ng too
old to go about alone. Please tell Miss Jane she must not hesitate to
send for me if I can be of the slightest service." Then she re-entered
the room where Martha lay and closed the door.

Another and louder knock now broke the stillness of the chamber and
checked the sobs of the nurse; Captain Holt had met Jane's servant as
he was passing the gate. He stopped for an instant in the hall, slipped
off his coat, and walked straight upstairs, humming a tune as he came.
Jane heard his firm tread, opened the door of their room, and she and
Martha crossed the hall to a smaller apartment where Jane always
attended to the business affairs of the house. The captain's face was
wreathed in a broad smile as he extended his hand to Jane in welcome.

"It's lucky ye caught me, Miss Jane. I was just goin' out, and in a
minute I'd been gone for the night. Hello, Mother Martha! I thought
you'd gone to Trenton."

The two women made no reply to his cheery salutation, except to motion
him to a seat. Then Jane closed the door and turned the key in the lock.

When the captain emerged from the chamber he stepped out alone. His
color was gone, his eyes flashing, his jaw tight set. About his mouth
there hovered a savage, almost brutal look, the look of a bulldog who
bares his teeth before he tears and strangles--a look his men knew when
someone of them purposely disobeyed his orders. For a moment he stood
as if dazed. All he remembered clearly was the white, drawn face of a
woman gazing at him with staring, tear-drenched eyes, the slow dropping
of words that blistered as they fell, and the figure of the nurse
wringing her hands and moaning: "Oh, I told ye so! I told ye so! Why
didn't ye listen?" With it came the pain of some sudden blow that
deadened his brain and stilled his heart.

With a strong effort, like one throwing off a stupor, he raised his
head, braced his shoulders, and strode firmly along the corridor and
down the stairs on his way to the front door. Catching up his coat, he
threw it about him, pulled his hat on, with a jerk, slamming the front
door, plunged along through the dry leaves that covered the path, and
so on out to the main road. Once beyond the gate he hesitated, looked
up and down, turned to the right and then to the left, as if in doubt,
and lunged forward in the direction of the tavern.

It was Sunday night, and the lounging room was full. One of the inmates
rose and offered him a chair--he was much respec