nature of a public affair, isn't it?  And," with a
+twinkle of the eye, "it sounds as if it might be interesting."
+
+Galusha and Miss Phipps regarded him gravely.  Both seemed a little
+troubled.  It was Martha who answered.
+
+"There isn't any real reason why you shouldn't go, if you want to,
+Mr. Cabot," she said.  "There is only one thing--only one reason
+why I didn't say yes right away.  I guess Mr. Bangs knows that
+reason and feels the same as I do about it.  Don't you, Mr. Bangs?"
+
+Galusha nodded.
+
+"You see," went on Miss Phipps, "Cap'n Hallett is kind of--well,
+queer in some ways, but he has been, in his day, a good deal of a
+man.  And his daughter is a lovely girl and I think the world of
+her.  I wouldn't want to hurt their feelings.  If they should see
+you laugh--well, you understand--"
+
+Cousin Gussie nodded.
+
+"Don't say any more, Miss Phipps," he replied.  "It is quite all
+right.  I'll stay in your home here and be perfectly happy."
+
+"But you didn't wait for me to finish.  I was goin' to say that if
+you should laugh you must manage not to let any one hear you;
+especially Cap'n Jeth.  Lulie has lots of common sense; she
+wouldn't mind except for the effect on her father, and she realizes
+how funny it is.  But her father doesn't and--and he is pretty
+close to the breakin' point sometimes.  So save up your laughs
+until we get back, please."
+
+"You seem to take it for granted that I shall feel like laughing.
+Perhaps I sha'n't.  I only suggested my attending this affair
+because I thought it would be a novelty to me."
+
+"Yes, yes, of course.  Well, it will be a novelty, I guess likely,
+and a pretty novel novelty, too.  But there's one thing more, Mr.
+Cabot, that I want you to promise me.  Don't you dare take that
+crowd at that seance as a fair sample of Wellmouth folks, because
+they're not."
+
+"Why, Miss Phipps--"
+
+"Because they're not.  Every town and every neighborhood, city or
+country, has its freaks and every freak within five miles will be
+over in that lighthouse parlor to-night.  Just take 'em for freaks,
+that's all, but DON'T take 'em for samples of our people down
+here."  She paused, and then added, with an apologetic laugh, "I
+guess you think I am pretty peppery on the subject.  Well, I get
+that way at times, particularly just after the summer is over and
+the city crowd has been here lookin' for 'characters.'  If you
+could see some of the specimens who come over from the hotel, see
+the way they dress and act and speak!  'Oh,' one creature said to
+me; 'oh, Miss Phipps,' she gushed, 'I am just dyin' to meet some of
+your dear, funny, odd, quaint characters.  Where can I find them?'
+'Well,' said I, 'I think I should try the Inn, if I were you.
+There are funnier characters there than anywhere else I know.'  Of
+course, I knew she was at the Inn herself, but that didn't make it
+any the less true. . . .  There!  I've preached my sermon.  Now,
+Mr. Cabot, we'll go into the sittin' room and let Primmie clear off
+the table.  Zach Bloomer--he's the assistant light keeper--is
+comin' to tell us when it's time to go to the seance."
+
+In the sitting room they talked of various things.  Galusha,
+listening to his cousin's stories and jokes, had almost forgotten
+his powder barrel.  And then, all at once, a spark fell, flashed,
+and the danger became imminent.
+
+Said the banker, addressing Martha and referring to her lodger:
+"What does this cousin of mine find to do down here, Miss Phipps?
+How does he manage to spend so much money?"
+
+"Money?" repeated Martha.  "He--spend money?  Why, I didn't know
+that he did, Mr. Cabot.  He is very prompt in paying his board.
+Perhaps I charge him too much.  Is that what you mean?"
+
+"I guess not.  He hasn't paid you thirteen thousand dollars for
+board, has he?"
+
+"Thirteen thousand dollars!  Well, I guess not--scarcely.  What are
+you talkin' about, Mr. Cabot?  What is the joke?"
+
+"I don't know.  That's one of the things which, now that I am down
+here, I should like to find out.  Somehow or other, since he has
+been on the Cape, he has managed to get rid of over thirteen
+thousand dollars.  He SAYS he has given it to some of his mummy-
+hunting friends, but I am rather suspicious.  He hasn't been
+organizing a clam trust, has he, Miss Phipps?"
+
+Plainly, Martha did not know what to make of this speech.  It was a
+joke, of course, but just where the point of the joke was located
+she was not sure.  To her, thirteen thousand dollars was an
+enormous sum.  The idea that her lodger, gentle, retiring little
+Galusha Bangs, possessed a half of that fortune was a joke in
+itself.  But . . .  And then she saw Galusha's face and the
+expression upon it.
+
+"Why--why, Mr. Bangs!" she exclaimed.
+
+Cabot turned and he, too, saw the expression.  He burst out
+laughing.
+
+"See!" he cried.  "Doesn't he look guilty?  It IS a clam trust,
+Miss Phipps.  By Jove, Loosh, you are discovered!  Galusha Bangs,
+the Clam King!  Ha, ha, ha!  Look at him, Miss Phipps!  Look at
+him!  Did you ever see a plainer case of conscious guilt?  Ha, ha!"
+
+He was enjoying himself hugely.  And really Galusha was a humorous
+spectacle.  He was very red in the face, he was trembling, and he
+appeared to be struggling for words and finding none.
+
+"I--I insist," he stammered.  "I--I mean I protest.  It is
+ridiculous--ah--ah--absurd!  I--I--"
+
+His cousin broke in upon him.  "Ha, ha!" he cried.  "The secret is
+out.  And you gave me to understand the mummy-hunters had it.  Oh,
+Galusha!"
+
+Galusha made another attempt.
+
+"I--I told you--" he faltered.  "I--I told you--"
+
+"You told me it had gone to Egypt.  But I was suspicious, old man.
+Why, Miss Phipps, isn't it glorious?  Look at him!"
+
+Martha was looking.  Her face wore a puzzled expression.
+
+"Isn't it glorious?" repeated Cousin Gussie.
+
+She shrugged.  "I suppose it is," she said.  "Maybe it would be
+more so if I knew what it was all about.  And Mr. Bangs doesn't
+look as if he found much glory in it."
+
+"Of course he doesn't.  Serves him right, the rascal.  You see,
+Miss Phipps, I am supposed to take care of his money for him, and,
+while I was away in the mountains, my secretary sent him a check
+for over fourteen thousand dollars, sent it to him by mistake.  _I_
+never should have done it, of course.  I know him of old, where
+money is concerned.  Well, almost immediately after receiving the
+check, up he comes to our Boston office and--"
+
+"Cousin Gussie!  I--I protest!  I--"
+
+"Up he comes, Miss Phipps, and draws five thousand of the fourteen
+thousand in cash, in money, and takes it away with him.  Then--"
+
+"Cousin Gussie!  Mr. Cabot!"
+
+The tone in which Galusha spoke was so different from his usual
+one, and the fact of his addressing his relative as "Mr. Cabot" so
+astonishing, that the latter was obliged to stop even in the full
+tide of his enjoyment of the joke.  He turned, to find Galusha
+leaning forward, one hand upon the center table, and the other
+extending a forefinger in his direction.  The finger shook a
+little, but its owner's countenance was set like a rock.  And now
+it was not crimson, but white.
+
+"Mr. Cabot," said Galusha, "I must insist that you say no more on
+this matter.  My personal business is--ah--presumably my own.  I--I
+must insist.  Insist--ah--absolutely; yes."
+
+His cousin looked at him and he returned the look.  Cabot's
+hesitation was but momentary.  His astonishment was vast, but he
+accepted the situation gracefully.  He laughed no more.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Galusha," he said.  "I'm sorry.  I had no
+thought of offending you, old man.  I--well, perhaps I am inclined
+to joke too freely.  But, really, I didn't suppose--I never knew
+you to be--"
+
+He paused.  Galusha's expression did not change; he said nothing.
+
+"I am very sorry," went on the banker.  "It was only thoughtlessness
+on my part.  You'll forgive me, Loosh, I hope."
+
+Galusha bowed, but he did not smile.  A little of the color came
+back to his cheeks.
+
+"Ah--ah--  Yes, certainly," he stammered.  "Certainly, quite so."
+
+He sat down in his chair again, but he did not look in Miss Phipps'
+direction.  He seemed to know that she was regarding him with a
+fixed and startled intentness.
+
+"Five thousand dollars!" she said, in a low tone.  Neither of the
+men appeared to hear her.  Cabot, too, sat down.  And it was he
+who, plainly seeking for a subject to relieve the tension, spoke
+next.
+
+"I was telling my cousin," he said, addressing Martha, "that I came
+down here to attend to a little matter of business.  The business
+wasn't my own exactly, but it was a commission from a friend and
+client of mine and he left it in my charge.  He and I supposed we
+had an agent here in your town, Miss Phipps, who was attending to
+it for us, but of late he hasn't been very successful.  I received
+a letter from Williams--from my friend; he is in the South--asking
+me to see if I couldn't hurry matters up a bit.  So I motored down.
+But this agent of ours was not in.  Probably you know him.  His
+name is Pulcifer."
+
+Martha and Galusha started simultaneously.
+
+"Pulcifer?" queried Martha.  "Raish Pulcifer, do you mean?"
+
+"It doesn't seem to me that his Christian name is--  What did you
+say, Miss Phipps?"
+
+"I said 'Raish'; that's what every one down here calls the man I
+mean.  His real name, of course, is Horatio."
+
+"Horatio?  That sounds more like it.  I didn't hire him--Williams
+did that--and I have never met him, although he and Thomas, my
+secretary, have had some correspondence.  Wait a moment, I have his
+name here."
+
+He took from his pocket a memorandum book and turned over the
+leaves.
+
+"Yes," he said, "that's it.  Horatio Pulcifer.  Here is his card.
+'Horatio Pulcifer, Dealer in Real Estate of All Kinds; Cranberry
+Bog Property Bought and Sold; Mortgages Arranged For; Fire, Life
+and Accident Insurance; Money Loaned; Claims Adjusted; Real or
+Household Goods Auctioned Off or Sold Private; etc., etc.' Humph!
+Comprehensive person, isn't he?  Is this the fellow you know, Miss
+Phipps?"
+
+Martha nodded.  "Yes," she said, "I know him."
+
+Cabot glanced at her.  "I see," he observed.  "Well, what sort of a
+character is he?  Would you trust him?"
+
+She hesitated.  "Why--why," she replied, "I suppose I should, if--
+if--"
+
+"If he was not too far away, or around the corner, or anything like
+that?  I understand."
+
+Martha was a bit disturbed.  "You mustn't put words in my mouth,
+Mr. Cabot," she said.  "I didn't say Raish Pulcifer was dishonest."
+
+"No, that is true.  And I beg your pardon for asking embarrassing
+questions.  I have seen some of the fellow's letters and usually a
+letter is a fairly good indication of character--or lack of it.  I
+have had my surmises concerning the ubiquitous Horatio for some
+time."
+
+Martha seemed to be thinking.
+
+"I understood you to say he was your agent for somethin' down here,
+Mr. Cabot," she said.  "Sellin' somethin', was he?  That kind of an
+agent?"
+
+"No.  As a matter of fact, he was supposed to be buying something,
+but he hasn't made much progress.  He started out well, but of late
+he seems to have found trouble.  I am rather surprised because we--
+that is, Williams--pay him a liberal commission.  I judge he
+doesn't hate a dollar and that kind of man usually goes after it
+hammer and tongs.  You see--  But there, I presume I should not go
+into particulars, not yet."
+
+"No, no, Mr. Cabot.  Of course not, of course not."
+
+"No."  Cabot had been turning over the leaves of the memorandum
+book while speaking.  "And yet," he went on, "there are one or two
+names here concerning which you might be able to help us.  Pulcifer
+writes that two of the largest stockholders. . . .  Humph! . . .
+Eh?  Why, by Jove, this is remarkable!  You are Miss Martha Phipps,
+aren't you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Was your father, by any chance, James H. Phipps?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, I declare!  This IS remarkable. . . .  And--why, you have
+been speaking of a Captain--er--Jethro Somebody?  Is he--  He isn't
+Jethro Hallett, is he?"
+
+"Why, yes.  I told you his name.  He is the light keeper here at
+Gould's Bluffs and we are all goin' over to his house in a few
+minutes, for the seance, you know."
+
+"Well, well, well!  And here I have been sitting and talking with
+one of the very persons whom I came down here hoping to see."
+
+"To see?  You came down here hopin' to see ME?  Mr. Cabot, is this
+another joke?"
+
+"Not a bit of it.  If it is, the joke is on me for not identifying
+you with the Martha Phipps that Pulcifer writes he can't do
+business with.  Miss Phipps, you own something we want to buy."
+
+"I?  Somethin' you want to buy?"
+
+"Yes.  Williams wants to buy it and I am interested with him.  Miss
+Phipps, you own two hundred and fifty shares of the stock of the
+Wellmouth Development Company, don't you?"
+
+He must have been surprised at the effect of this question.  Martha
+stared at him.  Then, without speaking, she turned and looked past
+him at Galusha Bangs.  She looked so long and so steadily that
+Cabot also turned and looked.  What he saw caused him to utter an
+exclamation.
+
+"For heaven's sakes, Loosh!" he exclaimed.
+
+His cousin, as white as the proverbial sheet, which means much
+whiter than some sheets, Elmer Rogers', for example, was slowly
+rising from his chair.  One hand was pressed against his forehead
+and he looked as if he were dazed, stunned, suffering from a
+stroke.  As a matter of fact, he was suffering from all three.  The
+spark had at last reached the powder and the barrel was in the very
+act of disintegrating.
+
+"Galusha," demanded Cousin Gussie, "are you sick?  What is it?"
+
+Galusha did not answer.  Before the alarmed banker could repeat his
+question there came a knock at the door.
+
+"Miss Martha," called Primmie, in tremulous excitement.  "Miss
+Martha, Zach he's come and he says the seance is just a-goin' to
+begin and Cap'n Jeth says to hurry right straight over.  Zach says
+the old man is as tittered up and nervous as ever he see him and
+'twon't do to keep him waitin' a minute.  My savin' soul, no!  Zach
+says for all hands to heave right straight ahead and come."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+In the melodramas, the sort which most people laugh at as "old-
+fashioned" and enjoy thoroughly, there is usually a scene in which
+the hero, or the heroine, or both, are about to be drowned in the
+sinking ship or roasted in the loft of the burning building, or
+butchered by the attacking savages, or executed by the villain and
+his agents.  The audience enjoys some delightful thrills while
+watching this situation--whichever it may be--develop, but is
+spared any acute anxiety, knowing from experience that just at the
+last moment the rescuing boat, or the heroic firemen, or the
+troops, or a reprieve from the Governor, will arrive and save the
+leading man or woman and the play from a premature end and for
+another act.
+
+It does not happen as often in real life, at least one cannot count
+upon it with the certainty of the theater.  But when Miss Primrose
+Cash knocked upon the door of the Phipps' sitting room and
+delivered her call to the seance, she was as opportune and nick-of-
+timey as was ever a dramatic Governor's messenger.  Certainly that
+summons of hers was to Galusha Bangs a reprieve which saved him
+from instant destruction.
+
+Cousin Gussie, who had been on the point of repeating his demand to
+know if his relative was ill, turned instead to look toward the
+door.  Martha, whose gaze had been fixed upon her lodger with an
+intentness which indicated at least the dawning of a suspicion,
+turned to look in the same direction.  Galusha, left poised upon
+the very apex of the explosion, awaited the moment when the
+fragments, of which he was one, should begin to fall.
+
+But they did not fall--then.  Primmie gave them no opportunity to
+do so.
+
+"Miss Martha," she cried, "Miss Martha, do you hear me?  Zach--he
+says--"
+
+Her mistress answered.  "Yes, yes, Primmie," she said, "I hear
+you."  Then, turning again toward the banker and his relative, she
+said, "Mr. Cabot, I--did I understand you to say--?"
+
+"Miss Martha!"  The voice outside the door was more insistent than
+ever.  "Miss Martha, Zach he says we've all hands got to come right
+straight off, 'cause if we don't there'll be hell to pay. . . .  My
+savin' soul, I never meant to say that, Miss Martha!  Zach, he said
+it, but _I_ never meant to.  I--I--  Oh, my Lord of Isrul!   I--I--
+oh, Miss Martha!"
+
+Further wails of the frightened and repentant one were lost in an
+ecstatic shout of laughter from Mr. Cabot.  Martha slowly shook her
+head.
+
+"Well," she observed, dryly, "I guess likely we'd better go, hadn't
+we?  If it is as bad as all that I should say we had, sure and
+certain.  Primmie Cash, I'm ashamed of you.  Mr. Cabot, we'll
+finish our talk when we come back.  What under the sun you can
+possibly mean I declare I don't understand. . . .  But, there, it
+will keep.  Come, Mr. Bangs."
+
+She led the way from the sitting room.  Cabot followed her and,
+staggering slightly and with a hand still pressed to his forehead,
+Galusha followed them.  He was saved for the time, he realized
+that, but for such a very short time.  For an hour or two he was to
+hang in the air and then would come the inevitable crash.  When
+they returned home, after the seance was over, Martha would
+question Cousin Gussie, Cousin Gussie would answer, then he would
+be questioned and--and the end would come.  Martha would know him
+for what he was.  As they emerged from the Phipps' door into the
+damp chill and blackness of that October evening, Galusha Bangs
+looked hopelessly up and down and for the first time in months
+yearned for Egypt, to be in Egypt, in Abyssinia, in the middle of
+the great Sahara--anywhere except where he was and where he was
+fated to be.
+
+The windows of the light keeper's cottage were ablaze as they drew
+near.  Overhead the great stream of radiance from the lantern in
+the tower shot far out.  There was almost no wind, and the grumble
+of the surf at the foot of the bluff was a steady bass monotone.
+
+Zacheus, who had waited to walk over with them, was in a fault-
+finding state of mind.  It developed that he could not attend the
+meeting in the parlor; his superior had ordered that he "tend
+light."
+
+"The old man says I hadn't no business comin' to the other sea-ants
+thing," said Zach.  "Says him and me ain't both supposed never to
+leave the light alone.  I cal'late he's right, but that don't make
+it any better.  There's a whole lot of things that's right that
+hadn't ought to be.  I presume likely it's right enough for you to
+play that mouth organ of yours, Posy.  They ain't passed no law
+against it yet.  But--"
+
+"Oh, be still, Zach Bloomer!  You're always talkin' about my
+playin' the mouth organ.  I notice you can't play anything, no, nor
+sing neither."
+
+"You're right, Pansy Blossom.  But the difference between you and
+me is that I know I can't. . . .  Hey?  Why, yes, Martha, I
+shouldn't be a bit surprised if the fog came in any time.  If it
+does that means I've got to tend foghorn as well as light.
+Godfreys!"
+
+Before they opened the side door of the Hallett home, the buzz of
+voices in the parlor was distinctly audible.  Lulie heard the door
+open and met them in the dining room.  She was looking anxious and
+disturbed.  Martha drew her aside and questioned her concerning her
+father.  Lulie glanced toward the parlor door and then whispered:
+
+"I don't know, Martha.  Father seems queer to-night, awfully queer.
+I can't make him out."
+
+"Queer?  In what way?  He is always nervous and worked up before
+these silly affairs, isn't he?"
+
+"Yes, but I don't mean that, exactly.  He has been that way for
+over a week.  But for the last two days he has been--well,
+different.  He seems to be troubled and--and suspicious."
+
+"Suspicious?  Suspicious of what?"
+
+"I don't know.  Of every one."
+
+"Humph!  Well, if he would only begin to get suspicious of Marietta
+and her spirit chasers I should feel like givin' three cheers.  But
+I suppose those are exactly the ones he isn't suspicious of."
+
+Lulie again glanced toward the parlor door.
+
+"I am not so sure," she said.  "It seemed to me that he wasn't as
+cordial to them as usual when they came to-night.  He keeps looking
+at Marietta and pulling his beard and scowling, the way he does
+when he is puzzled and troubled.  I'm not sure, but I think
+something came in the mail yesterday noon and another something
+again to-day which may be the cause of his acting so strangely.  I
+don't know what they were, he wouldn't answer when I asked him, but
+I saw him reading a good deal yesterday afternoon.  And then he
+came into the kitchen where I was, took the lid off the cookstove
+and put a bundle of printed pages on the fire.  I asked him what he
+was doing and he snapped at me that he was burning the words of
+Satan or something of that sort."
+
+"And couldn't you save enough of the--er--Old Scratch's words to
+find out what the old boy was talkin' about?"
+
+"No.  There was a hot fire.  But to-day, when the second package
+came, I caught a glimpse of the printing on the wrapper.  It was
+from The Psychical Research Society; I think that was it.  There is
+such a society, isn't there?"
+
+"I believe so.  I . . .  Ssh!  Careful, here he is."
+
+Captain Jethro strode across the parlor threshold.  He glared
+beneath his heavy eyebrows at the couple.
+
+"Lulie," he growled, "don't you know you're keepin' the meetin'
+waitin'?  You are, whether you know it or not.  Martha Phipps, come
+in and set down.  Come on, lively now!"
+
+Martha smiled.
+
+"Cap'n Jeth," she said, "you remind me of father callin' in the
+cat.  You must think you're aboard your old schooner givin' orders.
+All right, I'll obey 'em.  Ay, ay, sir!  Come, Lulie."
+
+They entered the parlor, whither Galusha, Mr. Cabot and Primmie had
+preceded them and were already seated.  The group in the room was
+made up about as on the occasion of the former seance, but it was a
+trifle larger.  The tales of the excitement on the evening when the
+light keeper threatened to locate and destroy the "small, dark
+outsider" had spread and had attracted a few additional and hopeful
+souls.  Mr. Obed Taylor, driver of the Trumet bake-cart, and a
+devout believer, had been drawn from his home village; Miss Tamson
+Black, her New Hampshire visit over, was seated in the front row;
+Erastus Beebe accompanied his sister Ophelia.  The Hardings, Abel
+and Sarah B., were present and accounted for, and so, too, was Mrs.
+Hannah Peters.
+
+Galusha Bangs, seated between Miss Cash and the immensely
+interested Cousin Gussie, gazed dully about the circle.  He saw
+little except a blur of faces; his thoughts were elsewhere, busy in
+dreadful anticipation of the scene he knew he must endure when he
+and his cousin and Miss Phipps returned to the house of the latter.
+He did not dare look in her direction, fearing to see once more
+upon her face the expression of suspicion which he had already seen
+dawning there--suspicion of him, Galusha Bangs.  He sighed, and the
+sigh was so near a groan that his relative was startled.
+
+"What's the matter, Galusha?" he whispered.  "Brace up, old man!
+you look as if you were seeing spooks already.  Not sick--faint, or
+anything like that?"
+
+Galusha blushed.  "Eh?" he queried.  "Oh--oh, no, no.  Quite so,
+really.  Eh?  Ah--yes."
+
+Cabot chuckled.  "That's a comprehensive answer, at any rate," he
+observed.  "Come now, be my Who's-Who.  For example, what is the
+name of the female under the hat like a--a steamer basket?"
+
+Galusha looked.  "That is Miss Hoag, the--ah--medium," he said.
+
+"Oh, I see.  Did the spirits build that hat for her?"
+
+Miss Hoag's headgear was intrinsically the same she had worn at the
+former seance, although the arrangement of the fruit, flowers,
+sprays and other accessories was a trifle different.  The red
+cherries, for example, no longer bobbed at the peak of the roof;
+they now hung jauntily from the rear eaves, so to speak.  The
+purple grapes had also moved and peeped coyly from a thicket of
+moth-eaten rosebuds.  The wearer of this revamped millinery triumph
+seemed a bit nervous, even anxious, so it seemed to Martha Phipps,
+who, like Cabot and Galusha, was looking at her.  Marietta kept
+hitching in her seat, pulling at her gown, and glancing from time
+to time at the gloomy countenance of Captain Jethro, who, Miss
+Phipps also noticed, was regarding her steadily and slowly pulling
+at his beard.  This regard seemed to add to Miss Hoag's uneasiness.
+
+The majority of those present were staring at the senior partner of
+Cabot, Bancroft and Cabot.  The object of the attention could not
+help becoming aware of it.
+
+"What are they all looking at me for?" he demanded, under his
+breath.
+
+Galusha did not hear the question, but Primmie did, and answered
+it.
+
+"They don't know who you be," she whispered.
+
+"What of it?  I don't know who they are, either."
+
+Miss Cash sniffed.  "Humph!" she declared, "you wouldn't know much
+worth knowin' if you did--the heft of 'em. . . .  Oh, my savin'
+soul, it's a-goin' to begin!  Where's my mouth organ?"
+
+But, to her huge disappointment, her services as mouth organist
+were not to be requisitioned this time.  Captain Hallett, taking
+charge of the gathering, made an announcement.
+
+"The melodeon's been fixed," he said, "and Miss Black's kind enough
+to say she'll play it for us.  Take your places, all hands.  Come
+on, now, look alive!  Tut, tut, tut!  Abe Hardin', for heaven's
+sakes, can't you pick up your moorin's, or what does ail you?  Come
+to anchor!  Set down!"
+
+Mr. Harding was, apparently, having trouble in sitting down.  He
+made several nervous and hurried attempts, but none was successful.
+His wife begged, in one of her stage whispers, to be informed if
+he'd been "struck deef."  "Don't you hear the cap'n talkin' to
+you?" she demanded.
+
+"Course I hear him," retorted her husband, testily, and in the same
+comprehensively audible whisper.  "No, I ain't been struck deef--
+nor dumb neither."
+
+"Humph!  You couldn't be struck any dumber than you are.  You was
+born dumb.  Set DOWN!  Everybody's lookin' at you.  I never was so
+mortified in my life."
+
+The harassed Abel made one more attempt.  He battled savagely with
+his chair.
+
+"I CAN'T set down," he said.  "This everlastin' chair won't set
+even.  I snum I believe it ain't got but three laigs.  There!  Now
+let's see."
+
+He seated himself heavily and with emphasis.  Mr. Jim Fletcher,
+whose place was next him, uttered an agonized "Ow!"
+
+"No wonder 'twon't set even, Abe," he snorted.  "You've got the
+other laig up onto my foot.  Yus, and it's drove half down through
+it by this time.  Get UP!  Whew!"
+
+A ripple of merriment ran around the circle.  Every one laughed or
+ventured to smile, every one except the Hardings and Captain
+Hallett and, of course, Galusha Bangs.  The latter's thoughts were
+not in the light keeper's parlor.  Cousin Gussie leaned over and
+whispered in his ear:
+
+"Loosh," whispered Mr. Cabot, chokingly, "if the rest of this stunt
+is as good as the beginning I'll forgive you for handing that
+fourteen thousand to the mummy-hunters.  I wouldn't have missed it
+for more than that."
+
+Captain Jethro, beating the table, drove his guests to order as of
+old he had driven his crews.  Having obtained silence and
+expressed, in a few stinging words, his opinion of those who
+laughed, he proceeded with his arrangements.
+
+"Tamson," he commanded, addressing Miss Black, "go and set there by
+the organ.  Come, Marietta, you know where your place is, don't
+you?  Set right where you did last time.  And don't let's have any
+more mockery!" he thundered, addressing the company in general.
+"If I thought for a minute there was any mockery or make-believe in
+these meetin's, I--I--"  He paused, his chest heaving, and then
+added, impatiently, but in a milder tone, "Well, go on, go on!
+What are we waitin' for?  Douse those lights, somebody."
+
+Miss Hoag--who had been glancing at the light keeper's face and
+behaving in the same oddly nervous, almost apprehensive manner
+which Martha had noticed when she entered the parlor--took her seat
+in the official chair and closed her eyes.  Mr. Beebe turned down
+the lamps.  The ancient melodeon, recently prescribed for and
+operated upon by the repairer from Hyannis, but still rheumatic and
+asthmatic, burst forth in an unhealthy rendition of a Moody and
+Sankey hymn.  The seance for which Galusha Bangs had laid plans and
+to which he had looked forward hopefully if a little fearfully--
+that seance was under way.  And now, such was the stunning effect
+of the most recent blow dealt him by Fate, he, Galusha, was
+scarcely aware of the fact.
+
+The melodeon pumped on and on.  The rustlings and shiftings in the
+circle subsided and the expectant and shivery hush which Primmie
+feared and adored succeeded it.  Miss Black wailed away at the
+Moody and Sankey selection.  Miss Hoag's breathing became puffy.
+She uttered her first preliminary groan.  Cousin Gussie, being an
+unsophisticated stranger, was startled, as Mr. Bangs had been at
+the former seance, but Primmie's whisper reassured him.
+
+"It's all right," whispered Primmie.  "She ain't sick nor nothin'.
+She's just a-slippin' off."
+
+The banker did not understand.
+
+"Slipping off?" he repeated.  "Off what?"
+
+"Off into sperit land.  In a minute you'll hear her control talkin'
+Chinee talk. . . .  There!  My savin' soul! hear it? . . .  Ain't
+it awful!"
+
+"Little Cherry Blossom" had evidently been waiting at the
+transmitter.  The husky croak which had so amazed Galusha was again
+heard.
+
+"How do?  How do, everybodee?" hailed Little Cherry Blossom.  "I
+gladee see-ee you.  Yes, indeedee."
+
+Cabot made mental note of the fact that the Blossom spoke her
+spirit pidgin-English with a marked Down-East accent.  Before he
+had time to notice more, the control announced that she had a
+message.  The circle stirred in anticipation.  Primmie wiggled in
+fearful ecstasy.
+
+"Listen!" commanded Little Cherry Blossom.  "Everybodee harkee.
+Spirit comee heree.  He say-ee--"
+
+"Ow-ooo-ooo--ooo--OOO!!"
+
+As prophesied by Mr. Zacheus Bloomer, the fog had come in and
+Zacheus, faithful to his duties as associate guardian of that
+section of the coast, had turned loose the great foghorn.
+
+The roar was terrific.  The windows rattled and the whole building
+seemed to shake.  The effect upon the group in the parlor, leaning
+forward in awed expectation to catch the message from beyond, was
+upsetting, literally and figuratively.  Miss Tamson Black, perched
+upon the slippery cushion of a rickety and unstable music stool,
+slid to the floor with a most unspiritual thump and a shrill
+squeal.  Primmie clutched her next-door neighbor--it chanced to be
+Mr. Augustus Cabot--by the middle of the waistcoat, and hers was no
+light clutch.  Mr. Abel Harding shouted several words at the top of
+his lungs; afterward there was some dispute as to just what the
+exact words were, but none whatever as to their lack of propriety.
+Almost every one jumped or screamed or exclaimed.  Only Captain
+Jeth Hallett, who had heard that horn many, many times, was quite
+unmoved.  Even his daughter was startled.
+
+But perhaps the most surprising effect of the mammoth "toot" was
+that which it produced in the spirit world.  It seemed to blow
+Little Cherry Blossom completely back to her own sphere, for it was
+a voice neither Chinese nor ethereal which, coming from Miss Hoag's
+lips, shrieked wildly:  "Oh, my good land of love!  Wh--what's
+that?"
+
+It was only after considerable pounding of the table and repeated
+orders for silence that Captain Jethro succeeded in obtaining it.
+Then he explained concerning the foghorn.
+
+"It'll blow every minute from now on, I presume likely," he
+growled, "but I don't see as that need to make any difference about
+our goin' on with this meetin'.  That is, unless Marietta minds.
+Think 'twill bother you about gettin' back into the trance state,
+Marietta?"
+
+Erastus Beebe had turned up one of the lamps and it happened to be
+the one just above Miss Hoag's head.  By its light Martha Phipps
+could see the medium's face, and it seemed to her--although, as she
+admitted afterward, perhaps because of subsequent happenings she
+only imagined that it seemed so--it seemed to her that Marietta was
+torn between an intense desire to give up mediumizing for that
+evening and a feeling that she must go on.
+
+"She looked to me," said Martha, "as if she was afraid to go on,
+but more afraid to stop."
+
+However, go on she did.  She told the light keeper that she guessed
+she could get back if Tamson would play a little spell more.  Miss
+Black agreed to do so, provided she might have a chair instead of a
+music stool.
+
+"I wouldn't risk settin' on that plaguy, slippery haircloth thing
+again for no mortal soul," declared the irate Tamson, meaning,
+doubtless, to include immortals.  A chair was provided, again the
+lights were dimmed, and the seance resumed, punctuated now at
+minute intervals by the shattering bellows of the great foghorn.
+
+In a few minutes the messages began to arrive.  They were of
+similar vague import to those of the previous seance and, couched
+in Little Cherry Blossom's weird gibberish, were vaguer still.
+Occasionally a spirit seeking identification went away unrecognized,
+but not often.  For the most part the identifying details supplied
+were so general that they were almost certain to fit a departed
+relative or friend of some one present.  And, as is usual under such
+circumstances, the would-be recognizer was so pathetically eager to
+recognize.  Even Galusha, dully inert as he was just then, again
+felt his indignation stirred by the shabby mockery of it all.
+
+Obed Taylor received a message from his brother Daniel who had died
+in infancy.  Daniel declared himself very happy.  So, too, did
+Ophelia Beebe's great-aunt Samona, who had "passed over" some time
+in the 'fifties.  Aunt Samona was joyful--oh, so joyful.  Miss
+Black's name was called.
+
+"Tamson!" croaked Little Cherry Blossom.  "Some one heree wantee
+Tamson."
+
+Miss Black uttered an exclamation of startled surprise.  "Good
+gracious me!" she cried.  "Who is it?"
+
+"Namee seem likee--likee Flora--Flora--somethin'," announced the
+control.  The circle rustled in anticipation while Tamson ransacked
+her memory.
+
+"Flora?" she repeated.  "Flora?"
+
+"Yes--yes.  Flora--ah--ah--somethin'.  Somethin'--soundee likee
+somethin' you ring."
+
+"Somethin' I RING.  Why, all a body rings is a bell.  Hey?  My
+heavens above, you don't mean Florabel?  That ain't the name, is
+it--Florabel?"
+
+"Yes--yes--yes--yes."  Little Cherry Blossom was eagerly certain
+that that was the name.
+
+"Mercy on us!  Florabel?  You don't mean you've got a message from
+my niece Florabel Tidditt, do you?"
+
+"Yes--yes--yes--oh, yes!"  The control was just as certain that
+niece Florabel was on the wire.
+
+"I don't believe a word of it."
+
+This unusual manner of receiving a message shocked the devout.  A
+murmur of protest arose.
+
+"Now, now, now, Tamson," remonstrated Miss Beebe.  "You mustn't
+talk so.  Course you believe it if the control says so."
+
+"I don't neither.  Florabel Tidditt ain't dead.  She's as well as I
+be.  I had a letter from her yesterday."
+
+There was considerable agitation for a few minutes.  Then it
+developed that the Florabel seeking to communicate was not Miss
+Tidditt, but another, a relative so long gone that Tamson had
+forgotten she ever existed.  At length she was brought to the point
+of admitting that it seemed as if she had heard of a cousin of her
+grandmother's named Florabel or Annabel or something.  The message
+was not very coherent nor particularly interesting, so the incident
+ended.
+
+A short time later came the sensation which was to make the evening
+memorable in East Wellmouth's spiritualistic circles.  Little
+Cherry Blossom called the name which many had expected and some,
+Lulie Hallett and Martha Phipps in particular, dreaded to hear.
+
+"Jethro!" croaked the Blossom.  "Jethro!"
+
+Captain Hallett had been very quiet, particularly since the
+Florabel message was tangled in transit.  Martha could see his
+shaggy head in silhouette against the dim light of the lamp and had
+noticed that that head scarcely moved.  The light keeper seemed to
+be watching the medium very intently.  Now he spoke.
+
+"Yes?" he said, as if awakened from sleep.  "Yes, here I am.  What
+is it?"
+
+"Jethro," cried the control once more.  "Jethro, somebodee come
+speakee to you. . . .  Julia!  Julia!"
+
+Captain Jethro rose from his chair.  The loved name had as always
+an instant effect.  His heavy voice shook as he answered.
+
+"Yes, yes, Julia," he cried.  "Here I am, Julia, waitin'--waitin'."
+
+It was pathetic, pitiful.  One listener in that circle felt, in
+spite of his own misery, a pang of remorse and a little dread.
+After all, perhaps it would have been better to--
+
+"Julia," cried the light keeper.  "Speak to me.  I'm waitin'."
+
+The foghorn boomed just here, but even after the sound had subdued
+Little Cherry Blossom seemed to find it difficult to proceed.  She--
+or the medium--choked, swallowed, and then said:
+
+"Julia got message.  Yes, indeedee.  Important message, she sayee,
+for Jethro.  Jethro must do what she sayee."
+
+The captain's big head nodded vigorously.  Martha could see it
+move, a tousled shadow against the light.
+
+"Yes, yes, Julia, of course," he said.  "I always do what you say.
+You know I do.  Go on."
+
+"Father!"  It was Lulie's voice, raised in anxious protest.
+"Father, please."
+
+Her father sharply ordered her to be quiet.
+
+"Go on, Julia," he persisted.  "Tell me what you want me to do."
+
+Again Little Cherry Blossom seemed to have difficulty in
+articulating.  There was a quaver in her voice when she did speak.
+
+"Julia say," she faltered; "Julia sayee 'Jethro, you sell R.P.'"
+
+This was unexpected.  It was not at all the message the group of
+listeners, with one exception, had anticipated.  There was no hint
+of Nelson Howard here.  They did not know what to make of it.  Nor,
+it was evident, did Jethro Hallett.
+
+"What?" he demanded.  "What, Julia?  I don't understand."
+
+Little Cherry Blossom cleared her--or the medium's--throat and
+falteringly went on.
+
+"Julia sayee 'Jethro, you sell R. P. what you got.'  Sellee him
+what you got, what he want buyee.  You know.  You sellee R. P. the
+stock."
+
+But still it was clear that Captain Jeth did not understand.
+
+"Sell R. P.?" he repeated.  "R. P.  Who's R. P.?  And what . . .
+Eh?  Do you mean--"
+
+He paused.  When he next spoke his tone was quite different.  There
+was a deeper note in it, almost a note of menace.
+
+"R. P.?" he said again.  "Does 'R. P.' mean--is that supposed to
+stand for Horatio Pulcifer?  Eh?  Does 'R. P.' mean Raish
+Pulcifer?"
+
+The control did not reply instantly.  The light keeper pressed his
+question.
+
+"Does it?" he demanded.
+
+"Yes . . . yes," stammered the Blossom.  "Yes, Julia say sellee
+Raish what he wantee buy."
+
+"Wantee BUY?  What have I got he wants to buy?"
+
+"Julia she sayee you know.  She say 'De--De--Develop stock.'
+That's it.  Yes, Develop stock.  She sayee you sell Raish Develop
+stock.  She sayee she wantee you to.  You do right then."
+
+The foghorn howled once more.  Captain Jethro was standing erect
+beside his chair.  When, at last, he did speak, his tone was still
+more tense and threatening.  Even the shallowest mind in that room--
+and, as Miss Phipps had said, practically every "crank" within ten
+miles was present--even the shallowest realized that something was
+impending, something ominous.
+
+"Do you mean to say," demanded Jethro Hallett, speaking very
+slowly, "that Julia's, my wife's spirit is tellin' me to sell my
+four hundred shares of Wellmouth Development stock to Raish
+Pulcifer?  Do you mean that SHE says that?"
+
+Little Cherry Blossom croaked twice, but the second croak was a
+feeble "Yes."
+
+"SHE says that?  Julia, my dead wife, tells me to do that?"
+
+"Yes.  Yes--yes--yes.  She say you sell Raish four hundred Develop
+stock and you be so gladee.  She be gladee, too.  She--"
+
+"STOP!"
+
+The light keeper's shout rang through the room.  "Stop!" he shouted
+again.  "You--you LIAR!"
+
+The word shot from beneath his teeth and, judging by the effect,
+might have hit almost every individual in the room.  There was
+absolute silence for just the briefest instant; then a chorus of
+faint screams, exclamations, startled and indignant protests.
+Above them all Primmie's call upon her Lord of Isrul sounded
+plainly.  Captain Jethro paid no heed.
+
+"You liar!" he roared again.  "Out of my house, you swindler!  You
+damned cheat!"
+
+This blast, delivered with the full force of the old skipper's
+quarter-deck voice, had the effect of completely upsetting the
+already tense nerves of the majority in the circle.  Two or three
+of the women began to cry.  Chairs were overturned.  There was a
+babel of cries and confusion.  The light keeper stilled it.
+
+"Be still, all hands!" he shouted.  "Turn up them lamps!  Turn 'em
+up!"
+
+Mr. Cabot, although himself somewhat startled and disturbed by the
+unexpected turn of events, was at least as cool as any one.  He
+reached over the prostrate heap at his feet--it was Ophelia Beebe
+hysterically repeating:  "He's gone crazy!  He's gone loony!  OH,
+my soul!  OH, my land!  WHAT'LL I do?" and the like--and turned up
+one of the lamps.  Obed Taylor did the same with the other.
+
+The sudden illumination revealed Captain Jethro, his face pale, his
+eyes flashing fire, holding the dumpy Miss Hoag fast in her chair
+with one hand and with the other brandished above her head like the
+hammer of Thor.  The audience, for the most part, were in various
+attitudes, indicating alarm and a desire to escape.  Mrs. Harding
+had a strangle hold on her husband's neck and was slowly but
+inevitably choking him to death; Mrs. Peters, as well as Miss
+Beebe, was on the floor; and Primmie Cash was bobbing up and down,
+flapping her hands and opening her mouth like a mechanical figure
+in a shop window.  Lulie and Martha Phipps, pale and frightened,
+were trying to force their way to the captain's side.  Galusha
+Bangs alone remained seated.
+
+The light keeper again commanded silence.
+
+"Look at her!" he cried, pointing his free hand at the cowering
+figure of the medium.  "LOOK at her!  The lyin' cheat!"
+
+Marietta was, in a way, worth looking at.  She had shrunk as far
+down in the chair as the captain's grip would permit, her usually
+red face was now as white as the full moon, which it resembled in
+some other ways, and she was, evidently, as Primmie said
+afterwards, "scart to death and some left over."
+
+Lulie called.
+
+"Father, father," she pleaded.  "Please--oh--please!"
+
+Her father paid no attention.  It was to Miss Hoag that he
+continued his attentions.
+
+"You miserable, swindlin' make-believe!" he growled, his voice
+shaking with emotion.  "You--you come here and--and pretend--  Oh,
+by The Almighty, if you was a man, if you wasn't the--the poor,
+pitiful fool that you be, I'd--I'd--"
+
+His daughter had reached his side.  "Father," she begged.  "Father,
+for my sake--"
+
+"Be still!  Be still, girl! . . .  Marietta Hoag, you answer me.
+Who put you up to tellin' me to sell that stock to Pulcifer?  Who
+did it?  Answer me?"
+
+Marietta tried, but she could do little but gurgle.  She gurgled,
+however, in her natural tones, or a frightened imitation of them.
+Little Cherry Blossom had, apparently, fluttered to the Chinese
+spiritland.
+
+"I--I--  Oh, my good land!" she wailed.
+
+"Answer!"
+
+"Father--father!" cried Lulie.  "Don't talk so!  Don't act so!"
+
+"Act so!  Be still!  Let me alone, Martha Phipps!  This woman here
+is a cheat.  She's a liar!  How do I KNOW?  DON'T ask such fool
+questions.  I know because--because she says my wife--Julia--my
+wife--tells me to sell my four hundred shares of Wellmouth
+Development stock--"
+
+"Yes, of course.  But, perhaps--"
+
+"There ain't any perhaps.  You, woman," addressing the cowering
+medium, "didn't you say that?"
+
+"Yes--oh, yes, Cap'n Jeth, I said it.  PLEASE don't!"
+
+"And you pretended my dead wife's spirit said it, didn't you?"
+
+"Yes.  Yes, she did.  Oh--oh--"
+
+"She did not!  Listen, all of you!" with scornful disgust.
+"Listen!  That four hundred shares of Development stock this--this
+critter here says Julia knows I've got and wants me to sell to
+Raish Pulcifer I SOLD two months ago.  Yes, by the everlastin', I
+sold 'em!  And--eh?  Yes, there he is.  I sold 'em to that Bangs
+man there.  He knows it.  He'll tell you I did. . . .  And now this
+swindler, this cheat, she--she--  Who put you up to it?  Who did?
+Was it Pulcifer?"
+
+Marietta began to sob.  "Ye-es, yes," she faltered.  "He--he said
+he--"
+
+"I thought so.  And you pretended 'twas my--my Julia, my wife. . . .
+Oh, my God!  And you've been pretendin' all the time.  'Twas all
+cheatin' and lies, wasn't it?  She--she never come to you.  She
+never told you nothin'.  Ain't it so?"
+
+Poor, publicity-loving, sensation-loving Marietta's nerve was
+completely gone.  She sobbed wildly.
+
+"Oh--oh, I guess so.  I--I guess likely 'twas," she wailed.  "I--I
+don't know.  I only--"
+
+Captain Jethro took his hand from her shoulder.  He staggered a
+little.
+
+"Get out of my house!" he ordered.  "Out of my house--all of you.
+You're all liars and cheats together. . . .  Oh, Julia!  Oh, my
+Lord above!"
+
+He collapsed in a chair and put his hands to his head.  Lulie, the
+tears streaming down her face, tried to comfort him.  Martha, also
+weeping, essayed to help.  Cabot, walking over to where his cousin
+was standing, laid a hand on his arm.  Galusha, pale and wan,
+looking as if the world had slipped from under him and he was left
+hanging in cold space, turned a haggard face in his direction.
+
+"Well, Loosh," said Cousin Gussie, dryly, "I think you and I had
+better go home, hadn't we?  This has been an interesting evening,
+an--ah--illuminating evening.  You appear to be the only person who
+can add to the illumination, and--well, don't you think it is time
+you did?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+Galusha did not answer.  He regarded his relative vacantly, opened
+his mouth, closed it, sighed and turned toward the dining room.  By
+this time most of the congregation were already in the yard and, as
+Cabot and his companion emerged into the dripping blackness of out-
+of-doors, from various parts of that blackness came the clatter of
+tongues and the sound of fervent ejaculations and expressions of
+amazement.
+
+"Well!  WELL!  Don't talk to ME!  If this don't beat all ever _I_
+see! . . ."  "I should say it did!  I was just sayin' to Sarah
+B., s' I, 'My soul and body,' s' I, 'if this ain't--'" . . .  "And
+what do you s'pose made him--"  "And when they turned up them
+lights and I see him standin' there jammin' her down into that
+chair and wavin' that big fist of his over top her head, thinks I,
+'Good-NIGHT!  He's goin' to hammer her right down through into the
+cellar, don't know's he ain't!'"
+
+These were a few fragments which Cousin Gussie caught as they
+pushed their way to the gate.  In one spot where a beam of light
+from the window faintly illuminated the wet, he glimpsed a flowered
+and fruited hat picturesquely draped over its wearer's ear while
+from beneath its lopsided elegance a tearful voice was heard
+hysterically demanding to be taken home.  "Take me home, 'Phelia.
+I--I--I . . .   Oh, take me home!  I--I--I've forgot my rubbers
+and--and I feel's if my hair was comin' off--down, I mean--but--oh,
+I don't CARE, take me HOME!"
+
+Galusha, apparently, heard and saw nothing of this.  He blundered
+straight on to the gate and thence along the road to the Phipps'
+cottage.  It seemed to Cabot that he found it by instinct, for the
+fog was so thick that even the lighted windows could not be seen
+further than a few yards.  But he did find it and, at last, the two
+men stood together in the little sitting room.  Then Cousin Gussie
+once more laid a hand on his relative's arm.
+
+"Well, Galusha," he said, again, "what about it?"
+
+Galusha heaved another sigh.  "Yes--ah--yes," he answered.  "Yes--
+ah--quite so."
+
+"Humph!  What is quite so?  I want to know about that stock of the
+Wellmouth Development Company."
+
+"Yes. . . .  Yes, certainly, I know."
+
+"That Captain--um--What's-his-name, the picturesque old lunatic
+with the whiskers--Hallett, I mean--made a statement that was, to
+say the least, surprising.  I presume he was crazy.  That was the
+most weird collection of insanity that I ever saw or heard.  Ha,
+ha!  Oh, dear! . . .  Well, never mind.  But what did old Hallett
+mean by saying he had sold YOU his four hundred shares of that
+stock?"
+
+Galusha closed his eyes.  He smiled sadly.
+
+"He meant that he had--ah--sold them to me," he answered.
+
+"LOOSH!"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Loosh, are you crazy, too?"
+
+"Very likely.  I often think I may be.  Yes, I bought the--ah--
+stock."
+
+"You bought the--  YOU?  Loosh, sit down."
+
+Mr. Bangs shook his head.  "No, Cousin Gussie," he said.  "If you
+don't mind I--I won't sit down.  I shall go to my room soon.  I
+bought Captain Hallett's stock.  I bought Miss Phipps', too."
+
+It was Cabot himself who sat down.  He stared, slowly shook his
+head, and then uttered a fervent, "Whew!"
+
+Galusha nodded.  "Yes," he observed.  "Ah--yes."
+
+"Loosh, do you know what you are saying?  Do you mean that you
+actually bought Hallett's four hundred shares and this woman's--?"
+
+"Miss Phipps is her name.  Miss Martha Phipps."
+
+"Yes, yes, of course.  And you bought . . .  Eh?  By Jove!  Is THAT
+what you did with that thirteen thousand dollars?"
+
+Again Galusha nodded.  "Yes," he said.
+
+Cousin Gussie whistled again.  "But why did you do it, Loosh?" he
+asked, after a moment.  "For heaven's sake, WHY?"
+
+Galusha did not answer immediately.  Then he said, slowly:  "If--if
+you don't mind, Cousin Gussie, I think I should tell HER that first.
+That is, I mean she should--ah--be here when I do tell it. . . .
+I--I think I will change my mind and sit down and wait until she
+comes. . . .  Perhaps.  you will wait, too--if you don't mind. . . .
+And, please--please don't think me rude if I do not--ah--talk.
+I do not feel--ah--conversational.  Dear me, no."
+
+He sat down.  Cabot stared at him, crossed his knees, and continued
+to stare.  Occasionally he shook his head, as if the riddle were
+proving too much for him.  Galusha did not move.  Neither man
+spoke.  The old clock ticked off the minutes.
+
+Primmie came home first.  "Miss Martha said to tell you she would
+be over in a few minutes," she announced.  "Cap'n Jeth, he's a-
+comin' around all right, so Miss Martha and Zach and them think.
+But, my savin' soul, how he does hang onto Lulie!  Keeps a-sayin'
+she's all he's got that's true and honest and--and all that sort of
+talk.  Give me the crawlin' creeps to hear him.  And after that
+seance thing, too!  When that everlastin' foghorn bust loose the
+first time, I cal'lated--"
+
+Galusha interrupted.  "Primmie," he suggested, gravely, "would you--
+will you be--ah--kind enough to go into the kitchen?"
+
+"Hey?  Go into the kitchen?  Course I will.  What do you want in
+the kitchen, Mr. Bangs?"
+
+He regarded her solemnly.  "I should like to have you there, if you
+don't mind," he observed.  "This gentleman and I are--we would
+prefer to be alone.  I'm very sorry, but you must excuse me this
+time and--ah--go."
+
+"Go?  You want me to go out and--and not stay here?"
+
+"Yes.  Yes--ah--quite so, Primmie.  Ah--good-night."
+
+Primmie departed, slamming the door and muttering indignation.
+Galusha sighed once more.  Then he relapsed into silence.
+
+Twenty minutes later Martha herself came in.  They heard her enter
+the dining room, then Primmie's voice in resentful explanation.
+When Miss Phipps did come into the sitting room, she was smiling
+slightly.
+
+"Primmie's heart is broken," she observed.  "Oh, don't worry, it
+isn't a very serious break.  She hasn't had so much to talk about
+for goodness knows when and yet nobody wants to listen to her.  I
+told her to tell Luce about it, but that didn't seem to soothe her
+much.  Luce is Lucy Larcom, Mr. Cabot," she explained.  "He is our
+cat."
+
+Cousin Gussie, already a much bewildered man, looked even more
+bewildered, but Martha did not observe his condition.  She turned
+to his companion.
+
+"Mr. Bangs," she said, "it's all right.  Or goin' to be all right,
+I'm sure.  Cap'n Jeth is takin' the whole thing a good deal better
+than I was afraid there at first.  He is dreadfully shaken, poor
+man, and he seems to feel as if the last plank had foundered from
+beneath him, as father used to say; but, if it doesn't have any
+worse effect than that, I shall declare the whole business a mercy
+and a miracle.  If it has the effect of curin' him of the Marietta
+Hoag kind of spiritualism--and it really looks like a cure--then it
+will be worth all the scare it gave us.  At first all he would say
+was that everything was a fraud and a cheat, that his faith had
+been taken away, there was nothin' left--nothin'.  But Lulie, bless
+her heart, was a brave girl and a dear one.  She said, 'I am left,
+father.  You've got me, you know.'  And he turned to her and clung
+to her as if she was his only real sheet anchor.  As, of course,
+she is, and would have been always if he hadn't gone adrift after
+Little Cherry Blossom and such rubbish.  Mr. Bangs, I--"
+
+She paused.  She looked first at Galusha and then at the Boston
+banker.  Her tone changed.
+
+"Why, what is it?" she asked, quickly.  "What is the matter? . . .
+Mr. Bangs--"
+
+Galusha had risen when she entered.  He was pale, but resolute.
+
+"Miss Phipps," he began, "I--I have been waiting to--to say
+something to you.  I--ah--yes, to say something.  Yes, Miss
+Phipps."
+
+It was the first time he had addressed her as "Miss Phipps" for
+many months.  He had, ever since she granted him permission and
+urged him to drop formality, addressed her as Miss Martha and
+seemed to take pride in that permission and to consider it an
+honor.  Now the very fact of his returning to the old manner was,
+although she did not yet realize it, an indication that he
+considered his right to her friendship forfeited.
+
+"Miss Phipps," he began once more, "I--I wish to make a confession,
+a humiliating confession.  I shall not ask you to forgive me.  I
+realize that what I have done is quite beyond pardon."
+
+He stopped again; the road was a hard one to travel.  Martha gazed
+at him, aghast and uncomprehending.  Cabot, understanding but
+little more, shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"For heaven's sake, old man," he exclaimed, "don't speak like that!
+You haven't committed murder, have you?"
+
+Galusha did not answer nor heed him.  It was to Martha Phipps he
+spoke and at her that he looked, as a guilty man in the prisoners'
+dock might regard the judge about to pronounce his death sentence.
+
+"Miss Phipps," he began, for the third time, "I have deceived you.
+I--I have lied to you, not only once but--ah--ah--a great many
+times.  I am quite unworthy of your respect--ah, quite."
+
+Martha's face expressed many things, absolute amazement predominant.
+
+"Why--why, Mr. Bangs!" she gasped.  "What--"
+
+"Pardon me," went on Galusha.  "I was about to explain.  I--I will
+try to make the explanation brief.  It is--ah--very painful to me
+to make and will be, I fear, as painful for you to hear.  Miss
+Phipps, when I told you--or gave you to understand--that my cousin
+here, or his firm, Cabot, Bancroft and Cabot, bought that--ah--
+Development stock of yours, I deceived you; I told you a falsehood.
+They did not buy it. . . .  I bought it, myself."
+
+He blurted out the last sentence, after a short but apparent mental
+struggle.  Martha's chest heaved, but she said no word.  The
+criminal continued:
+
+"I will not attempt at this time to tell you how I was--ah--forced
+into buying it," he said; "further than to say that I--I had very
+foolishly led you to count upon my cousin's buying it and--and felt
+a certain responsibility and--a desire not to disappoint you.  I--
+of course, I should have told you the truth, but I did not.  I
+bought the stock myself."
+
+Again he paused and still Martha was silent.  Cousin Gussie seemed
+about to speak and then to change his mind.
+
+"Perhaps," went on Galusha, with a pitiful attempt at a smile, "you
+might have forgiven me that, although it is doubtful, for you had
+expressly forbidden my lending you money or--or assisting you in
+any way, which I was--please believe this--very eager to do.  But,
+after having bought it, I, as I say, deceived you, falsified,
+prevaricated--excuse me--lied to you, over and over. . . .  Oh,
+dear me!" he added, in a sudden burst, "I assure you it is
+unbelievable how many falsehoods seemed to be necessary.  I lied
+continually, I did, indeed.
+
+"Well, that is all," he said.  "That is all, I believe. . . .
+I--I am very sorry. . . .  After your extreme kindness to me, it
+was--I . . . I think perhaps, if you will excuse me, I will go to
+my room. I am--ah--somewhat agitated.  Good-night."
+
+He was turning away, but Cabot called to him.
+
+"Here, wait a minute, Loosh," he cried.  "There is one thing more
+you haven't told us.  Why on earth did you buy Hallett's four
+hundred shares?"
+
+Galusha put his hand to his forehead.
+
+"Oh, yes, yes," he said.  "Yes, of course.  That was very simple.
+I was--ah--as one may say, coerced by my guilty conscience.
+Captain Hallett had learned--I don't know precisely how, but it is
+quite immaterial--that Miss Phipps had, through me and to you,
+Cousin Gussie, as he supposed, sold her shares.  He wished me to
+sell his.  I said I could not.  Then he said he should go to your
+office in Boston and see you, or your firm, and sell them himself.
+I could not allow that, of course.  He would have discovered that I
+had never been there to sell anything at all and--and might have
+guessed what had actually happened.  So I was obliged to buy his
+stock also and--and pretend that you had bought it.  I lied to him,
+too, of course.  I--I think I have lied to every one. . . .  I
+believe that is really all.  Good-night."
+
+"One more thing, Loosh.  What did you do with the certificates,
+Hallett's and Miss Phipps'?  You got them, I suppose."
+
+"Eh?  Yes, oh, yes, I got them.  I don't know where they are."
+
+"WHAT?  Don't know where they ARE?"
+
+"No.  I took them to your office, Cousin Gussie.  I enclosed them
+in a large envelope and took them there.  I gave them to a person
+named--ah--Taylor, I think that was the name."
+
+"Taylor?  There is no Taylor in our office."
+
+"It was not Taylor.  It may have been Carpenter, although that
+doesn't seem exactly right, either.  It was the name of some one--
+ah--a person who does something to you, you know, like a tailor or
+a carpenter or a--a butcher--or--"
+
+"Barbour!  Was it Barbour?"
+
+"Yes, that was it--Barbour.  I gave Mr. Barbour the envelope.
+I don't know what he did with it; I told him I preferred not to
+know. . . .  Please excuse me.  Good-night."
+
+He turned abruptly and walked from the room.  They heard him
+ascending the stairs.  For a moment the pair he had left looked at
+each other in silence.  Then Cabot burst into a shout of laughter.
+He rocked back and forth in his chair and laughed until Martha, who
+was not laughing, began to think he might laugh forever.
+
+"Oh, by Jove, this is funny?" he exclaimed, as soon as he could
+speak.  "This is the funniest thing I ever heard of.  Excuse the
+hysterics, Miss Phipps, but it certainly is.  For the past month
+Williams and I, through this fellow Pulcifer down here, have been
+working heaven and earth to get the six hundred and fifty shares of
+that stock we supposed you and Hallett owned.  And all the time it
+was locked up in my own safe there in Boston!  And to think that
+old Loosh, of all persons, should have put this over on us.  Ho,
+ho, ho!  Isn't it rich!"
+
+He roared and rocked for another interval.  Still Martha did not
+speak, nor even smile.  She was not looking at him, but at the
+braided rug beneath her feet, and he could not see the expression
+of her face.
+
+"I may as well explain now," he went on, when this particular laugh
+was over, "that my friend Williams is one of the leading hotel men
+of this country.  He owns two very big hotels in Florida and one in
+the Tennessee mountains.  He has for some time been looking for a
+site on which to build another here on the northern coast.  He was
+down this way a while ago and, quite by accident, he discovered
+this shore property which, he found out later, was owned by the
+Wellmouth Development Company.  It was ideal, according to his
+estimate--view, harbor, water privileges, still water and surf
+bathing, climate--everything.  He came to me and we discussed
+buying it.  Then we discovered that this Development Company owned
+it.  Fifty thousand dollars, the concern's capitalization, was too
+much to pay.  A trust company over here in your next town had
+twelve hundred shares, but we found out that they knew the value of
+the property and, if they learned what we were up to, would hold
+for a fancy price.  So, through this chap Pulcifer--we bought HIS
+five hundred shares--we began buying up the thirteen hundred which
+would give us a controlling interest and force the other crowd to
+do what we wanted.  We picked up the small holdings easily enough,
+but we couldn't get yours or Hallett's.  And for a very good
+reason, too.  Ho, ho, ho!  And old Loosh, of all people!  Ho, ho!"
+
+Still Miss Phipps did not laugh, nor did she look at him.  "By the
+way," he observed, "I presume my--er--relative paid you a fair
+price for the stock, Miss Phipps?"
+
+"He paid me twenty dollars a share," she said, quietly.
+
+"Did he, indeed!  Well, that is more than we've paid any one else,
+except Pulcifer.  We allowed him a commission--a margin--on all he
+succeeded in buying. . . .  Humph! . . .  And I suppose Galusha
+paid old Hallett par, too.  But why he should do such a thing is--
+well, it is beyond me."
+
+She answered, but still she did not look at him.
+
+"He told you," she said.  "He knew I needed money.  I was foolish
+enough to let him guess--yes, I told him that I had a hard time to
+get along.  He was interested and he tried to cheer me up by
+tellin' me he thought you might buy that stock of mine.  He
+couldn't have been more interested if it had been somethin' of his
+own.  No, not nearly so much; he and his own interests are the last
+thing he thinks about, I guess.  And then he kept cheerin' me up
+and pretendin' to be more and more sure you would buy and--and when
+he found you wouldn't he--but there, he told us the truth.  _I_
+understand why he did it, Mr. Cabot."
+
+The banker shook his head.  "Well, I suppose I do, too, in a way,"
+he said.  "It is because he is Galusha Bangs.  Nobody else on earth
+would think of doing such a thing."
+
+"No, nobody else would.  But thirteen thousand dollars, Mr. Cabot!
+Why, that's dreadful!  It's awful!  He must have used every cent he
+owns, and I didn't suppose he owned any, scarcely.  Oh, Mr. Cabot,
+I must pay him back; I must pay him right away.  DO you want to buy
+that stock he bought?  Will you buy it of him, so he can have his
+money again?"
+
+She was looking at him now and her voice was shaking with anxiety.
+Cabot laughed once more.
+
+"Delighted, Miss Phipps," he assured her.  "That is what I have
+been trying to do for a month or more.  But don't worry about old
+Galusha's going broke.  He--why, what is it?"
+
+"Oh, nothin'.  I was thinkin' about what he did and--and--"
+
+"Yes, I know.  Isn't it amazing?  I have known him all my life, but
+I'm never sure how he will fly off the handle next.  Of course, I
+realize you must think him a perfect jackass, an idiot--"
+
+"What!  Think him WHAT?"
+
+"An idiot, an imbecile.  Nine people out of ten, those who don't
+know him well, do consider him just that.  Yet he isn't.  In some
+respects he is a mighty clever man.  In his own line, in this
+musty-dusty museum business of his, this Egyptology he is so
+cracked about, he is really very close to the top.  Geographic
+societies all over the world have given him medals; he is--why, if
+he wished to he could write a string of letters after his name a
+yard long.  I believe--hang it, it sounds absurd, but I believe he
+has been--er--knighted or something like it, in one heathenish
+little kingdom.  And in Washington there, at the Institute, they
+swear by him."
+
+She nodded.  "They have just made him a wonderful offer to be the
+head of another expedition," she said.
+
+"So?  Well, I am not surprised.  But in most respects, outside of
+his mummy-chasing, he is an absolute ass.  Money?  Why, he would
+give away every cent if it occurred to him to do so.  HE wouldn't
+know nor care.  And what might become of him afterward he wouldn't
+care, either.  If it wasn't that I watch him and try to keep his
+money out of his hands, I don't know what would happen.  Kind?
+Yes, of course.  And generous; good Lord!  But when it comes to
+matters of sentiment like--well, like this stock business for
+example, he is, as I say, an ass, that's all. . . .  I am telling
+you this, Miss Phipps, because I wouldn't wish you to consider old
+Loosh altogether a fool, but only--"
+
+He was sitting there, his knee in his hands, gazing blandly at the
+ceiling and, in judicial fashion, summing up his relative's failings
+and virtues, when he was interrupted.  And the interruption was a
+startling one.  Martha Phipps sprang to her feet and faced him, her
+cheeks crimson and her eyes flashing.
+
+"Oh, how dare you!" she cried, with fiery indignation.  "How CAN
+you?  You sit there and talk about him and--and call him names in
+that--that condescendin' way as if he was dirt under our feet and
+yet--and yet he's as far above us as the sky is.  Oh, how can you!
+Don't you see how good he is?  Don't you SEE how he's sufferin'
+now, poor soul, and why?  You say he doesn't care for money; of
+course he doesn't.  If it had cost fifty thousand and he had it,
+I suppose he'd have used it just the same if he thought it would
+help--help some friend of his out of trouble.  But what is tearin'
+him to pieces is the idea that he has, as he calls it, cheated ME.
+That he has lied to Jethro and to me and hasn't been the same
+straight, honest--GENTLEMAN he always is.  That's all.  HE doesn't
+give himself credit for takin' his own money to help other folks
+with.  YOU would, _I_ would, but HE doesn't.  He talks as if he'd
+robbed us, or--or killed somebody or somethin'.  He is the best--
+yes, I think he is the best and finest soul that ever breathed.
+And you sit there and--swing your foot and--and patronize--and call
+him a fool.  A FOOL! . . .  I--I mustn't talk any more or--or I'll
+say somethin' I'll wish I hadn't. . . .  Good-night, Mr. Cabot."
+
+She had held her handkerchief tightly crumpled in her hand during
+this outburst.  Now she dabbed hastily with it at either eye,
+turned and hastened into the dining room, closing the door behind
+her.
+
+A minute later Primmie came into the room, bearing a lighted lamp.
+
+"I cal'late now I can dast come in here, can't I?" she observed,
+with dignity.  "Anyhow, I hope so, 'cause Miss Martha sent me.  She
+said I was to show you where your bedroom was, Mr. Cabot."
+
+The Boston banker, who had scarcely recovered from the blast
+launched at his head by his hostess, rose, still blinking in a
+dazed fashion, and followed the lamp-bearer up the steep and narrow
+stairs.  She opened a door.
+
+"Here you be," she said, tartly.  "And I hope you'll sleep 'cause
+I'm precious sure _I_ sha'n't.  All I'll see from now till mornin'
+is Cap'n Jeth gettin' ready to lam that Marietta Hoag one over the
+top of the head.  My Lord of Isrul!  Don't talk to ME!"
+
+Cabot regarded her with interest.  "What is YOUR name?" he
+inquired.
+
+"Primrose Cash."
+
+"Eh?  Primrose?"
+
+"Um-hm.  Name of a flower, 'tis.  Some folks don't like it, but I
+do."
+
+"Primrose!"  The visitor slowly shook his head.  "Well--er--
+Primrose," he asked, "is there any other asylum in this vicinity?"
+
+"Hey?  ASYLUM?  What--"
+
+"Never mind.  I wondered, that's all.  Good-night."
+
+He took the lamp from her hand and went into his room.  The amazed
+Primmie heard from behind the door of that room a mighty roar of
+laughter, laughter loud and long continued.  Martha, in her room,
+heard it and stirred indignantly.  Galusha, in his room, heard it
+and moaned.
+
+He wondered how, in all the world, there was any one who, on this
+night of misery, could laugh.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+There were two people in that house who ate a real breakfast the
+following morning.  One was Primmie and the other was Augustus
+Cabot.  It took much, very much, to counteract Miss Cash's
+attraction toward food, and as for the Boston banker, the
+combination of Cape Cod air and Martha Phipps' cooking had
+sharpened his appetite until, as he told his hostess, he was
+thoroughly ashamed, but tremendously contented.
+
+Martha smiled a faint recognition of the joke.  Galusha, sitting
+opposite her, did not smile; he was plainly quite unaware that
+there was humor anywhere.  The little archaeologist looked, so
+Primmie told Zach later on, "like one of them wax string beans,
+thin and drawed-out and yeller."  He kept his gaze fixed on his
+plate and, beyond wishing her an uncertain good-morning, not once
+did he look at or venture to address Martha Phipps.
+
+While they were at table Lulie came in.  Considering all that she
+had undergone, the young lady was wonderfully radiant.  Her eyes
+sparkled, there was color in her cheeks, and Mr. Cabot, who, in his
+time, had accounted himself a judge, immediately rated her as a
+remarkably pretty girl.  Her first move, after greeting the
+company, was to go straight to Galusha and take his hand.
+
+"Mr. Bangs," she cried, "how can I thank you?  How can Nelson and I
+ever, ever thank you?"
+
+Galusha's embarrassment managed to pump a little color into his wan
+cheeks.  "I--I--ah--dear me, it was nothing," he stammered.  "I--I
+am--ah--yes, quite so.  Please don't mention it."
+
+"But I shall mention it.  Indeed, I shall.  Why, Martha, do you
+realize who was really responsible for father's being so suspicious
+of Marietta Hoag last evening?  It was Mr. Bangs here, and no one
+else.  Do you remember I told you that father had been receiving
+printed things, booklets and circulars, in the mails for the past
+few days, and that he had been reading them and they seemed to
+agitate him very much?  Do you remember that?"
+
+Martha said of course she remembered it.
+
+"Yes.  Well, those circulars and books came from the Psychical
+Research Society--the people who look up real spirit things and
+expose the other kind, the fraud kind, you know.  Those told all
+about lots of cases of cheats like Marietta, and father read them,
+and he confessed to me this morning that they disturbed his faith
+in her a lot and he was suspicious when the seance began.  Don't
+you know he hinted something about it?"
+
+"Yes, yes, Lulie, I remember.  But what did Mr. Bangs have to do
+with those circulars and things?"
+
+"He sent them.  Or he had them sent, I am sure.  They came from
+Washington and who else could have done it?  Who else would have
+had them sent--from there--to father--and just at the right time?
+You did have them sent, didn't you, Mr. Bangs?"
+
+Of course, the others now looked at Galusha and also, of course,
+this had the effect of increasing his embarrassment.
+
+"Why--why, yes," he admitted, "I suppose I am responsible.  You
+see, I--well--ah--I have friends at the Washington branch of the
+Society and I dropped a line requesting that some--ah--literature
+be sent to Captain Hallett.  But it was nothing, really.  Dear me,
+no.  How is your father this morning, Lulie?"
+
+Lulie's face expressed her happiness.  "Oh, he is ever and ever so
+much better," she declared.  "Last night I was so afraid that the
+shock and the dreadful disappointment and all might have a very had
+effect upon him, but it hasn't.  He is weak this morning and tired,
+of course, but his brain is perfectly clear and he talks as calmly
+as you or I.  Yes, a good deal more calmly than I am talking just
+now, for I am very much excited."
+
+She laughed a little.  Then, with a blush which caused the Boston
+connoisseur to re-endorse his own estimate of her looks, added:  "I
+just must tell you this, Martha, you and Mr. Bangs, for I know you
+will be almost as much delighted as I am--of course, I put in the
+'almost.'  This morning, a little while ago, I ventured to mention
+Nelson's name to father and to hint that perhaps now that he knew
+Marietta's 'medium' nonsense to be all a fraud, he would believe as
+I did that the things she said about Nelson were frauds, too.  I
+said it in fear and trembling, and for some time he didn't answer.
+Then he called me to him and said he guessed I was probably right.
+'You seem to have been right most of the time, Lulie,' he said,
+'and I've been clear off the course.'  Then he said something about
+his getting old and about ready for the scrap heap, but at the end
+he said:  'You ask that young Howard to cruise around here and see
+me some one of these days.  I want to talk to him.'  There!"
+triumphantly.  "Isn't that splendid?  Isn't that something for him
+to say?"
+
+Martha beamed delightedly.  "For your father to say it's more than
+somethin', it's a whole big lot," she declared.  "Well, well, well!
+Cap'n Jeth invitin' Nelson to come and see him and talk with him!
+Mercy me!  'Wonders 'll never cease, fish fly and birds swim,' as
+my own father used to say," she added, with a laugh.  "Mr. Cabot,
+excuse me for talkin' about somethin' you don't understand, but,
+you see, Lulie is--  Well, Primmie, what is it?"
+
+Primmie's face expressed great excitement as she pushed it around
+the edge of the kitchen door.  "My savin' soul!" was her
+salutation.  "Who do you suppose is comin' right up our walk this
+very minute?  Raish Pulcifer, that's who!  And--and I bet you he's
+heard about last night's doin's, Miss Martha."
+
+A little of Miss Cash's excitement was communicated to the others
+by her announcement.  To every one except Mr. Bangs, of course.
+Galusha, after his acknowledgment of Lulie's thanks, had relapsed
+into his absent-minded apathy.  Martha looked at Lulie.
+
+"Humph!" she said, after a moment.  "Well, let him come, as far as
+I'm concerned.  I never was afraid of Raish Pulcifer yet and I'm
+not now.  Lulie, if you don't want to meet him, you might go into
+the sitting room."
+
+Lulie hesitated.  "Well, perhaps I will," she said.  "Father has
+told me a little about--  Well, I imagine Raish will be disagreeable
+and I don't feel like going through more disagreeableness just now.
+I'll wait in here till he goes, Martha."
+
+"Perhaps you'd like to go, too, Mr. Cabot," suggested Martha.
+
+Cabot shrugged.  "Not unless you wish me to," he replied.  "I've
+never met this agent of ours and I wouldn't mind seeing what he
+looks like.  Williams hired him, so he doesn't know me from Adam."
+
+For the first time that morning Miss Phipps addressed her boarder
+directly.  "How about you, Mr. Bangs?" she asked.
+
+Galusha did not appear to hear the question, and before it was
+repeated a knock, loud, portentous, threatening, sounded upon the
+door.
+
+"Let him in, Primmie," commanded Miss Phipps.
+
+Mr. Pulcifer entered.  His bearing was as ominous as his knock.  He
+nodded to Martha, glanced inquiringly at Cabot, and then turned his
+gaze upon Galusha Bangs.
+
+"Well, Raish," said Martha, cheerfully, "you're an early bird this
+mornin'.  How do you do?"
+
+The great Horatio's only acknowledgment of the greeting was a nod.
+He did not even remove his cap.  He was looking at the little man
+in the chair at the foot of the table and he seemed quite oblivious
+of any one else.  And Galusha, for that matter, seemed quite as
+oblivious of him.
+
+The Pulcifer mouth opened and the Pulcifer finger pointed.
+
+"Say," commanded Raish.  "Say--you!"  And as this seemed to have
+little or no effect upon the individual toward whom the finger
+pointed, he added:  "Say, you--er--  What's-your-name--Bangs."
+
+Galusha, who had been absently playing with his napkin, twisting it
+into folds and then untwisting it, looked up.
+
+"Eh?" he queried.  "Oh, yes--yes, of course.  How do you do, Mr.
+Pulcifer?"
+
+This placidity seemed to shut off Raish's breath for the moment,
+but it returned in full supply.
+
+"How do I DO!" he repeated.  "Well, I ain't what you'd call fust-
+rate, I'd say.  I'm pretty darn sick, if anybody should ask you.
+I've had enough to make me sick.  Say, look here, Bangs!  What kind
+of a game is this you've been puttin' over on me--hey? . . .  Hey?"
+
+"Game? . . .  I--ah--pardon me, I don't know that I quite
+understand, Mr. Pulcifer."
+
+"Don't you?  Well, I don't understand neither.  But I cal'late to
+pretty quick.  What did Jeth Hallett mean last night by sayin' that
+he'd sold his four hundred Development a couple of months ago?
+What did he mean by it?"
+
+Martha Phipps was about to speak.  Cabot, too, leaned forward.  But
+Galusha raised a protesting hand.
+
+"Please," he said.  "Mr. Pulcifer has a perfect right to ask.  I
+have--ah--been expecting him to do so.  Well, Mr. Pulcifer, I
+presume Captain Hallet meant that he had--ah--sold the stock."
+
+"He did?  I want to know!  And what did he mean by sayin' he'd sold
+it to YOU?"
+
+Again Miss Phipps and Cousin Gussie seemed about to take a hand and
+again Galusha silenced them.
+
+"If you please," he begged.  "It is quite all right, really. . . .
+I suppose, Mr. Pulcifer, he meant that he had done just that.  He
+did.  I--ah--bought his stock."
+
+"You did!  YOU did?  Say, what kind of a--  Say, am I crazy or are
+you?"
+
+"Oh, I am.  Dear me, yes, Mr. Pulcifer.  At all events, I purchased
+the stock from Captain Hallett.  I bought Miss Phipps' shares at
+the same time."
+
+It took more than a trifle to "stump" Raish Pulcifer.  He was
+accustomed to boast that it did.  But he had never been nearer to
+being stumped than at that moment.
+
+"You--bought--"  He puffed the words as a locomotive puffs smoke
+when leaving a station.
+
+"Yes," said Galusha, calmly, "I bought both his and hers."
+
+"You did! . . .  You did! . . .  Well, by cripes!  But--but why?"
+
+"Because, I--ah--  For reasons of my own, Mr. Pulcifer.  Please
+pardon me if I do not go into that.  I do not wish to appear rude,
+but the reasons are quite personal, really."
+
+"Personal! . . .  Well, I'll be dummed if this ain't the nerviest
+piece of brass cheek ever I--  Say, look here, Bangs!  Why didn't
+you tell me you'd bought them shares?  What did you--  Why, you
+must have had 'em all the time I was offerin' you commissions for
+buyin' 'em.  Hey?  DID you have 'em then?"
+
+"Why--ah--yes, I did."
+
+"And you never said nothin', but just let me talk!  And--and how
+about this seance thing?  You was the one put me up to making
+Marietta pretend to get messages from Jeth's wife tellin' him to
+sell his stock to me.  YOU done it.  I'd never thought of it if you
+hadn't put the notion in my head.  And--and all the time--  Oh, by
+CRIPES!"
+
+Again his agitation brought on a fit of incoherence.  And he was
+not the only astonished person about that table.  Galusha, however,
+was quite calm.  He continued to fold and unfold his napkin.
+
+"It may be," he said, slowly, "that I owe you an apology, Mr.
+Pulcifer.  I did deceive you, or, at least, I did not undeceive
+you."  He paused, sighed, and then added, with a twisted smile, "I
+seem to have been a--ah--universal deceiver, as one might say.
+However, that is not material just now.  I had what seemed to me
+good reasons for wishing Captain Hallett to learn that Miss Hoag
+was not a genuine--ah--psychic.  It occurred to me that a mention
+of his late wife's wish to have him sell something he did not
+possess might accomplish that result.  I misled you, of course, and
+I apologize, Mr. Pulcifer.  I am sorry, but it seemed necessary to
+do so.  Yes, quite."
+
+He ceased speaking.  Martha drew a long breath.  Mr. Cabot looked
+very much puzzled.  Raish slowly shook his head.  "Well!" he began;
+tried again, but only succeeded in repeating the word.  Then he
+blurted out his next question.
+
+"Who'd you buy them shares for?"
+
+"Eh?  For?"
+
+"Yes, for.  Who did you buy Cap'n Jeth's and Martha's stock for?
+Who got you to buy it?  'Twasn't the Trust Company crowd, was it?"
+
+"The Trust Company?  I beg pardon?  Oh, I see--I see.  Dear me, no.
+I bought the stock myself, quite on my own responsibility, Mr.
+Pulcifer."
+
+Raish could not believe it.  "You bought it yourself!" he repeated.
+"No, no, you don't get me.  I mean whose money paid for it?"
+
+"Why, my own."
+
+Still it was plain that Horatio did not believe.  As a matter of
+fact, the conviction that Galusha Bangs was poverty-stricken was so
+thoroughly implanted in the Pulcifer mind that not even a
+succession of earthquakes like the recent disclosures could shake
+it loose.  But Raish did not press the point, for at that moment a
+new thought came to him.  His expression changed and his tone
+changed with it.
+
+"Say, Bangs," demanded he, eagerly, "do you mean you've still got
+that six hundred and fifty Development?  Mean you ain't turned 'em
+over yet to anybody else?"
+
+"Eh?  Why, no, Mr. Pulcifer, I haven't--ah--turned them over to any
+one else."
+
+"Good!  Fust-rate!  Fine and dandy!  You and me can trade yet.
+You're all right, Perfessor, you are.  You've kind of put one
+acrost on me, but don't make the mistake of thinkin' I'm holdin'
+that against you.  No, sir-ee!  When a feller's smart enough to
+keep even with your Uncle Raish in a deal then I know he gets up
+early--yes, sir, early, and that's when I get up myself.  Hey,
+Perfessor?  Haw, haw!  Now, I tell you:  Let's you and me go down
+to my office or somewheres where we can talk business.  Maybe I
+might want to buy that stock yet, you can't tell.  Hey?  Haw, haw!"
+
+He was exuding geniality now.  But just here Mr. Augustus Cabot
+spoke.  Judging by his face, he had enjoyed the passage at arms
+between his cousin and his business agent hugely.  Now he entered
+the lists.
+
+"That's all right, Pulcifer," he said.  "You needn't trouble.  I'll
+look out for that stock, myself."
+
+Horatio turned and stared.  He had scarcely noticed the visitor
+before, now he looked him over from head to foot.
+
+"Hey?  What's that?" he demanded.  Cabot repeated his statement.
+Raish snorted.
+
+"You'll look after the stock!" he repeated.  "YOU will?  Who are
+you?"
+
+Cousin Gussie tossed a card across the table.  "Cabot is my name,"
+he said.
+
+Galusha suddenly remembered.
+
+"Oh, dear me!" he exclaimed.  "I--I forgot.  Please forgive me.
+Cousin Gussie, this is Mr. Pulcifer.  Mr. Pulcifer, this gentleman
+is my--ah--Cousin Gu--I mean my cousin, Mr. Cabot, from Boston."
+
+But Mr. Pulcifer did not hear.  He was staring at the names of the
+individual and of the firm upon the card and icy fingers were
+playing tunes up and down his vertebrae.  For the second time that
+morning he could not speak.  Cabot laughed.
+
+"It's all right, Pulcifer," he said, reassuringly.  "You won't have
+to worry about the Development matter any longer.  I'll handle the
+rest of it.  Oh, you did your best.  I'm not blaming you.  I'll see
+that you get a fair return, even if you couldn't quite deliver.
+But you must keep still about the whole thing, of course."
+
+Raish breathed heavily.  Slowly the icy fingers ceased trifling
+with his spine and that backbone began to develop--quoting Miss
+Phipps' description--at least one new joint to every foot.  He
+suppled visibly.  He expressed himself with feeling.  He begged the
+honor of shaking hands with the great man from Boston.  Then he
+shook hands with Galusha and Miss Phipps.  If Primmie had been
+present doubtless he would have shaken hands with her.  When Cabot
+suggested that the interview had best terminate, he agreed with
+unction and oozed, rather than walked, through that doorway.
+Watching from the window, they saw him stop when he reached the
+road, draw a long breath, take a cigar from his pocket, light it,
+hitch his cap a trifle to one side, and stride away, a moving
+picture of still unshaken and serene self-confidence.
+
+Cabot laughed delightedly.  "That fellow is a joy forever," he
+declared.  "He's one of the seven wonders of the world."
+
+Martha sniffed.  "Then the world better keep a sharp watch on the
+other six," was her comment.  "I wouldn't trust Raish Pulcifer
+alone with Bunker Hill monument--not if 'twas a dark night and he
+had a wheelbarrow."
+
+Lulie came rushing from the sitting room.  She had heard all the
+Pulcifer-Bangs' dialogue and her one desire was to thank Galusha.
+But Galusha was not present.  While Martha and Mr. Cabot were at
+the window watching the departure of Raish, the little man had left
+the room.
+
+"But I must see him," cried Lulie.  "Oh, Martha, just think!  He is
+responsible for EVERYTHING.  Not only for sending father the
+Psychical Society books, but for planning all that happened at the
+seance.  You heard what Raish said.  He said that Mr. Bangs put him
+up to bribing Marietta to pretend getting the message ordering
+father to sell his stock.  Why, if that is true--and, of course, it
+must be--and if--if Nelson and I should--if it SHOULD end right for
+us--why, Martha, he will be the one who made it possible.  Oh, do
+you believe he did plan it, as Raish said?"
+
+Martha nodded and turned away.  "He seems to have spent most of his
+time plannin' for other folks," she said.
+
+"He didn't come through the sitting room," said Lulie, "so he must
+be in the kitchen with Primmie.  I'm going to find him."
+
+But she did not find him.  Primmie said that Mr. Bangs had come out
+into the kitchen, taken his hat and coat, and left the house by the
+back door.  Looking from that door, they saw his diminutive figure,
+already a good distance off, moving across the fields.
+
+"He's on his way to the graveyard," declared Primmie.  Cabot was
+startled.
+
+"On his way to the graveyard!" he repeated.  "Why, he looked
+remarkably well to me.  What do you mean?"
+
+Lulie laughingly explained.  A few minutes later, declaring that
+she must leave her father alone no longer, she hurried away.
+Martha watched her go.
+
+"She scarcely knows there is ground under her feet," she observed.
+"A light heart makes easy ballast, so my father used to say."
+
+Cabot expressed his intention of starting for the city shortly
+after noon.
+
+"Now that I know where those missing shares are, I can go with an
+easy conscience," he said.  "I came 'way down here to get them and
+the faster I came the farther off they were.  Ha, ha!  It's a great
+joke.  I've had a wonderful time, Miss Phipps.  Well, I must see
+Galusha and get him to sell that stock to me.  I don't anticipate
+much difficulty.  The old boy didn't even know nor care where
+Barbour had put it."
+
+Martha seemed to hesitate a moment.  Then she said:  "Mr. Cabot, I
+wonder if you could spare a few minutes.  I want to talk with you
+about the money I owe--the money he GAVE me--for that stock, and a
+little about--about your cousin himself.  Last night when you spoke
+of him I was--well, I was excited and upset and I didn't treat you
+very well, I'm afraid.  I'm sorry, but perhaps you'll excuse me,
+considerin' all that had happened.  Now I want to ask you one or
+two questions.  There are some things I don't--I can't quite
+understand."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+An hour or so later Galusha, sitting, forlorn and miserable, upon
+the flat, damp and cold top of an ancient tomb in the old Baptist
+burying ground, was startled to feel a touch upon his shoulder.  He
+jumped, turned and saw his cousin smiling down at him.
+
+"Well, Loosh," hailed the banker, "at your old tricks, aren't you?
+In the cemetery and perfectly happy, I suppose.  No 'Hark from the
+tombs, a doleful sound' in years, eh? . . .  Hum!  You don't look
+very happy this time, though."  Then, with a comprehensive glance
+at the surroundings, he shrugged and added, "Heavens, no wonder!"
+
+The picture was a dismal one on that particular day.  The sky was
+overcast and gray, with a distinct threat of rain.  The sea was
+gray and cold and cheerless.  The fields were bare and bleak and
+across them moved a damp, chill, penetrating breeze.  From horizon
+to horizon not a breathing creature, except themselves, was
+visible.  And in the immediate foreground were the tumbled,
+crumbling memorials of the dead.
+
+"Heavens, what a place!" repeated Cabot.  "It's enough to give
+anybody the mulligrubs.  Why in the world do you come over here
+and--and go to roost by yourself?  Do you actually LIKE it?"
+
+Galusha sighed.  "Sometimes I like it," he said.  Then, sliding
+over on the tomb top, he added, "Won't you--ah--sit down, Cousin
+Gussie?"
+
+His relative shook his head.  "No, I'll be hanged if I do!" he
+declared; "not on that thing.  Come over and sit on the fence.
+I want to talk to you."
+
+He led the way to a section of the rail fence which, although
+rickety, was still standing.  He seated himself upon the upper rail
+and Galusha clambered up and perched beside him.  The banker's
+first question was concerning the six hundred and fifty shares of
+Development stock.
+
+"I know you gave the Phipps woman par for hers," he said.  "You
+told me so and so did she.  Did you pay old Whiskers--Hallett, I
+mean--the same price?"
+
+Galusha shook his head.  "I--ah--was obliged to pay him a little
+more," he said.  "His--ah--wife insisted upon it."
+
+"His wife?  I thought his wife was dead."
+
+"Yes--ah--she is.  Yes, indeed, quite so."
+
+When this matter was satisfactorily explained Cousin Gussie asked
+if Galusha would be willing to sell his recently purchased shares
+at the price paid.  Of course Galusha would.
+
+"I should be very glad to make you a present of them, Cousin
+Gussie," he said, listlessly.  "I do not care for them, really."
+
+"I don't doubt that, but you won't do anything of the kind.  As a
+matter of fact, your buying those shares and taking them out of the
+market was a mighty good thing for us.  That Trust Company crowd
+was getting anxious, so the Phipps woman says.  By the way, I will
+send her a check at once for her shares and she will hand it over
+to you.  She was very much disturbed because you had--as she called
+it--given her that five thousand dollars."
+
+Galusha nodded sadly.  "Of course," he said.  "It was a--a very
+dreadful thing to do.  Oh, dear!"
+
+His relative, who was watching him intently, smiled.  "She and I
+have had a long talk," he continued.  "She couldn't understand
+about you, how you could have so much money to--er--waste in that
+way.  I gathered she feared you might have impoverished yourself,
+or pledged the family jewels, or something.  And she plainly will
+not be easy one moment until she has paid you.  She is a very
+extraordinary woman, Loosh."
+
+His companion did not answer.  His gaze was fixed upon a winged
+death's head on a battered slate gravestone near at hand.  The
+death's head was grinning cheerfully, but Galusha was not.
+
+"I say she is remarkable, that Phipps woman," repeated Cousin
+Gussie.  The little man stirred uneasily upon the fence rail.
+
+"Her--ah--name is Martha--Martha Phipps--ah--MISS Martha Phipps,"
+he suggested, with a slight accent upon the "Miss."  The banker's
+smile broadened.
+
+"Apologies, Galusha," he said, "to her--and to you."  He turned and
+gazed steadily down at his relative's bowed head.
+
+"Loosh," he said.
+
+"Eh?" Galusha looked up.  "Eh?  Did you speak?" he asked.
+
+"I did.  No, don't look at that gravestone, look at me.  Say,
+Loosh, why did you do it?"
+
+"Eh? . . .  I beg pardon. . . .  Why did I . . .  You mean why did
+I--ah--buy the stock--and--and--"
+
+"Of course.  Why did you?  Oh, I know she was hard up and feared
+she couldn't keep her home and all that; she has told me her story.
+And she is a good woman and you were sorry for her.  But, my boy,
+to take five thousand dollars--even for YOU to take five thousand
+cold, hard, legal tender dollars and toss them away for something
+which, so far as you knew, was not worth five cents--that argues a
+little more than sympathy, doesn't it?  And when you add eight
+thousand more of those dollars to the original five, then--  Why
+did you do it, Loosh?"
+
+Galusha's gaze fell.  He looked solemnly at the battered cherub
+upon the gravestone and the cherub's grin was broad.
+
+"I bought Captain Hallett's stock," he explained, "because I did
+not wish Miss Mar--Miss Phipps to know that I had lied--and all the
+rest."
+
+"Yes, yes, so you said.  But why did you lie, Loosh?  Why didn't
+you tell her that you couldn't sell her stock for her?  She would
+have been disappointed, of course, but she would have understood;
+she is a sensible woman."
+
+Galusha, apparently, was considering the matter.  It was a
+perceptible interval before he answered.
+
+"I don't know, Cousin Gussie," he confessed, after the interval was
+over.  "Really, I don't know.  I think I felt, as I told you last
+night, as if I had encouraged her to believe I should surely sell
+her shares and--and that, therefore, I would be responsible for her
+disappointment.  And I--well, really, I simply could not face the
+thought of that disappointment and all it would mean to her.
+I could not, indeed, no.  I suppose you consider it quite
+extraordinary, my feeling that so acutely.  Dear me, I suppose most
+people would.  But I felt it.  And I should do the same thing
+again, I know I should."
+
+"For her, you mean?"
+
+"Yes--yes, of course, for her."
+
+"Humph!  Say, Loosh, may I ask you a purely personal question?
+Will you promise not to be offended if I do?"
+
+"Eh?  Why, of course, Cousin Gussie.  Of course.  Dear me, ask
+anything you like."
+
+"All right.  Loosh, are you in love with Miss Phipps?"
+
+Galusha started so violently as to throw him off his balance upon
+the fence rail.  He slid forward until his feet touched the ground.
+His coat-tails, however, caught upon a projecting knot and the
+garment remained aloft, a crumpled bundle, between his shoulder
+blades and the back of his neck.  He was not aware of it.  His face
+expressed only one emotion, great astonishment.  And as his cousin
+watched, that expression slowly changed to bewilderment and dawning
+doubt.
+
+"Well, how about it?" queried Cabot.  "Are you in love with her,
+Loosh?"
+
+Galusha's mouth opened.  "Why--good gracious!" he gasped.  "Dear
+me--ah--  Why--why, I don't know."
+
+The banker had expected almost any sort of reply, except that.
+
+"You don't KNOW!" he repeated.
+
+"No, I--I don't.  I--I never thought of such a thing."
+
+Cousin Gussie slowly shook his head.
+
+"Loosh," he declared, "you are superb; do you realize it?  So you
+don't know whether you are in love with her or not.  Well, put it
+this way:  Would you like to marry her, have her for your wife,
+live with her for the rest of your days?"
+
+Galusha considered this astounding proposition, but only for the
+briefest possible moment.  His gentle, dreamy, wistful countenance
+seemed almost to light up from within.  His answer was given in one
+breath and as if entirely without conscious volition.
+
+"Oh, very much," he said, in a low tone.  "Oh, yes, very much."
+
+The Boston banker had been on the point of laughing when he asked
+the question.  But he did not laugh.  He whistled instead.  Then he
+smiled, but it was not a smile of ridicule.
+
+Jumping from the fence rail, he laid a hand on his relative's
+shoulder.
+
+"Well, by Jove!" he exclaimed.  "Forgive me, old man, will you?  I
+had no idea you were taking it so seriously.  I . . .  Well, by
+Jove!"
+
+Galusha did not speak.  The same queer ecstatic brightness was upon
+his face and he was looking now, not at the grinning cherub, but at
+the distant horizon line of gray-green ocean and slate-gray sky.
+Cabot's grip on his shoulder tightened.
+
+"So you really want to marry her," he said. . . .  "Humph! . . .
+Well, I'll be hanged!  Loosh, you--you--well, you certainly can
+surprise a fellow when you really make a business of it."
+
+The brightness was fading from Galusha's face.  He sighed, removed
+his spectacles, and seemed to descend from the clouds.  He sighed
+again, and then smiled his faint smile.
+
+"Dear me," he said, "how ridiculous it was, wasn't it?  You like a
+joke, don't you, Cousin Gussie?"
+
+"Was it a joke, Loosh?  You didn't look nor speak like a joker."
+
+"Eh?  Oh, yes, it was a joke, of course.  Is it likely that a woman
+like that would marry ME?"
+
+Again he astonished his relative into turning and staring at him.
+"Marry you?" he cried.  "SHE marry YOU?  For heaven's sake, you
+don't imagine there is any doubt that she would marry you if you
+asked her to, do you?"
+
+"Why, of course.  Why should she?"
+
+"Why SHOULD she?  Why shouldn't she jump at the chance, you mean!"
+
+"Oh--oh, no, I don't.  No, indeed.  You are joking again, Cousin
+Gussie, of course you are.  Women don't like me; they laugh at me,
+they always have, you know.  I don't blame them.  Very often I
+laugh at myself.  I am eccentric.  I'm 'queer'; that is what every
+one says I am--queer.  I don't seem to think just as other people
+do, or--or to be able to dress as they do--or--ah--oh, dear,
+everything.  It used to trouble me a good deal when I was young.  I
+used to try, you know--ah--try very hard not to be queer.  I hated
+being queer.  But it wasn't any use, so at last I gave up trying.
+My kind of queerness is something one can't get over, apparently;
+it's a sort of incurable disease.  Dear me, yes, quite incurable."
+
+He had moved forward and his coat-tails had fallen into their
+normal position, so the "queerness" of his outward appearance was
+modified; but, as he stood there, with his puzzled, wistful
+expression, slowly and impersonally picking himself to pieces, so
+to speak, Cabot felt an overwhelming rush of pity for him, pity and
+a sort of indignant impatience.
+
+"Oh, shut up, Galusha!" he snapped.  "Don't be so confoundedly
+absurd.  You are one of the cleverest men in the world in your
+line.  You are distinguished.  You are brilliant.  If you were as
+queer as Dick's hatband--whatever that is--it would make no
+difference; you have a right to be.  And when you tell me that a
+woman--yes, almost any woman, to say nothing of one lost down here
+in these sand-hills--wouldn't marry you in a minute, you're worse
+than queer--you're crazy, absolutely crazy."
+
+"But--but Cousin Gussie, you forget.  If there were no other
+reasons, you forget what I have done.  She could never believe in
+me again.  No, nor forgive me."
+
+"Oh, DON'T!  You disturb my digestion.  Do you suppose there is a
+woman on earth who wouldn't forgive a man who gave up thirteen
+thousand dollars just to help her out of a difficulty?  Gave it up,
+as you did, without a whimper or even a whisper?  And whose one
+worry has been that she might find out the truth about his weird
+generosity?  Oh, Loosh, Loosh, you ARE crazy."
+
+Galusha made no attempt to deny the charge of insanity.  He was
+thinking rapidly now and his face expressed his thought.
+
+"Do you--do you really think she might forgive me?" he asked,
+breathlessly.
+
+"Think!  Why, she and I had a long talk just before I came over
+here.  She thinks you are the best and most wonderful man on earth
+and all she feared was that you had taken your last cent, or even
+borrowed the money, to come to her rescue.  When I told her you
+were worth a quarter of a million, she felt better, but it didn't
+lessen her gratitude.  Forgive you!  Oh, good Lord!"
+
+Galusha had heard only the first part of this speech.  The ecstatic
+expression was returning.  He drew a long breath.
+
+"I--I wonder if she really would consider such a thing?" he
+murmured.
+
+"Consider what?  Marriage?  Well, I should say she wouldn't take
+much time for consideration.  She'll jump at it, I tell you.  You
+are the one to consider, old man.  You are rich, and famous.  Yes,
+and, although I have never pinned quite as much faith to the
+'family' idea as most of our people do, still we have a sort of
+tradition to keep up, you know.  Now this--er--Miss Phipps is all
+right, no doubt; her people were good people, doubtless, but--well,
+some of our feminine second and third cousins will make remarks,
+Galusha.  They surely will."
+
+Galusha did not even trouble to answer this speech.  His cousin
+continued.
+
+"But that is your business, of course," he said.  "And I honestly
+believe that in a good many ways she would make the ideal wife for
+you.  She is not bad looking, in a wholesome sort of way, she is
+competent and very practical, has no end of common sense, and in
+all money matters she would make the sort of manager you need.
+She . . .  Say, look here, have you heard one word of all I have
+been saying for the last three minutes ?"
+
+"Eh? . . .  Oh, yes, indeed.  Of course, quite so."
+
+"I know better; you haven't."
+
+"Yes--yes.  That is, I mean no. . . .  Pardon me, Cousin Gussie, I
+fear I was not paying attention. . . .  I shall ask her.  Yes, if--
+if you are QUITE sure she has forgiven me, I shall ask her."
+
+He started toward the cemetery gate as if he intended asking her at
+the first possible moment.  His cousin followed him, his expression
+indicating a mixture of misgiving and amusement.  Suddenly he
+laughed aloud.  Galusha heard him and turned.  His slight figure
+stiffened perceptibly.
+
+"I beg pardon," he said, after a moment.  "Doubtless it is--ah--
+very amusing, but I confess I do not quite see the joke."
+
+Cabot laughed again.
+
+"Is it--ah--so funny?" inquired Galusha.  "It does not seem so to
+me."
+
+The banker took him by the arm.  "No offense, old chap," he said.
+"Funny?  Of course it's funny.  It's wildly funny.  Do you know
+what I was just thinking?  I was thinking of Aunt Clarissa.  What
+do you suppose she would have said to this?"
+
+He shouted at the thought.  Galusha joined him to the extent of a
+smile.  "She would have said it was just what she expected of me,"
+he observed.  "Quite so--yes."
+
+They walked on in silence for some time.  Then Galusha stopped
+short.
+
+"I have just thought of something," he said.  "It--it MAY have some
+influence.  She has often said she wished she might see Egypt.  We
+could go together, couldn't we?"
+
+Cousin Gussie roared again.  "Of course you could," he declared.
+"And I only wish I could go along.  Loosh, you are more than
+superb.  You are magnificent."
+
+He telephoned for his car and chauffeur and, soon after dinner,
+said good-by to his hostess and his cousin and prepared to start
+for Boston.  The Sunday dinner was a bountiful one, well cooked,
+and he did justice to it.  Galusha, however, ate very little.  He
+seemed to be not quite certain whether he was at the table or
+somewhere in the clouds.
+
+The chauffeur discovered that he had scarcely oil and gasoline
+sufficient for his hundred-mile trip and decided to drive to Trumet
+to obtain more.  Cabot, who felt the need of exercise after his
+hearty meal, took a walk along the bluff edge as far as the point
+from which he could inspect the property owned by the Development
+Company.
+
+He was gone almost an hour.  On his return he met Galusha walking
+slowly along the lane.  The little man was without his overcoat,
+his hands were clasped behind him and, although his eyes were open,
+he seemed to see nothing, for he stumbled and staggered, sometimes
+in the road and sometimes in the dead weeds and briars beside it.
+He did not see his cousin, either, until the latter spoke.  Then he
+looked up and nodded recognition.
+
+"Oh!" he observed.  "Yes, of course.  Ah-- How do you do?"
+
+Cabot was looking him straight in the face.
+
+"Loosh," he asked, sharply.  "What is it?  What is the matter?"
+
+Galusha passed his hand across his forehead.
+
+"Oh, nothing, nothing," he answered.
+
+"Nonsense!  You look as if--  Well, you can't tell me nothing is
+wrong.  ISN'T there something wrong?"
+
+The saddest smile in all creation passed across Galusha's face.
+"Why--why, yes," he said.  "I suppose everything is wrong.  I
+should have expected it to be, of course.  I--I did, but--ah--for a
+little while I was--ah--foolish and--and hoped.  It is quite all
+right, Cousin Gussie, absolutely so.  She said it was--ah--
+impossible.  Of course it is.  She is quite right.  Oh, quite."
+
+Cabot caught his meaning.  "Do you mean to say," he demanded, "that
+you asked that--that Phipps woman to marry you and she REFUSED?"
+
+"Eh?  Oh, yes, she refused.  I told you she would not think of such
+a thing.  That is exactly what she said; it was impossible, she
+could not think of it."
+
+"Well, confound her impudence! . . .  Oh, all right, Galusha, all
+right.  I beg your pardon--and hers.  But, really--"
+
+Galusha stopped him.  "Cousin Gussie," he said, "if you don't mind
+I think I won't talk about it any more.  You will excuse me, won't
+you?  I shall be all right, quite all right--after I--ah--after a
+time, you know."
+
+"Where are you going now?"
+
+"Eh?  Oh, I don't know.  Just somewhere, that's all.  Good-by,
+Cousin Gussie."
+
+He turned and walked on again, his hands clasped behind his back
+and his head bent.  Cabot watched him for several minutes, then,
+entirely upon impulse and without stopping to consider, he began
+what was, as he said afterwards, either the craziest or the most
+inspired performance of his life.  He walked straight to the
+Phipps' gate and up the walk to the Phipps' door.  His chauffeur
+called to him that the car was ready, but he did not answer.
+
+Primmie opened the door in answer to his knock.  Yes, Miss Martha
+was in the sitting room, she said.  "But, my savin' soul, what are
+you doin' back here, Mr. Cabot?  Has the automobile blowed up?"
+
+He did not satisfy her curiosity.  Instead, he knocked on the door
+of the sitting room and, when Miss Phipps called to him to come in,
+he obeyed, closing the door behind him.  She was sitting by the
+window and her sewing was in her lap.  Yet he was almost certain
+she had not been sewing.  Her face was very grave and, although he
+could not see distinctly, for the afternoon was cloudy and the room
+rather dark, it seemed to him that there was a peculiar look about
+her eyes.  She, like her maid, was surprised to see him again.
+
+"Why, Mr. Cabot," she cried, rising, "what is it?  Has something
+happened?"
+
+He plunged headfirst into the business that had brought him there.
+It was the sort of business which, if approached with cool
+deliberation, was extremely likely never to be transacted.
+
+"Miss Phipps," he said, "I came back here on an impulse.  I have
+something I want to say to you.  In a way it isn't my affair at all
+and you will probably consider my mentioning it a piece of brazen
+interference.  But--well, there is a chance that my interfering now
+may prevent a very serious mistake--a grave mistake for two people--
+so I am going to take the risk.  Miss Phipps, I just met my cousin
+and he gave me to understand that you had refused his offer of
+marriage."
+
+He paused, momentarily, but she did not speak.  Her expression said
+a good many things, however, and he hurried on in order to have his
+say before she could have hers.
+
+"I came here on my own responsibility," he explained.  "Please
+don't think that he has the slightest idea I am here.  He is, as
+you know, the mildest person on earth, but I'm not at all sure he
+wouldn't shoot me if he knew what I came to say to you.  Miss
+Phipps, if you possibly can do so I earnestly hope you will
+reconsider your answer to Galusha Bangs.  He is very fond of you,
+he would make you a kind, generous husband, and, honestly, I think
+you are just the sort of wife he needs."
+
+She spoke then, not as if she had meant to, but more as if the
+words were involuntarily forced from her by shock.
+
+"You--you think I am the sort of wife he needs?" she gasped.  "_I_?"
+
+"Yes, you.  Precisely the sort."
+
+"For--for HIM.  YOU think so?"
+
+"Yes.  Now, of course, if you do not--er--care for him, if you
+could not think of him as a husband--oh, hang it, I don't know how
+to put it, but you know what I mean.  If you don't WANT to marry
+him then that is your business altogether and you are right in
+saying no.  But if you SHOULD care for him and refused him because
+you may have thought there was any--er--unsuitability--er--
+unfitness--oh, the devil, I don't know what to call it--if you
+thought there was too large an element of that in the match, then I
+beg of you to reconsider, that's all.  He needs you."
+
+"Needs me?  Needs ME? . . .  Oh--oh, you must be crazy!"
+
+"Not a bit of it.  He needs you.  You have all the qualities,
+common sense, practicability, everything he hasn't got.  It is for
+his sake I'm asking this, Miss Phipps.  I truly believe you have
+the making or marring of his future in your hands--now.  That is
+why I hope you will--well, change your mind. . . .  There!  I have
+said it.  Thank you for listening.  Good-day."
+
+He turned to the door.  She spoke once more.  "Oh, you MUST be
+jokin'!" she cried.  "How CAN you say such things?  His people--his
+family--"
+
+"Family?  Oh . . . well, I'll tell you the truth about that.  When
+he was young he had altogether too much family.  Now he hasn't any,
+really--except myself, and I have expressed my opinion.  Good-by,
+Miss Phipps."
+
+He went out.  Martha slowly went back to her rocking-chair and sat
+down.  A moment later she heard the roar of the engine as the Cabot
+car got under way.  The sound died away in the distance.  Martha
+rose and went up the stairs to her own room.  There she sat down
+once more and thought--and thought.
+
+Some time later she heard her lodger's footstep--how instantly she
+recognized it--in the hall and then in his bedroom.  He was in that
+room but a short time, then she heard him go down the stairs again.
+Perhaps ten minutes afterward Primmie knocked.  She wished
+permission to go down to the village.
+
+"I just thought maybe I'd go down to the meetin' house," explained
+Primmie.  "They're goin' to have a Sunday school concert this
+afternoon at four o'clock.  Zach he said he was cal'latin' to go.
+And besides, Mr. Bangs he give me this letter to leave to the
+telegraph office, Miss Martha."
+
+"The telegraph office isn't open on Sundays, Primmie."
+
+"No'm, I know 'tain't.  But Ras Beebe he takes care of all the
+telegraphs there is and telephones 'em over to Denboro, where the
+telegraph place IS open Sundays."
+
+"Oh, all right, Primmie, you may go.  Is Mr. Bangs in?"
+
+"No'm, he ain't.  He's gone out somewheres.  To walk, I cal'late.
+Last I see of him he was moonin' along over towards the lighthouse
+way."
+
+Primmie departed and Martha, alone in the gathering dimness of the
+afternoon, resumed her thinking.  It was an endless round, that
+thinking of hers--but, of course, it could end in but one way.
+Even to wish such things was wicked.  For his sake, that was what
+Mr. Cabot had said.  Ah, yes, but it was for his sake that she must
+remain firm.
+
+A big drop of rain splashed, and exploded like a miniature watery
+bombshell, against the windowpane.  Martha looked up.  Then she
+became aware of a faint tinkling in the room below.  The telephone
+bell was ringing.
+
+She hurried downstairs and put the receiver to her ear.  It was Mr.
+Beebe speaking and he wished to ask something concerning a message
+which had been left in his care by Primmie Cash.
+
+"It's signed by that Mr. Galushy Bangs of yours," explained
+Erastus.  "I've got to 'phone it to the telegraph office and
+there's a word in it I can't make out.  Maybe you could help me,
+Martha, long's Bangs isn't there.  'Tain't nothin' private, I don't
+cal'late.  I'll read it to you if you want I should."
+
+He began to read without waiting for permission.  The message was
+addressed to the Board of Directors of the National Institute at
+Washington, D. C., and began like this:
+
+"Deeply regret necessity of refusing your generous and flattering
+offer to lead--"
+
+It was just here that Mr. Beebe's ability to decipher the Bangs'
+handwriting broke down.
+
+"I can't make out the next word, Martha," he said.  "It begins with
+an F, but the rest of it ain't nothin' but a string of kinks.  It's
+all head and no tail, that word is."
+
+"What does it look like?"
+
+"Hey?  Looks like a whiplash or an eel, more'n anything else.  It
+might be 'epizootic' or--or--'eclipsin''--or--  The word after it
+ain't very plain neither, but I kind of think that it's
+'expedition.'"
+
+"'Expedition'?  Is the word you can't make out 'Egyptian'?"
+
+"Hey? . . .  'Egyptian?'  Well, I snum, I guess 'tis!  'Egyptian.'
+. . .  Humph!  I never thought of that.  I--"
+
+"Read me the whole of that telegram, Erastus.  Read it."
+
+Mr. Beebe read it.  "Deeply regret necessity of refusing your
+generous and flattering offer to lead Egyptian expedition.  Do not
+feel equal to the work.  Decision final.  Will write.--Galusha
+Bangs."
+
+Martha's hand shook as it held the receiver to her ear.  He had
+refused the greatest honor of his life.  He had declined to carry
+out the wonderful "plan" concerning which he and she had so often
+speculated. . . .  And she knew why he had refused.
+
+"Erastus!  Ras!" she called.  "Hello, Ras!  Hold that telegram.
+Don't send it yet.  Do you hear?"
+
+Mr. Beebe's voice expressed his surprise.  "Why, yes, Martha," he
+said, "I hear.  But I don't know.  You see, Mr. Bangs, he sent a
+note along with the telegram sayin' he wanted it rushed."
+
+"Never mind.  You hold it until you hear from me again--or from
+him.  Yes, I'll take all the responsibility.  Erastus Beebe, don't
+you send that telegram."
+
+She hung up the receiver and hurried to the outer door.  Galusha
+was nowhere in sight.  Then she remembered that Primmie had said he
+had gone toward the lighthouse.  She threw a knitted scarf over her
+shoulders, seized an umbrella from the rack--for the walk showed
+broad splashes where drops of rain had fallen--and started in
+search of him.  She had no definite plan.  She was acting as
+entirely upon impulse as Cabot had acted in seeking their recent
+interview; but of one thing she was determined--he should not wreck
+his career if she, in any way, could prevent it.
+
+She reached the gate of the government property, but she did not
+open it.  She was certain he would not be in the light keeper's
+cottage; she seemed to have an intuition as to where he was, and,
+turning, followed the path along the edge of the bluff.  She
+followed it for perhaps three hundred yards, then she saw him.  He
+was sitting upon a knoll, his hands clasped about his knees.  The
+early dusk of the gloomy afternoon was rapidly closing in, the
+raindrops were falling more thickly, but he did not seem to realize
+these facts, or, if he did, to care.  He sat there, a huddled
+little bundle of misery, and her heart went out to him.
+
+He did not hear her approach.  She came and stood beside him.
+
+"Mr. Bangs," she said.
+
+Then he looked up, saw her, and scrambled to his feet.
+
+"Why--why, Miss Martha!" he exclaimed.  "I did not see you--ah--
+hear you, I mean.  What is it?  Is anything wrong?"
+
+She nodded.  She found it very hard to speak and, when she did do
+so, her voice was shaky.
+
+"Yes," she said, "there is.  Somethin' very wrong.  Why did you
+telegraph the Institute folks that you wouldn't accept their
+offer? . . .  Oh, I found it out.  Ras Beebe couldn't get one word
+in your message and he read it to me over the 'phone.  But that
+doesn't matter.  That doesn't count.  Why did you refuse, Mr.
+Bangs?"
+
+He put his hand to his forehead.  "I--I am sorry if it troubled
+you," he said.  "I didn't mean for you to know it--ah--yet.  I
+refused because--well, because I did not care to accept.  The--the
+whole thing did not appeal to me, somehow.  I have lost interest in
+it--ah--quite.  Dear me, yes--quite."
+
+"Lost interest!  In Egypt?  In such a wonderful chance as this
+gives you?  Oh, you can't!  You mustn't!"
+
+He sighed and then smiled.  "It does seem queer, doesn't it?" he
+admitted.  "Yet it is quite true.  I have lost interest.  I don't
+seem to care even for Egypt.  Now that is very odd."
+
+"But--but if you refuse this what WILL you do?"
+
+He smiled again.  "I don't know," he said.  "I don't seem to care.
+But it is quite all right, Miss Martha.  Really it is.  I--I
+wouldn't have you think--  Oh, dear, no!"
+
+"But what WILL you do?  Tell me."
+
+"I don't know.  No doubt I shall do something.  One has to do that,
+I suppose.  It is only that--"  Then, as a new thought came to him,
+he turned to her in alarm.  "Oh, of course," he cried, hastily, "I
+sha'n't remain here.  Please don't think I intend imposing upon you
+longer.  I shall go--ah--at once--to-morrow--ah almost immediately.
+You have been extremely kind and long-suffering already and--and--"
+
+She interrupted.  "Don't!" she said, hurriedly.  "Don't!  Mr.
+Bangs, have you truly made up your mind not to go to Egypt with
+that expedition?  Won't you PLEASE do it, if I beg you to?"
+
+He slowly shook his head.
+
+"It is like you," he said, "to take such an interest, but, if--if
+you don't mind, I had rather not.  I can't.  Really, I--ah--can't.
+It--  Well, the thought of it--ah--repels me.  Please don't ask me,
+Miss Martha, because--I can't."
+
+She hesitated.  Then she said, "Would you go if I went with you?"
+
+He had been looking, not at her, but at the sea.  Now he slowly
+turned.
+
+"Why--why--" he stammered.  "Why, Miss--  Oh, dear me, you don't--
+you can't mean--"
+
+She shook her head.  "I suppose I mean anything," she said,
+"anything that will stop you from throwin' away your life work."
+
+He was very pale and his eyes were fixed upon her face.  "Do you
+mean--" he began, "do you mean you could--you would marry me?"
+
+She shook her head again.  "I think I must be crazy," she said,
+desperately.  "I think we all must be, your cousin as well as the
+rest of us.  He came to me a little while ago and asked me to--to
+say yes to you.  HE did!  He, of all people!  The--the very one
+that I--I--"
+
+"Yes, yes, yes, of course."  Galusha was trembling with eagerness.
+"Yes, of course.  Cousin Gussie is an extraordinarily able man.  He
+approves of it highly.  He told me so."
+
+She scarcely heard him.  "Oh, don't you see," she went on, "why it
+would be wicked for me to think of such a thing?  You are a great
+man, a famous man; you have been everywhere and seen everything; I
+haven't had any real education, any that counts besides yours; I
+haven't been anywhere; I am just a country old maid.  Oh, you would
+be ashamed of me in a month. . . .  No, no, no, I mustn't.  I
+won't."
+
+"But, Miss Martha--"
+
+"No.  Oh, no!"
+
+She turned away.  Galusha had what was, for him, an amazing and
+unprecedented inspiration.
+
+"Very well," he declared.  "I shall go to--to the devil, I think.
+Yes, I will.  I shall give away my money, all of it, and go to the
+devil."
+
+It was absurd enough, but the absurdity of it did not strike either
+of them then.
+
+"Oh, WON'T you go to Egypt?" she begged.  "Won't you, PLEASE?"
+
+He was firm.  "No," he declared.  "Not unless you go with me.  Ah--
+ah--Miss Martha, will you?"
+
+She hesitated, wrung her hands--and surrendered.  "Oh, I suppose I
+shall have to," she said.
+
+He did not dare believe it.
+
+"But--but I don't want you to have to," he cried.  "YOU mustn't
+marry me for--for Egypt, Miss Martha.  Of course, it is too much to
+ask; no doubt it is quite impossible, but you--you mustn't marry me
+unless you really--ah--want to."
+
+And then a very astonishing thing happened.  Martha turned to him,
+and tears were in her eyes.
+
+"Oh," she cried, breathlessly, "do you suppose there is a woman in
+this world who wouldn't want to marry a man like YOU?"
+
+
+
+After a while they discovered that it was raining.  As a matter of
+fact, it had been raining for some time and was now raining hard,
+but as Galusha said, it didn't make a bit of difference, really.
+They put up the umbrella, which until now had been quite forgotten,
+and walked home along the wet path, between the dripping weeds and
+bushes.  It was almost dark and, as they passed the lighthouse, the
+great beacon blazed from the tower.
+
+Galusha was babbling like a brook, endlessly but joyful.
+
+"Miss Martha--" he began.  Then he laughed aloud, a laugh of sheer
+happiness.  "It--it just occurred to me," he exclaimed.  "How
+extraordinary I didn't think of it before.  I sha'n't have to call
+you Miss Martha now, shall I?  It is very wonderful, isn't it?
+Dear me, yes!  Very wonderful!"
+
+Martha laughed, too.  "I'm afraid other people are goin' to think
+it is very ridiculous," she said.  "And perhaps it is.  Two middle-
+aged, settled folks like us startin' up all at once and gettin'
+married.  I know I should laugh if it was anybody else."
+
+But Galusha stoutly maintained there was nothing ridiculous about
+it.  It was wonderful, that was all.
+
+"Besides," he declared, "we are not old; we are just beginning to
+be young, you and I.  Personally, I feel as if I could jump over a
+bush and annihilate a--ah--June bug, as Luce did that night when we
+went out to see the moon."
+
+Luce himself was at the door waiting to be let in.  He regarded the
+pair with the air of condescending boredom which the feline race
+assumes when confronted with the idiosyncrasies of poor humanity.
+Possibly he was reflecting that, at least, he knew enough to go in
+when it rained.  Martha opened the door, but Galusha paused for a
+moment on the threshold.
+
+"Do you know," he said, "that, except--ah--occasionally, in wet
+weather, it scarcely ever rains in Egypt?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+
+(A letter from Mrs. Galusha Bangs to Miss Lulie Hallett.)
+
+
+Shepheard's Hotel, Cairo, Egypt, February tenth.
+
+MY DEAR LULIE:
+
+Well, as you can see by this hotel letter paper, here we are,
+actually here.  Of course we are only a little way toward where we
+are going, but this is Egypt, and I am beginning to believe it.  Of
+course, I can't yet quite believe it is really truly me that is
+doing these wonderful things and seeing these wonderful places.
+About every other morning still I wake up and think what a splendid
+dream I have had and wonder if it isn't time for me to call Primmie
+and see about getting breakfast.  And then it comes to me that it
+isn't a dream at all and that I don't have to get up unless I want
+to, that I don't have to do anything unless I want to, and that
+everything a sensible person could possibly want to do I CAN do,
+and have a free conscience besides, which is considerable.  I don't
+mean that I lay a-bed much later than I used to.  I never could
+abide not getting up at a regular time, and so half past seven
+generally finds me ready to go down to breakfast.  But, oh, it is a
+tremendous satisfaction to think that I could sleep later if I ever
+should want to.  Although, of course, I can't conceive of my ever
+wanting to.
+
+Well, I mustn't fill this whole letter with nonsense about the time
+I get up in the morning.  There is so much to write about that I
+don't know where to begin.  I do wish you could see this place,
+Lulie.  I wish you could be here now looking out of my room window
+at the crowds in the street.  I could fill a half dozen pages
+telling you about the clothes the people wear, although I must say
+that I have seen some whose clothes could be all told about in one
+sentence, and not a very long sentence at that.  But you see all
+kinds of clothes, uniforms, and everyday things such as we wear,
+and robes and fezzes and turbans and I don't know what.  You know
+what a fez is, of course.  It's shaped like a brown-bread tin and
+they wear it little end up with a tassel hanging down.  And
+turbans!  To me, when I used to see pictures of people wearing
+turbans, they were just pictures, that's all.  It didn't seem as if
+any one actually tied up the top of their head in a white sheet and
+went parading around looking like a stick with a snowball stuck on
+the end of it.  But they do, and most of them look as dignified as
+can be, in spite of the snowball.  And I have seen camels,
+quantities of them, and donkeys, and, oh, yes, about a million
+dogs, not one of them worth anything and perfectly contented to be
+that way.  And dirt!  Oh, Lulie, I didn't believe there was as much
+dirt in all creation as there is in just one of the back streets
+over here.  Galusha asked me the other day if I didn't wish I could
+go into one of the houses and see how the people lived; he meant
+the poor people.  I told him no, not if he ever expected me to get
+anywhere else.  If the inside of one of those houses was like the
+outside, I was sure and certain that I should send for a case of
+soap and a hundred barrels of hot water and stay there scrubbing
+the rest of my life.  And, oh, yes, I have seen the Pyramids.
+
+Of course, you want to know how I got along on the long voyage
+over.  I wrote you a few lines from Gibraltar telling you a little
+about that.  I wasn't seasick a single bit.  I think it must be in
+our blood, this being able to keep well and happy on salt water.
+Our family has always been to sea, as far back as my great-great-
+grandfather, at least, and I suppose that explains why, as soon as
+I stepped aboard the steamer, I felt as if I was where I belonged.
+And Galusha, of course, has traveled so much that he is a good
+sailor, too.  So, no matter whether it was calm or blowy, he and I
+walked decks or sat in the lee somewhere and talked of all that had
+happened and of what was going to happen.  And, Lulie, I realized
+over and over, as I have been realizing ever since I agreed to
+marry him, what a wonderful man he is and what a happy and grateful
+woman I ought to be--and am, you may be sure of that.  Every day I
+make a little vow to myself that I will do my best not to make him
+ashamed of me.  Of course, no matter what I did he would think it
+all right, but I mean to prevent other people from being ashamed
+for him.  That is, if I can, but I have so much to learn.
+
+You should see how he is treated over here, by the very finest
+people, I mean.  It seems to me that every scientist or explorer or
+professor of this or that from China to London has been running
+after him, all those that happen to be in this part of the world, I
+mean.  And always he is just the same quiet, soft-spoken, gentle
+person he was at the Cape, but it is plain to see that when it
+comes to matters about his particular profession, my husband is
+known and respected everywhere.  Perhaps you will think, Lulie,
+that I am showing off a little when I write "my husband" like that.
+Well, I shouldn't wonder if I was.  Nobody could help being proud
+of him.
+
+I had a trial the other evening.  That is, it seemed as if it would
+be the greatest trial that ever I had to face and my, how I dreaded
+it.  Sir Ernest Brindlecombe, an English scientist, and, so Galusha
+says, a very great man, indeed, is here with his wife, and they
+have known Galusha for years.  So nothing would do but we must come
+to their house to dinner.  He is in the English government service
+and they have a wonderful home, more like a palace than a house--
+that is, what I have always supposed a palace must be like.  I felt
+as if I COULDN'T go, but Galusha had accepted already, so what was
+there to do?
+
+Of course, you are wondering what I wore.  Well, as I wrote you
+from Washington, I had bought a lot of new things.  The wife of
+Professor Lounsbury, at the Institute, helped me pick them out, and
+oh, what should I have done without her!  Galusha, of course, would
+have rigged me up like the Queen of Sheba, if he had had his way.
+I tried going shopping with him at first, but I had to give it up.
+Every pretty dress he saw, no matter if it was about as fitting for
+my age and weight as a pink lace cap would be for a cow, he wanted
+to buy it right off.  If the price was high enough, that seemed to
+be the only thing that counted in his mind.  I may as well say
+right here, Lulie, that I have learned by this time, when he and I
+do go shopping together, to carry the pocketbook myself.  In that
+way we can manage to bring home something, even if it is only
+enough to buy a postage stamp.
+
+But I am wandering, as usual.  You want to know about the dinner at
+the Brindlecombes'.  Well, thanks to Mrs. Lounsbury's help and
+judgment, I had two dresses to pick from, two that seemed right for
+such a grand affair as I was afraid this was going to be.  And I
+picked out a black silk, trimmed--
+
+(Two pages of Mrs. Bangs' letter are omitted here)
+
+There is more of it at the top and bottom than there was to a whole
+lot of evening gowns I have seen, on the steamer and in Washington,
+but I can't help that.  I guess I am old-fashioned and countrified,
+but it does seem to me that the place to wear a bathing suit is in
+the water, especially for a person of my age.  However, it is a
+real sensible and rich-looking dress, even if it is simple, and I
+think you would like it.  At any rate, I put it on and Galusha got
+into his dress suit, after I had helped him find the vest, and
+stopped him from putting one gold stud and two pearl ones in his
+shirt.  HE didn't notice, bless him, he was thinking of everything
+but what he was doing at the minute, as he always is.
+
+So, both in our best bibs and tuckers, and all taut and ready for
+the sea, as father would have said, we were driven over to the
+Brindlecombe house, or palace, whichever you call it.  Mr.
+Brindlecombe--or Sir Ernest I suppose he should be called, although
+_I_ never remembered to do it, but called him Mr. Brindlecombe the
+whole evening--was a fleshy, bald-headed man, who looked the
+veriest little bit like Mr. Dearborn, the Congregational minister
+at Denboro, and was as pleasant and jolly as could be.  His wife
+was a white-haired little lady, dressed plainly--the expensive kind
+of plainness, you know--and with a diamond pin that was about as
+wonderful as anything I ever saw.  And I kept thinking to myself:
+"Oh, what SHALL I say to you?  What on EARTH shall we talk about?"
+and not getting any answer from myself, either.
+
+But I needn't have worried.  She was just as sweet and gentle and
+every-day as any one could be, and pretty soon it came out that we
+both loved flowers.  That was enough, of course, and so while Mr.
+Sir Ernest and Galusha were mooning along together about
+"dynasties" and "papyri" and "sphinxes" and "Ptolemies" and
+"hieroglyphics" and mummies and mercy knows what, his wife and I
+were having a lovely time growing roses and dahlias and lilies.
+She told me a new way to keep geranium roots alive for months after
+taking them up.  She learned it from her gardener and if ever I get
+a chance I am going to try it.  Well, Lulie, instead of having a
+dreadful time I enjoyed every minute of it, and yesterday Mrs.
+Brindlecombe--Lady Brindlecombe, I suppose she really is--came and
+took me to drive.  We shopped and had a glorious afternoon.  I
+presume likely I said "Mercy me" and "Goodness gracious" as often
+as I usually do and that they sounded funny to her.  But she said
+"My word" and "Fancy" and they sounded just as funny to me.  And it
+didn't make a bit of difference.
+
+There was one thing that came from our dinner at the Brindlecombes'
+which I must tell you, because it is so very like this blessed
+husband of mine.  I happened to speak of Mrs. Brindlecombe's pin,
+the wonderful one I just wrote about.  The very next day Galusha
+came trotting in, bubbling over with mischief and mystery like the
+boy he is in so many things, and handed me a jeweler's box.  When I
+opened it there was a platinum brooch with a diamond in it as big--
+honestly, Lulie, I believe it was as big as my thumbnail, or two
+thirds as big, anyway.  This husband of mine had, so he told me,
+made up his mind that nobody's wife should own a more wonderful pin
+than HIS wife owned.  "Because," he said, "nobody else has such a
+wonderful wife, you know.  Dear me, no.  No, indeed."
+
+Well, I almost cried at first, and then I set about thinking how I
+could get him to change the pin and do it without hurting his
+feelings.  As for wearing it--why, Lulie, I would have looked like
+the evening train just coming up to the depot platform.  That
+diamond flashed like the Gould's Bluffs light.  The sight of it
+would have made Zach Bloomer feel at home.  And when I found out
+what it cost!  My soul and body!  Well, I used all the brains I had
+and strained them a little, I'm afraid, but at last I made him
+understand that perhaps something a tiny bit smaller would look,
+when I wore it in the front of my dress, a little less like a
+bonfire on a hill and we went back to the jewelry store together.
+The upshot of it was that I have a brooch--lots smaller, of course-
+-and a ring, either of which is far, far too grand for a plain
+woman like me, and which I shall wear only on the very stateliest
+of state occasions and NEVER, I think, both at the same time, and I
+saved Galusha a good many dollars besides.
+
+So, you see, Lulie, that he is the same impractical, absent-minded,
+dear little man he was down there in East Wellmouth, even though he
+is such a famous scientist and discoverer.  I think I got the best
+salve for my conscience from knowing that, otherwise I should
+always feel that I never should have let him marry me.  In most
+respects I am not a bit the wife he should have, but I hope I am of
+some use in his practical affairs and that at last I can keep him
+from being imposed upon.  I try.  For instance, on the steamer his
+cap blew overboard.  I wish you could have seen the cap the ship's
+steward sold him.  The thing he bought at Ras Beebe's store was
+stylish and subdued compared to it.  And I wish you could have seen
+that steward when I got through talking to him.  Every day smooth-
+talking scamps, who know him by reputation, come with schemes for
+getting him to invest in something, or with pitiful tales about
+being Americans stranded far away from home.  I take care of these
+sharks and they don't bite me, not often.  I told one shabby, red-
+nosed rascal yesterday that, so far as he was concerned, no doubt
+it was tough to be stranded with no way of getting to the States,
+as he called them; but that I hadn't heard yet how the States felt
+about it.  So I help Galusha with money matters and see that he
+dresses as he should and eats what and when he should, and try,
+with Professor King, his chief assistant with the expedition, to
+keep his mind from worry about little things.  He seems very happy
+and I certainly mean to keep him so, if I can.
+
+We talk about you and Nelson and Captain Jethro every day.  The
+news in your last letter, the one we found at Gibraltar, was
+perfectly splendid.  So you are to be married in June.  And Galusha
+and I can't come to your wedding; that is a shame.  By the time we
+get back you will be so long settled in the cottage at the radio
+station that it won't seem new at all to you.  But it will be very
+new to us and we shall just love to see it and the new furniture
+and your presents and everything.  We both think your father's way
+of taking it perfectly splendid.  I am glad he still won't have a
+word to say to Marietta Hoag or her crowd of simpletons.  Galusha
+says to tell your father that he must not feel in the least obliged
+to him for his help in exposing Marietta as a cheat.  He says it
+was very good fun, really, and didn't amount to much, anyway.  You
+and I know it did, of course, but he always talks that way about
+anything he does.  And your thanks and Captain Jethro's pleased him
+very much.
+
+Primmie writes that . . .
+
+(A page omitted.  See Primmie's letter.)
+
+Please keep an eye on her and see that she doesn't set fire to the
+house or feed the corn to the cat and the liver to the hens, or
+some such foolishness.  And don't let her talk you deaf, dumb and
+blind.
+
+There! this letter is so long that I think it will have to go in a
+trunk, by express or freight or something.  One week more and we
+start for upper Egypt, by water, up the Nile, at first, then on by
+automobiles.  Yes, little American automobiles.  Galusha says we
+shall use camels very little, for which I say "Hurrah, hurrah!"  I
+cannot see myself navigating a camel--not for long, and it IS such
+a high perch to fall from.  Our love to you and Nelson and to your
+father.  And oh, so very much to yourself.  And we DO wish we might
+come to your wedding.  We shall be there in spirit--and that
+doesn't mean Marietta's kind of spirits, either.
+
+Your affectionate friend,
+
+MARTHA BANGS.
+
+
+(A letter from Miss Primrose Cash to Mrs. Galusha Bangs.)
+
+
+East Wellmouth, Massachusetts,
+United States of America.  January seventh.
+
+DEAR MRS. MARTHA:
+
+I take my pen in hand to write that I am first rate and fine and
+dandy and hope you and Mr. Galusha are the same, although I am
+homesick for the sight of you and hope you ain't.  I mean homesick.
+By this time I calculate you must be somewheres over in Egypt or
+Greek or China or land knows where.  I am sending this letter to
+the address you give me and if you don't get it before you get
+there you will then, I hope and trust.  And I hope, too, you had a
+good voyage and was not washed overboard or seasick like Captain
+Ephraim Small's son, Frankie D., who had it happen to him up on the
+fish banks, you remember.  I mean the washing overboard happened to
+him for, of course, I don't know whether he was seasick or not,
+though I presume likely, for I always am, no matter if it's carm as
+a milpond, but anyhow they never found his body, poor soul.  I
+presume likely you want to hear the news from around here at East
+Wellmouth.  Well, there ain't none, but I will try and tell all
+there is that I can think of.  The hens are well and Lucy Larkum is
+fine and dandy and appytite, my savin' soul.  I tell him he will
+eat me out of house and home, though I realize it ain't neither of
+them mine, but yours, Mrs. Martha.  Captain Jethro is doing fine.
+For a spell after the seants where your husband made a fool out of
+Maryetter Hoag and Raish Pulcifer to thank the Lord, he was reel
+kind of feeble and Lulie and me and Zach was worried.  But he is
+swell now and all hands is talking about his making up with Nelse
+Howard and agreeing for him and Lulie to get married and live over
+to the Radyo stashun pretty soon I presume likely, for the weding
+is to be held in June so Zach says.  At first go off, Captain Jeth
+he calculated maybe he would heave up, I mean his job tending
+light, and go live along with them, but after he got feeling better
+he said he wouldent but would stick to the ship and keep on the
+course long as he could stay aflote.  That's what Zach says he said
+and I tell you I am mity glad, because if I was Lulie and Nelse I
+wouldent want anybody even if it was my own father coming to live
+along with me and bossing things, because Captain Jeth couldent no
+more stop bossing than he could stop pulling his whiskers and he
+won't never stop that long as he ain't parulised.  So he will live
+here along with Zach and them two will tend light and Lulie can
+come over and see her pa every little spell and they can telyfone
+back and forth between times.  And she and Nelse have been up to
+Boston to pick out fernichure and ain't they enjoying it, my lord
+of isryel.  Lulie is about as loony over getting married as ever I
+see anybody unless it was you and Mr. Bangs, Mrs. Martha.  I seen
+Raish Pulcifer down street yesterday and he said give you his love
+when I wrote.  I told him I guessed likely you could get along
+without any special love of his and he said never mind I could keep
+it myself then.  I told him I could get along without it a
+considerable sight bettern I could with it.  He is as sassy and
+fresh as ever and more so to on account of Mr. Cabot paying him so
+much money for his stock.  And the new hotel is going to be bilt
+over on the land by the Crick and all hands says it's going to be
+the best in the state.  Raish has got a whole new rigout of clothes
+and goes struting around as if everything was due to his smartness.
+Zach says Raish Pulcifer is running for the job of first mate to
+the Allmighty but he don't hardly calculate he will be elected.
+Maryetter Hoag is going to heave up speritulism so Tamson Black
+told me she heard and going to help in a millunary store over to
+Onset next summer.  Maybe it's so and maybe it ain't, because
+Tamson is such an awful liar you can't depend on nothing she says.
+Zach says if an eel tried to follow one of Tamson's yarns he would
+get his backboan in such a snarl it would choak him to death.  And
+Zach says he calculates Maryetter will take little Cherry Blossom
+in silent partener.  Zach comes over to see me sometimes nights
+after supper and we set in the kitchen and talk and talk about you
+and Mr. Galusha mostly, but about Lulie and Nelse and Captain Jeth,
+too, and about everybody else we happen to run afoul of or that
+comes handy.  Zach is real good company, although he does call me
+Posy and Pink and Geranyum and dear land knows what and keeps his
+talk agoing so nobody else can't scarcely get a word in between
+breaths.  He says tell you that he will keep a weather eye on me
+and see that I didn't get the lockjor nor swallow my mouthorgan nor
+nothing.  I tell him nobody could get lockjor where he was on
+account of watching how he keeps his own jor agoing.  He means well
+but he is kind of ignorant Zach is.  Speaking of weather reminds me
+that the northeast gale we had last week blowed the trellis off the
+back part of the house and ripped the gutter off the starboard side
+of the barn.  I had Jim Fletcher put it on again and he charged me
+three dollars, the old skin.  I ain't paid him yet and he can
+whisle for his money till he whisles one dollar off the bill
+anyhow.  There, Mrs. Martha, I have got to stop.  Luce is around
+screeching and carrying on for his dinner till you would think he
+hadent had anything for a month instead of only since breakfast.  I
+will write again pretty soon.  Lots of love to you and Mr. Bangs
+and do tell me when you go to ride on a camel.  That would be some
+sight, I will say, and Zach he says so, too, but he bets you can do
+it if you set out to and so do I.  Anyhow, you can if Mr. Galusha
+skippers the cruise because that man can do anything.  And to think
+that I used to calculate he had the dropsy or was a undertaker or a
+plain fool or something.  Well, you can't never tell by a person's
+looks, can you, Mrs. Martha.  Zach says so, too.
+
+Yours truly,
+
+PRIMROSE CASH.
+
+P.S.  Have you seen Mr. Bangs dig up any mummies yet?  How he can
+do it and keep out of jale, my saving soul, I don't know.  To say
+nothing of maybe catching whatever it was they died of.
+
+P.S.  Won't you please try and see if you can't have a tintype took
+when you ride the camel and send me one?
+
+
+(Extracts from a letter from Mr. Galusha Bangs to Mr. Augustus
+Cabot.)
+
+
+. . . And so, as you see, Cousin Gussie, we are getting on well
+with the work of preparation and shall be ready to leave soon.  Our
+excavating this season will be but preliminary, of course owing to
+our late start.  I am enjoying it all immensely and it is
+wonderfully exhilarating and inspiring to be back once more in the
+field.  But my greatest inspiration is my wife.  She is a
+remarkable woman.  A most extraordinary woman, I assure you.  How
+in the world I managed to exist without her companionship and
+guidance and amazingly practical help all these years I cannot
+imagine.  And I did not really exist, of course, I merely blundered
+along.  She is--well, I really despair of telling you how wonderful
+she is.  And when I think how much of my present happiness I owe to
+you, Cousin Gussie, I . . .
+
+             *      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+But the greatest miracle, the miraculousness--I don't know there is
+such a word, but there should be--of which sets me wondering
+continually, is that she should have been willing to marry an odd,
+inconsequential sort of stick like me.  And I find myself saying
+over and over:  "WHAT have I ever done to deserve it? . . ."
+
+
+Mr. Cabot was reading the letter from which these extracts were
+made to a relative, a Miss Deborah Cabot, known to him and the
+family as "Third Cousin Deborah."  At this point in the reading he
+looked up and laughed.
+
+"By Jove!" he exclaimed.  "Isn't that characteristic?  Isn't that
+like him?  Well, I told him once that he was magnificent.  And he
+is, not as I meant it then, but literally."
+
+Third Cousin Deborah sniffed through her thin nostrils.  "Well,
+perhaps," she admitted, "but such a performance as this marriage of
+his is a little too much.  _I_ can't understand him, Augustus.  I
+confess he is quite beyond ME."
+
+Cabot smiled.  "In many things--and possibly the things that count
+most, after all, Deborah," he observed, "I have come to the
+conclusion that old Galusha is far beyond the majority of us."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, GALUSHA THE MAGNIFICENT ***
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