six come, and threaten me with tar and
feathers. Positively, it is too diverting to leave. Pray don't interrupt
me, Captain Tracy. In a moment you shall have the floor."

He took a sip from his rum glass, watching them over the brim. And then
he continued, slowly and coldly, yet turning every period with a
perfect courtesy:

"There is one thing, only one, that you and all my other callers appear
to have overlooked. You fail for some reason to realize that I do things
only of my own volition. It is eccentric, I know, but we all have our
failings."

He paused to place his glass daintily on the table, and straightened the
lace at his wrist with careful solicitude.

"Once before this morning I have stated that I am not particularly afraid
of anything. Strange as it may seem, this statement still applies. Or put
it this way,--I have grown blase. People have threatened me too often.
No, gentlemen, you are going to lose your trading privileges, I think.
And I am going to remain in my house quite as long as I choose."

"Which will be one hour," said Major Proctor.

"Be careful, Major," said my father. "You have grown too stout to risk
your words. Do you care to know why I am going to remain?"

No one answered.

"Then I will tell you," he went on. "Three of my ships are in the harbor,
and times are troublesome at sea. They are armed with heavy metal, and
manned by quite as reckless and unpleasant a lot of men as I have ever
beheld on a deck. Between them they have seventeen guns of varying
calibre, and there is powder in their magazines. Do I need to go any
further, or do we understand each other?"

"No," snapped Captain Tracy hoarsely. "I'm damned if we do."

"It sounds crude, as I say it," he continued apologetically, "and yet
true, nevertheless. As soon as I see anyone of you, or any of my other
neighbors enter my grounds again, I shall order my ships to tack down the
river, and open fire on the town. They have sail ready now, gentlemen. My
servant has gone already to carry them my order."

"And you'll hang for piracy tomorrow morning," laughed the Major
harshly. "Shelton, you have grown mad."

"Exactly," said my father gently. "Mad, Major. Mad enough to put my
threat into effect in five minutes, if you do not leave this house; mad
enough to scuttle every ship in this harbor; mad enough to set your
warehouses in flames; mad enough even to find the company of you and your
friends most damnably dull and wearisome