mate" was tossing back and forth in the crib, making odd
little choky noises in his swollen throat. When his father entered he
opened his eyes, stared unmeaningly, and said: "'Tand by to det der ship
under way."

"Good Lord! he's out of his head," gasped the Captain. Sophronia and he
stepped back into the sitting room and looked at each other, the same
thought expressed in the face of each. Neither spoke for a moment, then
Captain Hiram said:

"Now don't you worry, Sophrony. The Doctor ain't home, but I'm goin' out
to--to telegraph him, or somethin'. Keep a stiff upper lip. It'll be all
right. God couldn't go back on you and me that way. He just couldn't.
I'll be back in a little while."

"But, oh, Hiram! if he should--if he SHOULD be taken away, what WOULD we
do?"

She began to cry. Her husband laid a trembling hand on her shoulder.

"But he won't," he declared stoutly. "I tell you God wouldn't do such a
thing. Good-by, old lady. I'll hurry fast as I can."

As he took up his cap and turned to the door he heard the voice of the
weary little first mate chokily calling his crew to quarters. "All hands
on deck!"

The telegraph office was in Beriah Higgins's store. Thither ran the
Captain. Pat Sharkey, Mr. Higgins's Irish helper, who acted as telegraph
operator during Gertie Higgins's absence, gave Captain Hiram little
satisfaction.

"How can I get Dr. Parker?" asked Pat. "He's off on a cruise and land
knows where I can reach him to-night. I'll do what I can, Cap, but it's
ten chances out of nine against a wire gettin' to him."

Captain Hiram left the store, dodging questioners who were anxious to
know what his trouble might be, and dazedly crossed Main Street, to the
railway station. He thought of asking advice of his friend, the depot
master.

The evening train from Boston pulled out as he passed through the
waiting room. One or two passengers were standing on the platform. One
of these was a short, square-shouldered man with gray side whiskers and
eyeglasses. The initials on his suit case were J. S. M., Boston, and
they stood for John Spencer Morgan. If the bearer of the suit case had
followed the fashion of the native princes of India and had emblazoned
his titles upon his baggage, the commonplace name just quoted might have
been followed by "M.D., LL.D., at Harvard and Oxford; vice president
American Medical Society; corresponding secretary Associated Society of
Surgeons; lecturer at Harvard Medical Colle