. "Suppose your guess is right, and he did come for Jim,
there ain't nothing left for me but to sell. That's better than losing
everything." He tried to clear his husky voice. "It's kind of hard. I've
got you and the minister here now, and I'm sort of obligated to you
both. It's kind of hard."

"Obligated, fiddlesticks! I ain't so young that I can't take care of
myself, nor so old, neither. I'll get on all right, and the minister,
too, for that matter." Her voice dropped with an unsteady quality. "But
what you're going to do, I can't see."

He shook his head wearily. "I've been trying to see some way all night
long, but I can't, 'cepting to sell."

"Josiah,"--she crossed over and laid her hand on his shoulder,--"there's
a picture in the setting-room that says beneath it something like this:
'Don't Give Up the Ship.' I was looking at it yesterday after I'd been
so silly about what you said to me. I must have been sent to the
picture for a purpose in this hour of our trial. We ain't going to give
up the ship, not till we have to."

"But he's got the law on his side, and I ain't got nothing on mine."

"You've got a clear conscience, and that's more than all the law with
which he's clothing his guilty mind. And, then,"--she eyed him
closely,--"you've got me. Does that help? We ain't going to run up the
white flag till we have to, and I don't care if he's got the whole
creation on his side."

He rose and laid his rough palm over the bony fingers on his shoulder.
"Do you mean that you're going to stick by me, Clemmie?"

She nodded.

"I cal'late that'll help a heap, even if things go dead against me. It's
purty nigh three weeks afore he can close up on me," he faltered, as
though he dared not hope even in the presence of this unexpected aid
that had come to him. "What are we going to do?"

"The fust thing you're going to do is to see Jim Fox himself, and you're
going to tell him that you're going to see a good lawyer, the best you
can find. If them papers ain't straight he'll show plain that he's
worried." She drew her hand from his. "Josiah, I'm going to show you
something I ain't ever showed to a living soul. It ain't much, but it
might start you along the right way of finding something out."

She went to her room, and soon returned with a piece of paper. It was
yellow with age, and had to be handled with care to keep it from falling
apart at the creases. She handed it to the Captain, indicating a section
for him