. The very first thing that came under her
hand was a heavy packet.

Turning it face up, she read, with surprise, a large feminine
handwriting which said:

Mr. Code Schofield, kindness of Captain B. Tanner

Letter enclosed.

At the right-hand side of the envelope was this:

5----10s
10----5s
50----1s
--------
$150

Nellie Tanner stared at the envelope. It was the handwriting that held
her. She had seen it before. She had once been honorary assistant
treasurer of the Church of England chapel, and it suddenly came to her
that this was the handwriting that had adorned Elsa Mallaby's checks
and subscriptions.

She knew she had solved the problem the instant the answer came. Elsa
had been to Boston to school, and the fact was very evident. She sat
and stared at the black letters, flexing the packet filled with
bills.

"Why should Elsa Mallaby be sending money to Code Schofield?"

Everybody in Freekirk Head knew that Code Schofield went up to Elsa
Mallaby's to dinner occasionally. So did other people in the village,
but not so often as he. There had been a little gossip concerning the
two of them, but, while Code was an excellent enough fellow, it was
hardly probable that a rich widow like Elsa would throw herself away
on a poor _fisherman_. They _forgot_ that she had done so the first
time she married, and that she had the sea in her blood.

These shreds of gossip returned to Nellie now with accrued interest,
and she began to believe in the theory of fire being behind smoke.

She also remembered the night of the mass-meeting in Odd Fellows Hall
when Code had made his suggestion of going to the Banks. There had
flashed between Elsa's velvet-dark eyes and Code's blue ones a message
of intimacy of which the town knew nothing. Every one saw the look,
and nearly every one talked about it, but they did not know that only
a couple of nights before Elsa had been the one to put Code on guard
against his enemies, and that he was more than grateful.

"I'd just like to know what's in that letter so as to tease him the
next time we meet," she said gaily to herself. She was now out of all
mood for writing her letter home, and, stuffing the contents of the
drawer back into place, she returned the latter to the table and went
on deck