n report, had spoken of him, Ellery, as a
"hired priest."

The door closed. A few moments thereafter the sound of a squeaky
melodeon came from within the building. It wailed and quavered and
groaned. Then, with a suddenness that was startling, came the first
verse of a hymn, sung with tremendous enthusiasm:

"Oh, who shall answer when the Lord shall call
His ransomed sinners home?"

The hallelujah chorus was still ringing when the watcher across the
street stepped out from the shadow of the hornbeam. Without a pause he
strode over to the platform. Another moment and the door had shut behind
him.

The minister of the Trumet Regular church had entered the Come-Outer
chapel to attend a Come-Outer prayer meeting!

CHAPTER V

IN WHICH THE PARSON CRUISES IN STRANGE WATERS

The Come-Outer chapel was as bare inside, almost, as it was without.
Bare wooden walls, a beamed ceiling, a raised platform at one end with
a table and chairs and the melodeon upon it, rows of wooden settees for
the congregation--that was all. As the minister entered, the worshipers
were standing up to sing. Three or four sputtering oil lamps but dimly
illumined the place and made recognition uncertain.

The second verse of the hymn was just beginning as Ellery came in. Most
of the forty or more grown people in the chapel were too busy wrestling
with the tune to turn and look at him. A child here and there in the
back row twisted a curious neck but twisted back again as parental
fingers tugged at its ear. The minister tiptoed to a dark corner and
took his stand in front of a vacant settee.

The man whom Ellery had decided must be Captain Eben Hammond was
standing on the low platform beside the table. A quaint figure,
patriarchal with its flowing white hair and beard, puritanical with its
set, smooth-shaven lips and tufted brows. Captain Eben held an open hymn
book back in one hand and beat time with the other. He wore brass-bowed
spectacles well down toward the tip of his nose. Swinging a heavy,
stubby finger and singing in a high, quavering voice of no particular
register, he led off the third verse:

"Oh, who shall weep when the roll is called
And who shall shout for joy?"

The melodeon and the hymn book were in accord as to the tune, but
Captain Eben and the various members of the congregation seemed to have
a desire to improvise. They sang with spirit, however, and the rhythmic
pat of feet