xaltation in the suffering. So, perhaps, can I wipe out the wrong in
this life and get strength of a better sort for the next trial on
beyond, if there is another trial! I suppose every man wants to show,
and live the best that is in him; not many get the chance here, from
what I see. I reckon that is why we old fellows have an interest in you
younger ones. It goes against the grain, if we have a sneaking regard
for you, to see you quench the divine spark with the same galling water
we've gone through. Going, Dick?"

For the other had risen and was holding out his hand in a confused but
eager fashion.

"Yes, Mr. Devant, and thank you! You're not an old man, I sincerely wish
that you might some day, well, you understand--not forget exactly, but
get another trial here!"

"Too late for that, Dick. Can't you stay over night?"

"No. I'm going to the Hills. I've some last things to do there."

"And to-morrow, Dick?"

"I'm going to Katharine!" The two men looked keenly into each other's
eyes.

"I'll meet you then at the train, my boy, at 7.50. I've business in the
city. I always put up at the Holcomb; look me up after you've seen
Katharine."

"Good night, Mr. Devant, and again thank you!"

Devant walked with Thornly to the outer door, and then to the windswept
piazza. "It's sharp to-night," he said; "I'll soon have to give up Bluff
Head. Davy's Light has got it all its own way to-night, not a star or
moon to rival its beauty. A time back I fancied one evening that the
Light failed me. It was only for a few moments I imagined it, but it
gave me quite a jog. I suppose it was the state of my nerves; one can
rely upon Davy. He's a great philosopher in his way. His lamp is his
duty; his lamp and that poor crippled wife of his who has just died.
Davy is one of the few men I've met, Dick, who seems to have played the
game fair and has never tried to comfort himself with the hope of going
back. 'I'm ready for the next duty,' he said to me the other day with
his old rugged face shining; 'there's always another duty ready at hand,
when you drop one as finished.'"

The master of Bluff Head watched the straight young figure fade into the
night. Then he turned again to Davy's Light.

"The weight of a dead duty," he muttered. "That's what anchors a man! It
isn't in the order of things to trust a man with a new duty, when he
failed with the last. There isn't any light to guide a man that's
anchored by a dead duty."

Then Deva