lighthouse wire
great fun. The lightkeeper, so the agent said, was named Atkins, and was
a savage woman-hater. He would not see a woman, much less speak to one;
it was a standing joke in the neighborhood, Seth's hatred of females.
That seemed to prove that Emeline and her husband were not reconciled
and living together, at least. Possibly their being neighbors was merely
a coincidence. If so, he might not have come too late. When he next
addressed his companion it was in a different tone and without the
"Mister."

"Bascom--or--er--Atkins," he said sharply, "I hoped--I sincerely hoped
that you and I might not meet during my short stay here; but, as we have
met, I think it best that we should understand each other. Suppose we
walk over to that clump of trees on the other side of the track.
We shall be alone there, and I can say what is necessary. I don't
wish--even when I remember your behavior toward my sister--to humiliate
you in the town where you may be trying to lead a better life. Come."

He led the way, and Seth, yielding as of old to this man's almost
hypnotic command over him and still bewildered by the unexpected
meeting, followed like a whipped dog. Under the shelter of the trees
they paused.

"Now then," said Bennie D., "perhaps you'll tell me what you mean by
decoying my sister down here in my absence, when I was not present to
protect her. What do you mean by it?"

Seth stared at him uncomprehendingly. "Decoyin' her?" he repeated. "I
never decoyed her. I've been here ever since I left--left you and her
that night. I never asked her to come. I didn't know she was comin'. And
she didn't know I was here until--until a month or so ago. I--"

Bennie D. held up a hand. He was delighted by this piece of news, but he
did not show it.

"That will do," he said. "I understand all that. But since then--since
then? What do you mean by trying to influence her as you have? Answer
me!"

The lightkeeper rubbed his forehead.

"I ain't tried to influence her," he declared. "She and me have scarcely
seen each other. Nobody knows that we was married, not even Miss Graham
nor the young feller that's--that's my helper at the lights. You must
know that. She must have wrote you. What are you talkin' about?"

She had not written; he had received no letters from her during the two
years, but again the wily "genius" was equal to the occasion. He looked
wise and nodded.

"Of course," he said importantly. "Of course. Certai