s. In days gone by he had sailed as second mate aboard a
bark which Kendrick commanded. Now, retired from the sea, he was depot
master and pound-keeper and constable in his native town. And, like most
of Sears' shipmates, he was glad to see his former skipper.

They shook hands, exchanged observations concerning the weather, and
then the depot master asked what he could do for his friend.

"I'm lookin' for a man named Phillips," explained Kendrick. "Josiah
Ellis--fellow that drives for the livery stable over home--told me he
left him here at your depot, Jim. About an hour ago, Josiah said it was.
He doesn't seem to be here now; do you know where he's gone?"

Jim rubbed his chin. "Tall feller, thin, long mustache, beaver hat,
talks important and patronizin' like a combination of Admiral Farragut
and the Angel Gabriel?" he inquired.

"That's the man."

"He was here. Left them two valises yonder in my care. He's comin' back
in time to take the three-fifteen."

"Three-fifteen? I thought the up train left here at half-past four or
somethin' like that."

"The reg'lar train does. But there's a kind of combination, three or
four freight and one passenger car, that comes up from Hyannis and goes
on ahead of the other. It don't go only to Middleboro. He said he was
cal'latin' to take that. I had a notion he was goin' to change at
Middleboro and go somewheres else from there."

"I see. Yes, yes. And you don't know where he is now?"

"Well, he asked where was the best place to eat and I told him some went
to the hotel and some to Amanda Warren's boardin'-house. 'Most of 'em
only go to the hotel once, though,' says I. I guess likely you'll find
him at Amanda's."

So to Mrs. Warren's boarding-house the captain drove. The lady herself
opened the door for him. Yes, the gentleman described had been there.
Yes, he had eaten dinner and gone.

"Do you know where he has gone?" asked Kendrick.

Mrs. Warren nodded. "He asked me where Mr. Backus, the Methodist
minister, lived," she said. "He was real particular to find out how to
get there, so I guess that's where he was bound."

The Methodist minister! Why on earth Egbert Phillips should go to the
home of a minister was another mystery beyond Sears Kendrick's power of
surmise. However, he too inquired the way to the Backus domicile and
once more took up the chase.

The Methodist parsonage was a neat little white house, green-shuttered,
and with a white picket fence inclosing