-to
forget the stuff, you know. When I'm alone in my room I go 'most
crazy--pretty nigh loony. . . . But there! I don't know why I got to
talkin' like this to you, Cap'n Lote. You've got your troubles and--"

"Hold on, Labe. Does Rachel know about your fight?"

"No. No, no. Course she must notice how long I've been--been straight,
but I haven't told her. I want to be sure I'm goin' to win before I
tell her. She's been disappointed times enough before, poor woman. . . .
There, Cap'n Lote, don't let's talk about it any more. Please don't get
the notion that I'm askin' for pity or anything like that. And don't
think I'm comparin' what I call my fight to the real one like Al's.
There's nothin' much heroic about me, eh? No, no, I guess not. Tell that
to look at me, eh?"

Captain Zelotes rose and laid his big hand on his bookkeeper's shoulder.

"Don't you believe it, Labe," he said. "I'm proud of you. . . . And, I
declare, I'm ashamed of myself. . . . Humph! . . . Well, to-night you
come home with me and have supper at the house."

"Now, now, Cap'n Lote--"

"You do as I tell you. After supper, if there's any walkin' to be
done--if you take a notion to frog it to Orham or San Francisco or
somewheres--maybe I'll go with you. Walkin' may be good for my fight,
too; you can't tell till you try. . . . There, don't argue, Labe. I'm
skipper of this craft yet and you'll obey my orders; d'you hear?"

The day following the receipt of the fateful telegram the captain wrote
a brief note to Fletcher Fosdick. A day or two later he received a
reply. Fosdick's letter was kindly and deeply sympathetic. He had been
greatly shocked and grieved by the news.

Young Speranza seemed to me, (he wrote) in my one short interview with
him, to be a fine young fellow. Madeline, poor girl, is almost frantic.
She will recover by and by, recovery is easier at her age, but it will
be very, very hard for you and Mrs. Snow. You and I little thought when
we discussed the problem of our young people that it would be solved
in this way. To you and your wife my sincerest sympathy. When you hear
particulars concerning your grandson's death, please write me. Madeline
is anxious to know and keeps asking for them. Mrs. Fosdick is too much
concerned with her daughter's health to write just now, but she joins me
in sympathetic regards.

Captain Zelotes took Mrs. Fosdick's sympathy with a grain of salt. When
he showed this letter to his wife he, for the firs