presume likely, when she gets older; there'll be some
kind soul around town that'll tell her, consarn 'em; but WE shan't tell
her; and if YOU tell her, Isaiah Chase, I'll--I declare to man I'll
heave you overboard!"

And now after all these years of ignorance during which the expected had
not happened and no one of the village gossips had revealed the secret
to her--now, here she was, demanding that he, Isaiah Chase, reveal it,
and threatening to go straight to Captain Gould and tell who had put
her upon the scent. No wonder the cook and steward wrung his hands in
despair; the heaving overboard was imminent.

Mary, earnest and determined as she was to learn the truth, the
truth which she was beginning to believe might mean so much to her,
nevertheless could not help pitying him.

"Come, come, Isaiah," she said, "don't look so tragic. There isn't
anything so dreadful about it. Have you promised--have you given your
word not to tell? Because if you have I shan't ask you to break it.
I shall go to Judge Baxter instead--or to Uncle Shad. But of course I
shall be obliged to tell how I came to know--the little I do know."

Mr. Chase did not like the prospect of her going to the Captain, that
was plain. For the first time his obstinacy seemed to waver.

"I--I don't know's I ever give my word," he admitted. "I never promised
nothin', as I recollect. Cap'n Shad he give me orders--"

"Yes, yes, of course he did. Well, now I'M giving you orders. And I
promise you, Isaiah, if it ever becomes necessary I'll stand between you
and Uncle Shad. Now tell me."

Isaiah sat down upon the bed and wiped his forehead.

"Oh, Lordy!" he moaned. "I wisht my mouth had been sewed up afore ever
I said a word about any of it. . . . But--but . . . Well," desperately,
"what is it you want to know?"

"I want to know everything. Begin at the beginning and tell me who Mr.
Farmer was."

Mr. Chase marked a pattern on the floor with his slippered foot. Then he
began:

"He come from up Cape Ann way in the beginnin'," he said. "The rest of
the firm was Cape Codders, but he wan't. However, he'd been a-fishin'
and he knew fish and after the firm was fust started and needed an extry
bookkeeper he applied and got the job. There was three of 'em in Hall
and Company at fust, all young men they was, too; your stepfather, Cap'n
Marcellus Hall, he was the head one; and Mr. Zoeth, he was next and
Cap'n Shad next. 'Twan't until three or four year afterwards