ust the briefest instant; then a chorus of faint screams,
exclamations, startled and indignant protests. Above them all Primmie's
call upon her Lord of Isrul sounded plainly. Captain Jethro paid no
heed.

"You liar!" he roared again. "Out of my house, you swindler! You damned
cheat!"

This blast, delivered with the full force of the old skipper's
quarter-deck voice, had the effect of completely upsetting the already
tense nerves of the majority in the circle. Two or three of the women
began to cry. Chairs were overturned. There was a babel of cries and
confusion. The light keeper stilled it.

"Be still, all hands!" he shouted. "Turn up them lamps! Turn 'em up!"

Mr. Cabot, although himself somewhat startled and disturbed by the
unexpected turn of events, was at least as cool as any one. He reached
over the prostrate heap at his feet--it was Ophelia Beebe hysterically
repeating: "He's gone crazy! He's gone loony! OH, my soul! OH, my land!
WHAT'LL I do?" and the like--and turned up one of the lamps. Obed Taylor
did the same with the other.

The sudden illumination revealed Captain Jethro, his face pale, his eyes
flashing fire, holding the dumpy Miss Hoag fast in her chair with one
hand and with the other brandished above her head like the hammer
of Thor. The audience, for the most part, were in various attitudes,
indicating alarm and a desire to escape. Mrs. Harding had a strangle
hold on her husband's neck and was slowly but inevitably choking him to
death; Mrs. Peters, as well as Miss Beebe, was on the floor; and Primmie
Cash was bobbing up and down, flapping her hands and opening her mouth
like a mechanical figure in a shop window. Lulie and Martha Phipps, pale
and frightened, were trying to force their way to the captain's side.
Galusha Bangs alone remained seated.

The light keeper again commanded silence.

"Look at her!" he cried, pointing his free hand at the cowering figure
of the medium. "LOOK at her! The lyin' cheat!"

Marietta was, in a way, worth looking at. She had shrunk as far down in
the chair as the captain's grip would permit, her usually red face was
now as white as the full moon, which it resembled in some other ways,
and she was, evidently, as Primmie said afterwards, "scart to death and
some left over."

Lulie called.

"Father, father," she pleaded. "Please--oh--please!"

Her father paid no attention. It was to Miss Hoag that he continued his
attentions.

"You miserable, swindlin' mak