up and
Bradley and Captain Baker she said little except thanks. To Barnes,
whose congratulations were sincere and hearty, and, to all appearances
at least, quite ungrudging, she expressed herself as too astonished to
be very coherent.

"I--I can scarcely believe it yet," she faltered. "I can't understand--I
can't think why he did it.... And you are all so very kind. You won't
mind if I don't say any more now, will you?"

But to Sears when he came, once more, to add another word and to shake
her hand, she expressed a little of the uncertainty which she felt.

"Oh," she whispered; "oh, Cap'n Kendrick, do you think it is right? Do
you think he really meant to do it? You are sure he did?"

His tone should have carried conviction. "You bet he meant it!" he
declared, fervently. "He never meant anything any more truly; I know
it."

"Do you? Do you really?... Did--did you know? Did he tell you he was
going to?"

"Not exactly, but he hinted. He----"

"Wait. Wait, please. Don't tell me any more now. By and by, on the way
home, perhaps. I--I want to know all about it. I want to be sure. And,"
with a tremulous smile, "I doubt if I could really understand just yet."

The group in the lawyer's office did not break up for another hour.
There were many matters for discussion, matters upon which Bradley and
Barnes wished the advice of the others. Mike and Mrs. Tidditt were sent
home early, and departed, volubly, though tearfully rejoicing. The
minister and Captain Noah stayed on to answer questions concerning the
church and the lodge, the former's pressing needs and the new building
which the latter had hoped for and which was now a certainty. Sears and
Elizabeth remained longest. Bradley whispered to the captain that he
wished them to do so.

When they were alone with him, and with Barnes of course, he took from
his pocket two sealed letters.

"The judge gave me these along with the will," he said. "That was about
three weeks before he died. I don't know what is in them and he gave me
to understand that I wasn't supposed to know. They are for you two and
no one else, so he said. You are to read yours when you are alone, Cap'n
Kendrick, and Elizabeth is to read hers when she is by herself. And he
particularly asked me to tell you both not to make your decision too
quickly. Think it over, he said."

He handed Sears an envelope addressed in Judge Knowles' hand-writing,
and to Elizabeth another bearing her name.

"There!" h