them a great many stories about the captain and his
erratic niece, mostly gleaned from a very respectable elderly lady of
the town by the name of Port.

_CHAPTER XXXIII_

_Dick Lancaster does not Write._

On the third morning after their arrival at the toll-gate the captain
and Olive ventured upon a little walk over the farm. It was very hard
upon both of them to be shut up in the house so long. They saw no
reporters, nor were there any men with cameras, but the scenery was not
pleasant, nor was the air particularly exhilarating. They were not
happy; they felt alone, as if they were in a strange place. Some of the
captain's friends in the town came to the toll-gate, but there were not
many, and Olive saw none of them. The whole situation reminded the girl
of the death of her mother.

As soon as it was known that the Ashers were at home there came letters
from many quarters. One of these was from Mrs. Easterfield. She would be
at Broadstone as soon as she could get her children started from the
seashore. She longed to take Olive to her heart, but whether this was in
commiseration or commendation was not quite plain to Olive. The letter
concluded with this sentence: "There is something behind all this, and
when I come you must tell me."

Then there was one from her father in which he bemoaned what had
happened. "That such a thing should have come to my daughter!" he
wrote. "To my daughter!" There was a great deal more of it, but he said
nothing about coming with his young wife to the toll-gate, and Olive's
countenance was almost stern when she handed this letter to her uncle.

Claude Locker wrote:

"How I long, how I rage to write to you, or to go to you! But if I
should write, it would be sure to give you pain, and if I should go
to you I should also go crazy. Therefore, I will merely state that
I love you madly; more now than ever before; and that I shall
continue to do so for the rest of my life, no matter what happens
to you, or to me, or to anybody.

"Ever turned toward you,

"CLAUDE LOCKER.

"How I wish I had been there with a sledgehammer!"

And then there were the newspapers. Many of these the captain had
ordered by the Glenford bookseller, and a number were sent by friends,
and some even by strangers. And so they learned what was thought of them
over a wide range of country, and this publicity Olive found very hard
to bear. It was even worse than th