ne had lost
a little of its urbanity when he answered.

"Oh, especially with me, eh?" he repeated. "Well, what's the 'especially
with me' for? If you think I'm any more to blame than the rest, you're
mistaken. I tell you when you and me and Cap'n Jim and all hands of us
got the Wellmouth Development Company goin' it looked like a cinch. How
was I to know?"

"I tell you, Raish, I don't want to talk about it."

"And I tell you, Jeth Hallett, I DO want to. You've hove in that
'especially with me' and I don't like it. Look here, what are you
pickin' on me for? How was I to--No, now you wait a minute, Cap'n Jeth,
and answer me. I've chased you 'way over here and you can give me five
minutes even if 'tis Sunday. Come, Cap'n, come, just answer me and then
I won't bother you any more."

There was silence for a brief interval. Galusha, crouching behind the
tomb and wondering if the time had come for him to show himself, waited
anxiously. But Captain Hallett's answer, when at last he did reply,
sounded no nearer. Apparently the men were now standing still.

"Well," grunted the light keeper, "I'll listen to you for the five
minutes, Raish, but no more. I hadn't ought to do that. This is Sabbath
day and I make it a p'int never--"

"I know," hastily, "I know. Well, I tell you, Cap'n Jeth, all's I wanted
to say was this: What are we goin' to do with this Development stock of
ours?"

"Do with it? Why, nothin' at present. CAN'T do anything with it, can
we? All we can do is wait. It may be one year or three, but some day
somebody will have to come to us. There ain't a better place for a cold
storage fish house on this coast and the Wellmouth Development Company
owns that place."

"Yes, that's so, that's so. But some of us can afford to wait and some
can't. Now I've got more of the Development Company stock than anybody
else. I've got five hundred shares, Cap'n Jeth; five hundred shares
at twenty dollars a share. A poor man like me can't afford to have ten
thousand dollars tied up as long's this is liable to be. Can he now? Eh?
Can he, Cap'n?"

"Humph! Well, I've got eight thousand tied up there myself."

"Ye-es, but it don't make so much difference to you. You can afford to
wait. You've got a gov'ment job."

"Ye-es, and from what I hear you may be havin' a state job pretty soon
yourself, Raish. Well, never mind that. What is it you're drivin' at,
anyhow?"

"Why, I tell you, Jeth. Course you know and I know that this is a