n his face was a look of the most perfect peace and happiness--the
look of one who has long sought and found at last.

"He is asleep?" whispered Anne tremulously.

Gilbert went to the sofa and bent over him for a few moments. Then he
straightened up.

"Yes, he sleeps--well," he added quietly. "Anne, Captain Jim has
crossed the bar."

They could not know precisely at what hour he had died, but Anne always
believed that he had had his wish, and went out when the morning came
across the gulf. Out on that shining tide his spirit drifted, over the
sunrise sea of pearl and silver, to the haven where lost Margaret
waited, beyond the storms and calms.

CHAPTER 40

FAREWELL TO THE HOUSE OF DREAMS

Captain Jim was buried in the little over-harbor graveyard, very near
to the spot where the wee white lady slept. His relatives put up a
very expensive, very ugly "monument"--a monument at which he would have
poked sly fun had he seen it in life. But his real monument was in the
hearts of those who knew him, and in the book that was to live for
generations.

Leslie mourned that Captain Jim had not lived to see the amazing
success of it.

"How he would have delighted in the reviews--they are almost all so
kindly. And to have seen his life-book heading the lists of the best
sellers--oh, if he could just have lived to see it, Anne!"

But Anne, despite her grief, was wiser.

"It was the book itself he cared for, Leslie--not what might be said of
it--and he had it. He had read it all through. That last night must
have been one of the greatest happiness for him--with the quick,
painless ending he had hoped for in the morning. I am glad for Owen's
sake and yours that the book is such a success--but Captain Jim was
satisfied--I KNOW."

The lighthouse star still kept a nightly vigil; a substitute keeper had
been sent to the Point, until such time as an all-wise government could
decide which of many applicants was best fitted for the place--or had
the strongest pull. The First Mate was at home in the little house,
beloved by Anne and Gilbert and Leslie, and tolerated by a Susan who
had small liking for cats.

"I can put up with him for the sake of Captain Jim, Mrs. Doctor, dear,
for I liked the old man. And I will see that he gets bite and sup, and
every mouse the traps account for. But do not ask me to do more than
that, Mrs. Doctor, dear. Cats is cats, and take my word for it, they
will never be anything else