at name would be lost now
because of the carelessness of Stafford's men! And the sound of the
shoal brought the evil thought to me. Suppose I had not happened
across his ship; would it have gone upon some reef like this and been
lost? I thought that if now the hawser should break, I would be rid of
that ship and perhaps of the owner who was on board as well. We could
not pick up the tow line again so close to the reef. The steamer would
drift down upon the rocks--'"

Father Perron hesitated an instant. "I bear witness," he said
solemnly, "that Benjamin Corvet assured me--his priest--that it was
only a thought; the evil act which it suggested was something which he
would not do or even think of doing. But he spoke something of what
was in his mind to Stafford, for he said:

"'I must look like a fool to you to keep on towing your ship!'

"They stared, he told me, into one another's eyes, and Stafford grew
uneasy.

"'We'd have been all right,' he answered, 'until we had got help, if
you'd left us where we were!' He too listened to the sound of the buoy
and of the water dashing on the shoal. 'You are taking us too close,'
he said--'too close!' He went aft then to look at the tow line."

Father Perron's voice ceased; what he had to tell now made his face
whiten as he arranged it in his memory. Alan leaned forward a little
and then, with an effort, sat straight. Constance turned and gazed at
him; but he dared not look at her. He felt her hand warm upon his; it
rested there a moment and moved away.

"There was a third man in the wheelhouse when these things were
spoken," Father Perron said, "the mate of the ship which had been laid
up at Manistee."

"Henry Spearman," Sherrill supplied.

"That is the name. Benjamin Corvet told me of that man that he was
young, determined, brutal, and set upon getting position and wealth for
himself by any means. He watched Corvet and Stafford while they were
speaking, and he too listened to the shoal until Stafford had come
back; then he went aft.

"'I looked at him, Father,' Benjamin Corvet said to me, 'and I let him
go--not knowing. He came back and looked at me once more, and went
again to the stern; Stafford had been watching him as well as I, and he
sprang away from me now and scrambled after him. The tug leaped
suddenly; there was no longer any tow holding it back, for the hawser
had parted; and I knew, Father, the reason was that Spearman had cut it!

"'I ra