re's Joshua?" demanded Seth.

"Hey?" inquired the blacksmith absently.

"Where's my horse? Is he ready?"

Benijah wiped his forehead.

"Gosh!" he exclaimed. "By . . . gosh!"

"What are you b'goshin' about?"

"Seth--I don't know what you'll say to me--but--but I declare I forgot
all about your horse."

"You FORGOT about him?"

"Yes. You see that thing?" pointing pathetically at the auto. "Well,
sir, that pesky thing's breakin' my heart--to say nothin' of my back. I
got it apart all right, no trouble about that. And by good rights
I've got it together again, leastways it looks so. Yet, by time," in
distracted agitation, "there's a half bucket of bolts and nuts and odds
and ends that ain't in it yet--left over, you might say. And I can't
find any place to put one of 'em. Do you wonder I forget trifles?"

Trifles! the shoeing of Joshua a trifle! The lightkeeper had been
suffering for an opportunity to blow off steam, and the opportunity was
here. Benijah withered under the blast.

"S-sh-sh! sh-sh!" he pleaded. "Land sakes, Seth Atkins, stop it! I don't
blame you for bein' mad, but you nor nobody else sha'n't talk to me that
way. I'll fix your horse in five minutes. Yes, sir, in five minutes.
Shut up now, or I won't do it at all!"

He rushed over to the stall in the rear of the shop, woke Joshua from
the sweet slumber of old age, and led him to the halter beside the
forge. The lightkeeper, being out of breath, had nothing further to say
at the moment.

"What's the matter with all you lighthouse folks?" asked Benijah,
anxious to change the subject. "What's possessed the whole lot of you to
come to the village at one time? Whoa, boy, stand still!"

"The whole lot of us?" repeated Seth. "What do you mean?"

"Mean I've seen two of you at least this afternoon. That Bascom woman,
housekeeper at the Graham bungalow she is, went past here twice. Fust
time she was in one of Snow's livery buggies, Snow's boy drivin' her.
Then, about an hour ago, she went by again, but the boy'd gone, and
there was another feller pilotin' the team--a stranger, nobody I ever
see afore."

Seth's red face turned pale. "What?" he cried. "Em--Mrs. Bascom ridin'
with a stranger! What sort of a stranger?"

"Oh, a feller somewheres between twenty and fifty. Smooth-faced critter
with a checked suit and a straw hat. . . . What on earth's the matter
with you now?"

For the lightkeeper was shaking from head to foot.

"Did--did--which way wa