a timid knock and Mrs. Jebb reappeared.
"May I be present, Jim?" she said. "I understand that you have something
to talk about, and you know, you were always my boy."

Dr. Jebb looked puzzled. Jim said: "If I can't trust you, who is there
left to trust?" And then told the story of his fall. He painted himself
not quite so black as he might have done the day before, but black
enough.

Dr. Jebb looked terribly worried and distressed. "I don't know what to
say," he kept repeating. "All my heart is with you, but my judgment
condemns you. I don't know what to say."

Then Mrs. Jebb spoke. "Now, Josiah, you know perfectly well that your
affections always were a safer guide than your judgment. There was no
bad intention on the part of the sinner--for we are all sinners--this
was just an unfortunate accident, and Jim shows in every possible way
his regret. There has been no public scandal, and so I think you had
better drop the whole thing and forget it. I know enough about Jim to
know that he has made out the worst possible case against himself."

"That may be," said Dr. Jebb, "but I fear we must bring the matter up
before the deacons, at least."

"As long as you don't make it public by bringing it before the church,"
said Mrs. Jebb, "all right."

Thus it was that Dr. Jebb sent out a notice, to such of the deacons as
he could not see personally, that a meeting was to be held at his house
that night.

In the same afternoon another interview took place in Cedar Mountain.
School-trustee Higginbotham was sitting in his office when the
schoolteacher came up the boardwalk and into the insurance office.

"Hello, Jack."

"Hello, John"; and the visitor sat down. Higginbotham glanced at him and
noticed that his face was drawn and his eyes "like holes burnt in a
blanket." His fingers trembled as he rolled a cigarette.

"Say, John," Lowe began nervously, "in case any rumour gets around that
the Preacher and I were a little reckless at Bylow's, you can contradict
it. At least there's nothing in it as far as I am concerned. I think the
Preacher must have taken some before I arrived. He showed the effects,
but not much."

"Hm," said Higginbotham. "You got there late?"

"Yes, you see we--that is, both of us--went there to stop that
spree--and we did, in a way, but things got a little mixed."

"How was that?"

"Well, I went there to help him and I did what I could for him, but they
had had some already. We spilled the keg on t