e exclaimed, with a sigh of relief. "That is done. Ever since
the old judge left us I have been feeling as if he were standing at my
elbow and nudging me not to forget. He had a will of his own, Judge
Knowles had, and I don't mean the will we have just read, either. But,
take him by and large, as you sailors say, Cap'n, I honestly believe he
was the biggest and squarest man this county has seen for years. Some of
us are going to be surer of that fact every day that passes."

It was after four when Elizabeth and Sears climbed aboard the buggy and
the captain, tugging heavily on what he termed the port rein, coaxed the
unwilling Foam Flake into the channel--or the road. Heavy clouds had
risen in the west since their arrival in Orham, the sky was covered with
them, and it was already beginning to grow dark. When they turned from
the main road into the wood road leading across the Cape there were
lighted lamps in the kitchens of the scattered houses on the outskirts
of the town.

"Is it going to rain, do you think?" asked Elizabeth, peering at the
troubled brown masses above the tree tops.

Sears shook his head. "Hardly think so," he replied. "Looks more like
wind to me. Pretty heavy squall, I shouldn't wonder, and maybe rain
to-morrow. Come, come; get under way, Old Hundred," addressing the
meandering Foam Flake. "If you don't travel faster than this in fair
weather and a smooth sea, what will you do when we have to reef? Well,"
with a chuckle, "even if it comes on a livin' gale the old horse won't
blow off the course. Judah feeds him too well. Nothin' short of a
typhoon could heel _him_ down."

The prophesied gale held off, but the darkness shut in rapidly. In the
long stretches of thick woods through which they were passing it was
soon hard to see clearly. Not that that made any difference. Sears knew
the Orham road pretty well and the placid Foam Flake seemed to know it
absolutely. His ancient hoofs plodded up and down in the worn "horse
path" between the grass-grown and sometimes bush-grown ridges which
separated it from the deep ruts on either side. Sometimes those ruts
were so deep that the tops of the blueberry bushes and weeds on those
ridges scratched the bottom of the buggy.

Beside his orders to the horse the captain had said very little since
their departure. He had been thinking, though, thinking hard. It was
just beginning to dawn upon him, the question as to what this good
fortune which had befallen the