Cy pulled his beard and laughed.

"Well, we repelled 'em, didn't we?" he observed. "But, as friend
Heman says, the beginnin's only begun. I wish he hadn't seen you here,
teacher."

Miss Dawes looked up from the task of stroking poor Bos'n's hair.

"I don't," she said, "I'm glad of it." Then she added, laughing
nervously: "Cap'n Whittaker, how could you be so cool? It was like a
play. I declare, you were just splendid!"

CHAPTER XIV

A CLEW

Josiah Dimick has a unique faculty of grasping a situation and summing
it up in an out-of-the-ordinary way.

"I think," observed Josiah to the excited group at Simmons's, "that this
town owes Cy Whittaker a vote of thanks."

"Thanks!" gasped Alpheus Smalley, so shocked and horrified that he put
the one-pound weight on the scales instead of the half pound. "THANKS!
After what we've found out? Well, I must say!"

"Ya-as," drawled Captain Josiah, "thanks was what I said. If it wan't
for him this gang and the sewin' circle wouldn't have nothin' to talk
about but their neighbors. Our reputations would be as full of holes as
a skimmer by this time. Now all hands are so busy jumpin' on Whit, that
the rest of us can feel fairly safe. Ain't that so, Gabe?"

Mr. Lumley, who had stopped in for a half pound of tea, grinned feebly,
but said nothing. If he noticed the clerk's mistake in weights he didn't
mention it, but took his package and hurried out. After his departure
Mr. Smalley himself discovered the error and charged the Lumley account
with "1 1/4 lbs. Mixed Green and Black." Meanwhile the assemblage
about the stove had put Captain Cy on the anvil and was hammering him
vigorously.

Bayport was boiling over with rumor and surmise. Heman had appealed to
the courts asking that Captain Cy's appointment as Bos'n's guardian be
rescinded. Cy had hired Lawyer Peabody, of Ostable, to look out for his
interests. Mr. Atkins and the captain had all but come to blows over
the child. Thomas, the poor father, had broken down and wept, and had
threatened to commit suicide. Mrs. Salters had refused to speak to
Captain Cy when she met the latter after meeting on Sunday. The land in
Orham had been sold and the captain was using the money. Phoebe Dawes
had threatened to resign if Bos'n came to school any longer. No, she had
threatened to resign if she didn't come to school. She hadn't threatened
to resign at all, but wanted higher wages because of the effect the
scandal might have on her r