ad off the
question he saw the Cahoon lips already forming, "I can't guess why he's
gone, either."

But, although he did not say so, he could have guessed why Mr. Phillips
had gone to Orham. Bradley, the Orham lawyer, had written the day before
to say that the will of Lobelia Phillips would be opened and read at his
office on Thursday morning. And this was Thursday. Bradley had suggested
Sears's coming over to be present at the reading of the will. "As you
are so deeply interested in the Fair Harbor," he wrote, "I should think
you might--or ought to--be on hand. I don't believe Phillips will
object."

But the captain had not accepted the invitation. Knowing, as he did, the
disappointment which was in store for Egbert, he had no wish to see the
blow fall. So he remained at home, but that afternoon Bradley himself
drove into the Minot yard.

"I just stopped for a minute, Cap'n, he said. I had some other business
in town here; that brought me over, but I wanted to tell you that we
opened that will this morning."

Sears looked a question. "Well?" he queried.

Bradley nodded. "It was just about as we thought, and as the judge
said," he declared. "The papers were there, of course, telling of the
gift of the fifty thousand to the Harbor, of the gift of the land and
house, everything. There was one other legacy, a small one, and then she
left all the rest, 'stocks, bonds, securities, personal effects and
cash' to her beloved husband, Egbert Phillips. That's all there was to
it, Kendrick. Short but sweet, eh?"

Sears nodded. "Sweet enough," he agreed. "And how did the beloved
husband take it?"

"Well ... well, he was pretty nasty. In fact he was about as nasty as
anybody could be. He went white as a sheet and then red and then white
again. I didn't know, for a minute or two, what was going to happen,
didn't know but what I should have a fight on my hands. However, I
didn't. I don't think he's the fighting kind, not that kind of a fight.
He just took it out in being nasty. Said of course he should contest the
gift, hinted at undue influence, spoke of thieves and swindlers--not
naming 'em, though--and then, when I suggested that he had better think
it over before he said too much, pulled up short and walked out of the
office. Yes, he was pretty nasty. But, honestly, Cap'n Kendrick, when I
think it over, I don't know that he was any nastier than I, or any other
fellow, might have been under the circumstances. It was a smas