she said. "No,
I'm sure I don't know where he's gone. He told Joel somethin' about
bein' out of town on business. Joel sort of gathered 'twas in Trumet
where the business was, but he never told either of us really. He wasn't
here for dinner yesterday or supper either, and not for supper the day
before that."

"Humph! Will he be here to-morrow, think?"

"I don't know, but I should think likely he would, in the forenoon,
anyhow. He's almost always here in the forenoon; he doesn't get up very
early, hardly ever."

"Oh, he doesn't. How about his breakfast?"

Mrs. Macomber looked a bit guilty.

"Well," she admitted, "I usually keep his breakfast hot for him,
and--and he has it in his room."

"You take it in to him, I suppose?"

"We-ll, he's always been used to breakfastin' that way, he says. It's
the way they do over abroad, accordin' to his tell."

"Oh, Sarah, Sarah!" mused her brother. "To think _you_ could slip so
easy on that sort of soft-soap. Tut, tut! I'm surprised.... Well,
good-by. Oh, by the way, how about his majesty's board bill? Paid up to
date, is it?"

His sister looked even more embarrassed, and, for her, a trifle
irritated.

"He owes me for three weeks, if you must know," she said, "but he'll pay
it, same as he always does."

"Look out, look out! Can't be too sure.... There, there, Sarah, don't be
cross. I won't torment you."

He laughed and Mrs. Macomber, after a moment, laughed too.

"You are a tease, Sears," she declared, "and always was. Shall I tell
Mr. Phillips you came to see him?"

"Eh? No, indeed you shan't. Don't you mention my name to him. He loves
me so much that he might cry all night at the thought of not bein' at
home when I called. Don't tell him a word. I'll try again."

The next forenoon he did try again. Judah had some trucking to do in the
western part of the village and the captain rode with him on the seat of
the truck wagon as far as the store. From there he intended to walk to
his sister's, for walking, even as long a distance as a mile, was no
longer an impossibility. As he alighted by the store platform Captain
Elkanah Wingate came out of the Bassett emporium.

"Mornin', Kendrick," he hailed.

Sears did not share Bayport's awe of the prosperous Elkanah. He returned
the greeting as casually as if the latter had been an everyday citizen.

"Been spendin' your money on Eliphalet's bargains?" he inquired.

The great man did not resent the flippancy. He seemed to