n the kitchen there by the fire.
I'll be with you soon as I shut this door. Go on. Don't wait!"

Kent did not seem to hear him.

"Cap'n," he began, again, "I----"

"Do as I tell you. Go in there by the stove."

He seized his visitor by the shoulder and pushed him out of the entry.
Then he closed and fastened the outer door. This was a matter of main
strength, for the gale was fighting mad. When the latch clicked and the
hook dropped into the staple he, too, entered the kitchen. Kent had
obeyed orders to the extent of going over to the stove, but he had not
removed his hat or coat and seemed to be quite oblivious of them or the
fire or anything except the words he was trying to utter.

"Cap'n Kendrick," he began again, "I----"

"Sshh! Hush! Take off your things. Man alive, you're sheddin' water
like a whistlin' buoy. Give me that coat. And that umbrella, what there
is left of it. That's the ticket. Now sit down in that rocker and put
your feet up on the hearth.... Whew! Are you wet through?"

"No. No, I guess not. I----"

"Haven't got a chill, have you? Can't I get you somethin' hot to drink?
Judah generally has a bottle of some sort of life-saver hid around in
the locker somewhere. A hot toddy now?... Eh? Well, all right, all
right. No, don't talk yet. Get warm first."

Kent refused the hot toddy and would have persisted in talking at once
if his host had permitted. The latter refused to listen, and so the
young man sat silent in the rocking chair, his soaked trouser legs and
boots steaming in the heat from the open door of the oven, while the
captain bustled about, hanging the wet overcoat on a nail in the corner,
tossing the wrecked umbrella behind the stove and pretending not to look
at his caller.

He did look, however, and what he saw was interesting certainly and
might have been alarming had he been a person easily frightened or
unduly apprehensive. Kent's wet cheeks had dried and they were flushed
now from the warmth, but they were haggard, his eyes were underscored
with dark semicircles, and his hands as he held them over the red-hot
stove lids were trembling. He looked almost as if he were sick, but a
sick man would scarcely be out of doors in such a storm. He had,
apparently, forgotten his desire to talk, and was now silent, his gaze
fixed upon the wall behind the stove.

Kendrick quietly placed a chair beside him and sat down.

"Well, George?" he asked.

Kent started. "Oh!" he exclaimed. And t