ir size, furnished in a nondescript, boarding-house
fashion, and with two windows overlooking the little back yard of
the house and those of the other adjoining it. Each yard contained an
assortment of ash cans, and there was an astonishing number of clothes
lines, each fluttering a variety of garments peculiarly personal to
their respective owners.

"Pretty snug, ain't it?" continued the captain. "Not exactly up to that
I've been luxuriatin' in lately, but more fittin' to my build and class
than that was, I shouldn't wonder. No Corot paintin's nor five thousand
dollar tintypes of dory codders; but I can manage to worry along without
them, if I try hard. Neat but not gaudy, I call it--as the architect
feller said about his plans for the addition to the county jail at
Ostable. Hey? Ho! Ho!"

Pearson began to get a clue to the situation.

"Captain Warren," he demanded, "have you--Do you mean to say you've
taken this room to _live_ in?"

"No, I ain't said all that yet. I wanted to talk with you a little afore
I said it. But that was my idea, if you and I agreed on sartin matters."

"You've come here to live! You've left your--your niece's house?"

"Ya-as, I've left. That is, I left the way the Irishman left the stable
where they kept the mule. He said there was all out doors in front of
him and only two feet behind. That's about the way 'twas with me."

"Have your nephew and niece--"

"Um-hm. They hinted that my room was better than my company, and, take
it by and large, I guess they was right for the present, anyhow. I set
up till three o'clock thinkin' it over, and then I decided to get out
afore breakfast this mornin'. I didn't wait for any good-bys. They'd
been said, or all I cared to hear"--Captain Elisha's smile disappeared
for an instant--"last evenin'. The dose was sort of bitter, but it had
the necessary effect. At any rate, I didn't hanker for another one. I
remembered what your landlady told me when I was here afore, about this
stateroom bein' vacated, and I come down to look at it. It suits me well
enough; seems like a decent moorin's for an old salt water derelict like
me; the price is reasonable, and I guess likely I'll take it. I _guess_
I will."

"Why do you guess? By George, I hope you will!"

"Do you? I'm much obliged. I didn't know but after last night, after the
scrape I got you into, you might feel--well, sort of as if you'd seen
enough of me."

The young man smiled bitterly. "It wasn't yo