the bay.

Ralph and Miss Preston shook hands. The electrician managed to utter
some sort of formality, but he couldn't have told what it was. He was
glad when the Captain announced that, if Mr. Hazeltine would excuse
them, he guessed Miss Preston and he would step upstairs and see John.
The young lady took off her hat and jacket, and Captain Eri lighted a
lamp, for it was almost dark by this time. As its light shone upon
the visitor's face and hair the crimson flush before mentioned
circumnavigated the electrician's head once more, and his bump of
self-esteem received a finishing blow. That any man supposed to possess
two fairly good eyes and a workable brain could have mistaken her for an
Orham Neck book agent by the name of "'Gusty--'Gusty Black!" Heavens!

"I'll be down in a few minutes, Mr. Hazeltine," said the Captain. "Set
still, won't you?"

But Mr. Hazeltine wouldn't sit still. He announced that it was late and
he must be going. And go he did, in spite of his host's protestations.

"Look out for the stairs," cautioned the Captain, leading the way with
the lamp. "The feller that built 'em must have b'lieved that savin'
distance lengthens out life. Come to think of it, I wouldn't wonder if
them stairs was the reason why me and Jerry and Perez took this house.
They reminded us so of the shrouds on a three-master."

Elsie Preston did her best to smile as her companion rattled on in this
fashion, but both the smile and the Captain's cheerfulness were too
plainly assumed to be convincing, and they passed down the hall in
silence. At the open door of the sick room Captain Eri paused.

"He's asleep," he whispered, "and, remember, if he wakes up and doesn't
know you, you needn't feel bad."

Elsie slipped by him and knelt by the bed, looking into the white, old
face on the pillow. Somehow the harsh lines had faded out of it, and it
looked only old and pitiful.

The Captain watched the tableau for a moment or two, and then tiptoed
into the room and placed the lamp on the bureau.

"Now, I think likely," he said in a rather husky whisper, "that you'd
like to stay with your grandpa for a little while, so I'll go downstairs
and see about supper. No, no, no!" he added, holding up his hand as the
girl spoke some words of protest, "you ain't goin' nowheres to supper.
You're goin' to stay right here. If you want me, jest speak."

And he hurried downstairs and into the kitchen, clearing his throat with
vigor and making a