"

"But--but, the last I heard of you, you was practicin' law over to New
York."

"So I was. That, for a young lawyer without funds or influence, is as
near doing nothing as anything I can think of."

"But--but, John--"

"Just a minute, Captain. The 'buts' are there, plenty of them. Before we
reach them, however, perhaps I'd better tell you the story of my life.
It isn't exciting enough to make you nervous, but it may explain a few
things."

He told his story. It was not the story of his life, his whole life, by
any means. The captain already knew the first part of that life. He had
known the Kendricks ever since he had known anyone. Every person in
East Wellmouth of middle age or older remembered when the two brothers,
Samuel Kendrick and Bailey Kendrick--Bailey was John's father--lived in
the village and were the "big" men of the community. Bailey was the more
important and respected at that time, for Samuel speculated in stocks
a good deal and there were seasons when he was so near bankruptcy that
gossip declared he could not pass the poorhouse without shivering. If
it had not been for his brother Bailey, so that same gossip affirmed,
he would most assuredly have gone under, but Bailey lent him money and
helped him in many ways. Both brothers were widowers and each had a son;
but Samuel's boy Erastus was fifteen years older than John.

The families moved from Wellmouth when John was six years old. They went
West and there, so it was said, the positions of the brothers changed.
Samuel's luck turned; he made some fortunate stock deals and became
wealthy. Bailey, however, lost all he had in bad mining ventures and
sank almost to poverty. Both had been dead for years now, but Samuel's
son, Erastus--he much preferred to be called E. Holliday Kendrick--was
a man of consequence in New York, a financier, with offices on Broad
Street and a home on Fifth Avenue. John, the East Wellmouth people had
last heard of as having worked his way through college and law school
and as practicing his profession in the big city.

So much Captain Bangs knew. And John Kendrick told him the rest. The
road to success for a young attorney in New York he had found hard and
discouraging. For two years he had trodden it and scarcely earned enough
to keep himself alive. Now he had decided, or practically decided, to
give up the attempt, select some small town or village and try his luck
there. East Wellmouth was the one village he knew and r