re about it than I do," he grumbled; "but I've lived
here a goin' on thirty years, and ort to be acquainted with this coast,
and I say I ain't a going to risk my critters sich a night. If there
ain't no danger 'taint fit to send any horse out in a storm like this
anyhow."

"I can't stand arguing here," Mellen began, but the old man
unceremoniously interrupted him.

"Where do you want to go?" he asked.

"Over to Piney Cove."

"Mr. Mellen's place! Why it's good three miles, and he ain't to hum, nor
hasn't been, nigh on to two years."

"Don't you know me, old friend?" exclaimed Mellen throwing back his
cloak.

The old fisherman rose in astonishment, while his married daughter, who
kept his house and owned the flock of children, called out:

"Why, pa, if it ain't Mr. Mellen!"

"I thought I knowed your voice, but couldn't make out who it belonged
to; but Californy ain't so nigh as some other places," said the
fisherman. "So you've got back! Wal, wal! You've been gone a good
while."

"So you can't wonder at my impatience when I find myself so near home,"
said Mellen.

"In course, in course," replied the old man. "But, dear me, you'll have
to wait till Jake comes in, and I expect he'll grumble awful at having
to start out agin."

"I will pay him his own price----"

"Oh, you allays was freehanded enough, I'll say that, Mr. Mellen. But
sit down by the stove; Jake'll come in a few minutes. Mebby you'd try a
cup of tea?"

But Mr. Mellen refused the proffered hospitality, and though he walked
up to the fire, neither sat down or paid much attention to the questions
the old man hazarded.

As Mellen stood there, though his restless movements betrayed great
impatience, there was little trace of it visible in his face, whose cold
pride seldom revealed the emotions which might be stirring at his heart.
He was dressed in his sea clothes, which hung about him in wet masses.
His face was bronzed by the exposure of a long sea voyage, but he was
still a man of imposing presence, and retained his old, proud manner so
thoroughly, that even the old man in his fever of curiosity, felt the
same hesitation at questioning him too far which had always awed the
villagers when Mr. Mellen formerly dwelt among them.

"I s'pose you've seen a sight sence you went away," said the old man, as
he pushed his chair towards the fire. "All them gold mines; though I
don't s'pose you went to work at them. People will talk you know, and
they wo