from going over the _May_ (it's midnight), and the thing
looks good. You know Schofield is a great hand to carry sail. Well,
when you hear about the race, maybe you'll hear that his foretopmast
came down in a squall. If you don't, I'll be much surprised, for I've
attended to it myself, and I don't think it will take much of a
squall.

"Maybe you'll hear, too, that his mainstay snapped and his sticks went
into the water all because he carried too much sail. I shouldn't be
surprised. I've attended to that, too. So I guess with his foretopmast
cracked off and his mainstay snapped the old _M. C._ ought to romp
home an easy victor, if she is an old ice-wagon. I tried to get
Schofield to bet, but he's so tight with his cash he wouldn't shake
down a five-cent piece. Good thing for him, though, he doesn't know
it. Nothing would do me more good than to get his roll, the virtuous
old deacon!"

She stopped reading as a rumble of mirth went round the circle. Code
in the role of a virtuous deacon was a novelty. Even the hard lines of
Elsa's face relaxed and she smiled, albeit a trifle grimly.

"That's all," she said, folding up the letter and putting it back into
the envelope. "The rest is personal and not ours. Now, Mr. Durkee, if
you still care to consider Captain Schofield as the defendant in those
two suits I want your arguments."

"I don't, Mrs. Mallaby," said the detective, and called the Freekirk
Head jailer. "But I know who is going to take Schofield's place."

He glared at Nat Burns, who cowered silent and miserable in his
corner. Despite his sailing as Nat's guest he had never brought
himself to like the man, and now he was glad to be well rid of him.

Code stepped out a free man, and his first action was to take both of
Elsa's hands and try to thank her. Her eyes dropped and she blushed.
When he had stammered through his speech he turned to Caroline Fuller
and repeated it, but the sad smile she gave him tore at his heart.

"I came because Elsa asked me to save a friend," she said, "not
because I wished to revenge myself on Nat. I am glad it was you, for I
would do anything on earth for Elsa."

Code turned mystified eyes upon Mrs. Mallaby.

"I thought you did this to revenge yourself on Nat," he half
whispered.

"I did, partly," she replied. She lifted her eyes to his and he saw
something in them that startled him--something that, in all his
association with her, he had never seen before. He stood silent,
amaz