r."

Below was written, by another hand:

"The Extremity of Need has not arisen, I pass it on to my son.

"M.D."

And below that, by still another hand:

"Neither has the Need come to me. I pass it to my son.

"D.D."

And below that, by still another hand:

"Nor to me. I pass it to my son.

"M.D."

And below that:

"The Extremity of Need brushed by me so close I heard the
rustling of its gown, but I did not dig. I have sufficient for
me, and I am the last of my line. I pass it, therefore, to my
good friend Hugh Croyden (and, in the event that he predecease
me, to his son Geoffrey Croyden), to whom Clarendon will go upon
my demise.

"D.D."

Croyden read the last endorsement again; then he smiled, and the smile
broadened into an audible laugh.

The heir of a pirate! Well, at least, it promised something to engage
him, if time hung heavily on his hands. The Duvals seem to have taken
the bequest seriously--so, why not he? And, though the extremity of
need seems never to have reached them, it was peculiar that none of the
family had inspected the locality and satisfied himself of the accuracy
of the description. The extreme tip of Greenberry Point had shifted, a
dozen times, likely, in a hundred and ninety years, and the four beech
trees had long since disappeared, but there was no note of these facts
to aid the search. He must start just where Robert Parmenter had left
off: with the letter.

He found an old history of Maryland in the book-case. It contained a
map. Annapolis was somewhere on the Western Shore, he knew. He ran his
eyes down the Chesapeake. Yes, here it was--with Greenberry Point just
across the Severn. So much of the letter was accurate, at least. The
rest would bear investigation. Some time soon he would go across, and
take a look over the ground. Greenberry Point, for all he knew, might
be built up with houses, or blown half a mile inland, or turned into a
fort, or anything. It was not likely to have remained the same, as in
Parmenter's day; and, yet, if it had changed, why should not the Duvals
have remarked it, in making their endorsements.

He put the letter back in the secret compartment, where it had rested
for so many years. Evidently, Colonel