ut him?"

"I meet him everywhere," said Neckart. "The old man is failing fast. But
he takes life just as he always did--like a boy let loose for the
holidays."

"And his daughter?"

"She never comes into town: she is not a woman of society."

"I remember the little Swede was no favorite of yours," noticing a
certain reserve in Neckart's tone. "But I had an object in asking for
her. Of course you would not be likely to know much about them: they are
out of your line."

"I have met the captain and his daughter several times during the year,"
said Neckart. "They were camping on the Maine coast last summer, and I
stumbled into their tent one day. Miss Swendon fancied her father would
grow strong on a diet of fish of his own catching. When the cold weather
set in she took him to St. Augustine. I ran against him by the old fort
the very morning I arrived, and in the spring we met at Omaha, and made
the overland trip to California together. There is no kind of air and no
kind of amusement which she has not tried, since she had the means, to
give the old man his health back again. To no purpose, however."

"Very odd!" the judge nodded mysteriously. "Very odd indeed about that
property! Laidley told me the very night before he died that he had made
a will leaving it in charity. Now, Jane inherited by virtue of a will
made two years before. No other forthcoming. I suppose remorse seized
him _in articulo mortis_. There was a curious thing occurred in that
last interview of mine with Laidley.--How can I see Swendon?"
interrupting himself. "Where is their house?"

Mr. Neckart hesitated a moment: "I am going there this evening to dine
and spend the night, and I will take you with me. It will be a surprise
which the captain will like."

"The very thing! Precisely! The truth is, Neckart--light a cigar--the
truth is," lowering his voice and leaning over the table, "Laidley
exacted a half promise from me that night which troubles me. The fellow
died forthwith, you see, and so clenched it on me. He had a plan for
Miss Swendon's future, and asked me to forward it. I thought he was
going to cheat the girl, and paid little attention to it. But he did
the clean thing after all, and then died promptly. I must say Laidley
acted in a much more decent and gentlemanlike way than I expected. So,
now I feel as if I owed it to the fellow to keep my word."

Mr. Neckart nodded. He asked no questions, but scanned the judge's
flabby face narro