"One of the family," muttered Tanner, his thoughts still busy. Then,
recollecting Schofield's question, he appeared about to speak,
hesitated, and at last said:

"Bless my soul and body if I know! No, I wouldn't want to say what I
thought, Code. I never was one to run down any man behind his back!"

Code looked in amazement at the old man, but not for long. A moment's
thought concerning Tanner's recently acquired relation made his
suspicion doubly sure that Nat Burns's name had been on Bijonah's
tongue.

He immediately dropped the subject and after a little while took his
departure.

CHAPTER VI

THE ISLAND DECIDES

In Freekirk Head, next morning, painted signs nailed to telegraph-poles
at intervals along the King's Road as far as Castalia read:

MASS-MEETING TO-NIGHT
ODD FELLOWS HALL
8 O'CLOCK ALL COME

Who had issued this pronunciamento, what it signified, and what was
the reason for a town meeting nobody knew; and as the men trudged down
to their dories drawn up on the stony beach near the burned wharfs,
discussion was intense.

Finally the fact became known that a half-dozen of the wealthiest and
best-educated men in the village, including Squire Hardy and the Rev.
Adelbert Bysshe, rector of the Church of England chapel, had held a
secret conclave the night before at the squire's house.

It was believed that the signs were the result, and intimated in
certain obscure quarters that Pete Ellinwood, who had always claimed
literary aspirations, had printed them.

Odd Fellows' Hall was the biggest and most pretentious building in
Freekirk Head. It was of two stories height, and on its gray-painted
front bore the three great gilt links of the society. To one side of
it stood a wreck of a former factory, and behind it was the tiny
village "lockup."

It marked the spot where the highway turned south at right angles on
its wild journey southwest, a journey that ended in a leap into space
from the three hundred foot cliffs of gull-haunted, perpendicular
Southern Head.

The interior of the hall was in its gala attire. Two rows of huge
oil-lamps extended down the middle from back to front; others were in
brackets down the side walls, and three more above the low rostrum at
the far end. The chairs were in place, the windows open, and the two
young fishermen who acted as janitors of the hall stood at the rear,
greeting