? If so, I--"

He stopped short, for Mr. Atkins, after one languid glance in his
direction, had sprung from the truck and was gazing at him as if he was
some apparition, some figure in a nightmare, instead of his blase self.
And he, as he looked at the lightkeeper's astounded countenance,
dropped the cigar stump from his fingers and stepped backward in alarmed
consternation.

"You--you--YOU?" gasped Seth.

"YOU!" repeated the stranger.

"You!" cried Seth again; not a brilliant nor original observation, but,
under the circumstances, excusable, for the nonchalant person in
the plaid suit was Emeline Bascom's brother-in-law, the genius, the
"inventor," the one person whom he hated--and feared--more than anyone
else in the world--Bennie D. himself.

There was a considerable interval during which neither of the pair
spoke. Seth, open-mouthed and horror-stricken, was incapable of speech,
and the inventor's astonishment seemed to be coupled with a certain
nervousness, almost as if he feared a physical assault. However, as the
lightkeeper made no move, and his fists remained open, the nervousness
disappeared, and Bennie D. characteristically took command of the
situation.

"Hum!" he observed musingly. "Hum! May I ask what you are doing here?"

"Huh--hey?" was Seth's incoherent reply.

"I ask what you are doing here? Have you followed me?"

"Fol-follered you? No."

"You're sure of that, are you?"

"Yes, I be." Seth did not ask what Bennie D. was doing there. Already
that question was settled in his mind. The brother-in-law had found
out that Emeline was living next door to the man she married, that her
summer engagement was over, and he had come to take her away.

"Well?" queried the inventor sharply, "if you haven't followed me, what
are you doing here? What do you mean by being here?"

"I belong here," desperately. "I work here."

"You do? And may I ask what particular being is fortunate enough to
employ you?"

"I'm keeper down to the lighthouses, if you want to know. But I cal'late
you know it already."

Bennie D.'s coolness was not proof against this. He started.

"The lighthouses?" he repeated. "The--what is it they call them?--the
Twin-Lights?"

"Yes. You know it; what's the use of askin' fool questions?"

The inventor had not known it--until that moment, and he took time to
consider before making another remark. His sister-in-law was employed as
housekeeper at some bungalow or other situated in cl