u made me that offer up to your house t'other night I've been
wanting to choke you. Yes, to choke you till your lying old pipe of a
gullet would shut off your wind for good and all. But the law won't
allow me that pleasure." He continued with intense bitterness: "I s'pose
you're wondering where I got that money to pay off your filthy loan."

"So this is the gratitude you offer for my kindness?"

"It's a fat lot you've ever done for me! You've just told me this ain't
no good."

"The fact of the matter is, my lawyers probably foreclosed on the real
mortgage at noon to-day."

"Then, that lawyer feller I see wa'n't far off his course, after all,"
replied the Captain, laying the draft on the table. "Now, Jim, show your
hand and be damn quick afore I call your turn on the deal," demanded the
seaman as though certain that a prior conclusion had proven correct.

"I have nothing to show at this time."

"By the Almighty, then, look out! I sold my _Jennie P._ to get you that
money. It was purty hard to see her go, but it wa'n't all loss, not by
a heap. John Peters bought her. I told him why I was selling her. He was
real sorry, and then he spun me the yarn about your crookedness in
Australia. I got the rest of the story by installments, about the way
you treated Adoniah. John give me some mighty interesting news about an
old Mrs. Rogers, who was the mother of Adoniah's wife. She's here right
now looking for heirs and crooks."

The Elder had risen again, but the name spoken by the Captain struck him
like a shot. He dropped back, his head fell forward, and his hands
locked over the head of his stick.

"After that I seen Harold, and he told me where the woman was staying.
I looked her up, and she told me the whole enduring yarn. It was
Clemmie's last letter from Adoniah that set me going on your trail, and
the old woman cleared up the fog. I had that letter in my pocket up to
your place that night, but Providence or something kept me from
showing it to you. That old lady had a picture of her darter Emmie,
and it nearly knocked me over when she showed it to me. It was the
same that Mack has here in this frame of his own mother. Take a look at
that picture." He opened a drawer, lifted out a gilt-frame, and passed
a small daguerreotype across to the Elder. "Mack has showed me this
often, and I see that he was a chip off the old block on his mother's
side. But I never dreamed the truth, because of his name." The
Captain's eyes n