in his
log-book, mentioned when my sister left Grande Mignon, apparently to
work in the factory at Lubec. As though my sister should ever work in
a factory!"

"So this explains why she went that time," said Squire Hardy gently.
"We all wondered at it, Elsa--we all wondered at it."

"And well you might. But he is the cause! And he wouldn't marry her! I
have waited for this chance of revenge, and now he shall pay."

Caroline Fuller, who was even more beautiful than her sister, looked
at Nat in a kind of daze. Suddenly there was a spasmodic working of
her features.

"Oh, that I could ever have loved him!" she said in a faint voice.
"Here, Elsa, read it to them all!"

From under her cloak she drew a crumpled envelope which she passed to
her sister.

With a snarl like that of a wild animal Nat leaped from his chair
toward the girl, but Durkee struck him violently and he reeled back
into it.

"You swore you burned them all!" muttered Nat. "You swore it! You
swore it!"

"Yes, and she did, the innocent child--all but this one that she had
mislaid in a book you once sent her," cried Elsa. "But I found it,
Burns. Where do you think I've been all this while? At St. John's,
where she lives with my aunt. And do you think there was no reason for
that letter being saved? God takes care of things like this, and now
you've got to pay, Nat Burns! I knew there would come a time. I knew
there would!"

She was still standing, and she drew the letter out of the envelope.

"Look, squire, Code, any of you who know. Is this Nat's writing?"

"Yes," they all declared as the letter passed from hand to hand.

"Read it," said the squire, forcing Caroline Fuller to sit down in his
chair.

"I'll spare him hearing the first of it," said Elsa. "It is what men
write to women they love or feign to love, and it belongs to my
sister. But here"--she turned the first sheet inside out--"listen to
this."

Involuntarily they all leaned forward, all except Durkee, who went
over and stood beside Nat. The latter gave no sign except a dry
rattling sound in his throat as he swallowed involuntarily.

"I've got him, Caroline--I've got him!" she read. "He'll beat me
again, will he? Well, not if I know it! Everybody in the Head seems
tickled to death that he won, but you know how little that means to
me. It is simply another reason why I should beat him the next time.

"Dearest little girl, it's the easiest thing in the world. I've just
come back