e started right in. Fust off he bought his dad's
old place, built it over into the eight-sided palace that's there now,
fetched down a small army of servants skippered by an old housekeeper,
and commenced to live simple but complicated. Then, havin' provided
the needful charity for himself, he's ready to scatter manna for the
starvin' native.

"He had a dozen schemes laid out. One was to build a free but expensive
library; another was to pave the main road with brick; third was to give
stained-glass windows and velvet cushions to the meetin' house, so's
the congregation could sleep comfortable in a subdued light. The
stained-glass idee put him in close touch with the minister, Reverend
Edwin Fisher, and the minister suggested the men's club. And he took to
that men's club scheme like an old maid to strong tea; the rest of the
improvements went into dry dock to refit while Admiral Gabe got his
men's club off the ways.

"'Twas the billiard room that made the minister hanker for a men's club.
That billiard room was the worry of his life. Old man Jotham Gale run
it and had run it sence the Concord fight, in a way of speakin'. You
remember his sign, maybe: 'Jotham W. Gale. Billiard, Pool, and Sipio
Saloon. Cigars and Tobacco. Tonics and Pipes. Minors under Ten Years of
Age not Admitted.' Jotham's customers was called, by the outsiders, 'the
billiard-room gang.'

"The billiard room gang wa'n't the best folks in town, I'll own right up
to that. Still, they wa'n't so turrible wicked. Jotham never sold rum,
and he'd never allow no rows in his place. But, just the same, his
saloon was reckoned a bad influence. Young men hadn't ought to go
there--most of us said that. If there was a nicer place TO go, argues
the minister, 'twould help the moral tone of the community consider'ble.
'Why not,' says he to Stingy Gabe, 'start a free club for men that'll
make the billiard room look like the tail boat in a race?' And says
Gabe: 'Bully! I'll do it.'"

Captain Stitt paused long enough to enjoy a chuckle all by himself.
Before he had quite finished his laugh, slow and reluctant steps were
heard on the back platform and Issy appeared on the threshold. He was
without the package, but did not look happy.

"Well, Is," inquired the depot master, "did you give the remains to the
Major?"

"Yes, sir," answered Issy.

"Did you tell him how the shockin' fatality happened? How the thing got
broken?"

"Yes, sir, I told him."

"What did he