ively, "is it possible that you knew Hercules
Thayer? That he was your brother? And are we in the neighborhood of
Ilion?"

"Yes--yes--yes," assented the doctor, nodding to each of her questions
in turn; "and I thought it was you, Agatha Shaw's girl, from the first.
But you should have come down by land!" he dictated grimly.

"Oh, I didn't intend to come down at all," cried Agatha; "either by
land or water! At least not yet!"

Doctor Thayer's jaw shot out and his eyes shone, but not with humor
this time. He looked distinctly irritated. "But my dear Miss Agatha
Redmond, where _did_ you intend to go?"

Agatha couldn't, by any force of will, keep her voice from stammering,
as she answered: "I wasn't g-going anywhere! I was k-kidnapped!"

Doctor Thayer looked sternly at her, then reached toward his medicine
chest. "My dear young woman--" (Why is it that when a person is
particularly out of temper, he is constrained to say My _Dear_ So and
So?) "My dear young woman," said Doctor Thayer, "that's all right, but
you must take a few drops of this solution. And let me feel your
pulse."

"Indeed, Doctor, it is all so, just as I say," interrupted Agatha.
"I'm not feverish or out of my head, not the least bit. I can't tell
you the whole story now; I'm too tired--"

"Yes, that's so, my dear child!" said the doctor, but in such an
evident tone of yielding to a delirious person, that he nearly threw
her into a fever with anger. But on the whole, Agatha was too tired to
mind. He took her hand, felt of her pulse, and slowly shook his head;
but what he had to say, if he had anything, was necessarily postponed.
The launch was putting into the harbor of Charlesport.

Even on the dull day of their arrival, Charlesport was a pleasant
looking place, stretching up a steep hill beyond the ribbon of street
that bordered its harbor. Fish-houses and small docks stood out here
and there, and one larger dock marked the farthest point of land. A
great derrick stood by one wharf, with piles of granite block near by.
Little Simon was calling directions back to Hand at the engine as they
chugged past fishing smacks and mooring poles, past lobster-pot buoys
and a little bug-lighthouse, threading their way into the harbor and up
to the dock. Agatha appealed to the doctor with great earnestness.

"Surely, Doctor Thayer, it is a Providence that we came in just here,
where people will know me and will help me. I need shelter for a
l