t schooled there. My father was a Spaniard."

"So I've heard. . . . Well, we're kind of off the subject, ain't we?
Let's leave your father's nationality out of it for a while. And we'll
leave the school, too, because no matter if it was the best one on earth
you couldn't go there. I shouldn't feel 'twas right to spend as much
money as that at any school, and you--well, son, you ain't got it to
spend. Did you have any idea what your father left you, in the way of
tangible assets?"

"No. I knew he had plenty of money always. He was one of the most famous
singers in this country."

"Maybe so."

"It WAS so," hotly. "And he was paid enough in one week to buy this
whole town--or almost. Why, my father--"

"Sshh! Sssh!"

"No, I'm not going to hush. I'm proud of my father. He was a--a great
man. And--and I'm not going to stand here and have you--"

Between indignation and emotion he choked and could not finish the
sentence. The tears came to his eyes.

"I'm not going to have you or anyone else talk about him that way," he
concluded, fiercely.

His grandfather regarded him with a steady, but not at all unkindly,
gaze.

"I ain't runnin' down your father, Albert," he said.

"Yes, you are. You hated him. Anybody could see you hated him."

The captain slowly rapped the desk with the pencil. He did not answer at
once.

"Well," he said, after a moment, "I don't know as I ought to deny that.
I don't know as I can deny it and be honest. Years ago he took away from
me what amounted to three-quarters of everything that made my life worth
while. Some day you'll know more about it than you do now, and maybe
you'll understand my p'int of view better. No, I didn't like your
father--Eh? What was you sayin'?"

Albert, who had muttered something, was rather confused. However, he
did not attempt to equivocate. "I said I guessed that didn't make much
difference to Father," he answered, sullenly.

"I presume likely it didn't. But we won't go into that question now.
What I'm tryin' to get at in this talk we're having is you and your
future. Now you can't go back to school because you can't afford it. All
your father left when he died was--this is the honest truth I'm tellin'
you now, and if I'm puttin' it pretty blunt it's because I always think
it's best to get a bad mess out of the way in a hurry--all your father
left was debts. He didn't leave money enough to bury him, hardly."

The boy stared at him aghast. His grandfather,