e? I should think it would be--well, sort of natural for a person
who has been rich as he used to be to keep up his interest."

"I presume likely it is."

"Then why do you want to know about it?"

The captain picked up his hat. "Oh, for no particular reason, maybe,
Sarah," he replied. "Perhaps _I_ shall be rich sometime--if I live to be
a hundred and eighty and save a dollar a day as I go along--and then I
shall want to know how to invest my money. Let me know if you hear
anything worth while, won't you, Sarah?"

"Yes, Sears. And if I get a chance I am goin' to tell George what you
said about bein' his friend and willin' to help him. Good-by, Sears. I'm
_so_ glad you came down. Come again soon, won't you? You're the only
brother I've got, you know."

Kendrick drove the Foam Flake back to the Minot place, reflecting during
the journey upon what he had seen and heard while visiting his sister.
It amounted to very little in the way of tangible evidence against
Egbert Phillips. Sporting prints and dashing photographs were
interesting perhaps, and in a way they illuminated the past; but they
did not illumine the present, they shed no light upon their owner's
means of living, nor the extent of those means. Egbert occupied the best
rooms at the Macomber's, but, apparently, he paid for his board and
lodging--yes, and his washing. He might be interested in stocks, but
there was nothing criminal in that, of itself. The Kendrick campaign
was, so far, an utter failure.

Another week dragged by with no developments worth while. Judah, much
inflated with the importance of his commission as a member of the
Kendrick secret service, made voluminous and wordy reports, but they
amounted to nothing. Mr. Phillips had borrowed five dollars of Caleb
Snow. Had he paid the debt? Oh, yes, he had paid it. He smoked
"consider'ble many" cigars, "real good cigars, too; cost over ten cents
a piece by the box," so he told Thoph Black. But, so far as Black or
Judah knew, he had paid for them. He owed a fair-sized bill at the
livery-stable, but the stable owner "wan't worried none." There was
little of interest here. No criminal record, rather the contrary.

Esther Tidditt dropped in from time to time, loaded, as Judah said, "to
the guards" with Fair Harbor gossip. Captain Sears did not encourage her
visits. Aside from learning what he could concerning the doings of
Egbert Phillips, he was little interested in petty squabbles and
whispers among