sunny bay toward the Station that had been his resting place and
home for so long.

"The old see mighty clar, Mr. Thornly," he said, turning his gaze to the
present. "An' as ye git near port it's amazin' how the big things, the
real things, hold yer thoughts an' longin's. I ain't done my whole duty
by my little gal, an' the fact shadders my days."

"Don't say that, Cap'n Daddy!" Janet pressed closer to him. "You have
done your own duty and the duty of the whole world by me!"

"That's like ye, Janet, t' say them words; but ye don't know all! That's
whar I've wronged ye."

Davy saw that he must take a hand in what was going on. It would ease
Billy and spare Janet.

"We've got, so t' speak," he commenced with grim determination, "t' open
up the grave of the Past." He was always poetical when emotion swayed
him. "Ye see, Mr. Thornly, t' put it plain an' square, me an' Billy
knows that ye have some idee o' Janet, an' Billy ain't goin' t' let ye
take her under no false pretences. As t' givin' our consent t' ye payin'
yer respects, so t' speak, t' Janet, me an' Billy don't know, 'cordin t'
law, as we have any right fur givin' or holdin' our consent. An' now ye
have it straight an' fair!"

"Thank you, Cap'n Davy," Thornly replied, "but, I repeat, the past can
never mean anything to me."

"But ye see, Mr. Thornly," Billy clung to his purpose, "this girl,
properly speakin', don't b'long t' me. She drifted in t' port early, an'
from, as ye may say, a wreck; I kept her, an' loved her, God knows, as
if she war my own. But she ain't!"

This confession brought the beads of perspiration to Billy's brow, but
Thornly's unmoved expression calmed him.

"My Cap'n Daddy!" Janet turned her face to the agitated one above her.
"I've told Mr. Thornly this already, and he does not care!"

Billy drew a long, relieved sigh.

"I only want Janet," Thornly hastened to say. "Whether she belongs
rightfully to you or not, Cap'n Billy, you have trained her into exactly
the kind of woman I would have her!"

"That's the kind o' talk!" ejaculated Davy, and he drew out his pipe,
lighted it and inwardly gave thanks that they had all passed the bar so
successfully.

"But that ain't enough!" Billy insisted, shattering Davy's calm. "I
knowed who Janet's mother was, but I never knowed her father. I never
tried t' find out. I allus war afraid I would somehow, an' that's what's
clutchin' me now. I ain't acted wise or square. It comes t' me lately
wh