too, eh! captain?" said Hardy. "But I must
be getting home, as I live way over in Jersey. I'll report to-morrow
night at your place downtown. She'll be less religious by that time if
she sees that God has gone back on her, I guess."

"You mean that you will press the charge against her and have them send
her to jail? That's going pretty far, Hardy; but I'll leave it to your
judgment."

"Oh, pshaw! She'll be tractable before it comes to that pass, captain.
I've seen girls before. I know how to handle 'em."

The two men parted, Hardy going to his home in Jersey, while the man
whom he had called "captain" went in the direction of Fifth avenue.

When he arrived at his magnificent bachelor apartments he let himself in
with a latch-key. His colored valet was busy in one of the rooms packing
his master's clothing into two traveling bags.

"Well, Dave," said the captain, gayly, "we will have a fine trip South,
I fancy; but don't hurry with that packing. Let it go for a day. I've
decided not to start as soon as I intended."

"All right, sah; I'll drop it right quick, sah," said the negro. "Yere's
a letter, sah, dat was brung 'bout an hour ago. I dun tole de boy dat
you would anser it at your leesyur, sah."

Captain Paul Deering laughed at his servant's language. Dave always used
big words and the most extravagant manners when he came in contact with
other people's servants.

"By Jove!" exclaimed the captain, as he opened the letter. "It's from my
lawyer, Dave, telling me that my sister has been found. She is living
here in the city, and is a widow with one daughter."

"Yo' doan' say so, sah!"

Dave was standing with his mouth wide open to indicate his interest in
the news. He had been with the captain so long that he was very deep in
his confidences.

"Yes, she's here in town, and has been for years, and to think I've been
here, too, and didn't know it! You see, Dave, I ran away from home when
she was only a young girl. When the home was broken up I lost track of
her completely. Now there's a snug little fortune waiting for her that
she should have had five years ago, but perhaps it's just as well it's
been accumulating interest all the time."

"An' yourn has bin a losin' interes'," replied the negro, grinning. "I
neber see money slip troo' a man's fingers so fas' as it do troo' yourn,
capting, dat's a fac'."

"Oh, I get the worth of it as I go along, Dave," laughed the captain,
"but I suppose I've got to go out