ep this a sort of family
skeleton."

"How can I ever thank you!"

"You'd best give them thanks to the Almighty."

"I do, most heartily."

"Just touch a match to this paper you dropped. Here 'tis. I cal'late you
wa'n't intending for no one to see this but Beth."

"That is true, Josiah. I wished to keep her from going any further with
Mr. McGowan." With trembling fingers he set fire to that piece of
paper.

"One word more about money. What are you going to do about the loan on
this place?"

"You may keep that, Josiah, as a token of my appreciation for what you
have done."

"Not this one," said the Captain. "That's honest enough to pass. I mean
that one the interest has been paid on all these years."

"I'm afraid that my lawyers foreclosed on that at noon----"

"From what Harold said, I cal'late you'll find the interest was paid
afore they had a chance to foreclose. If I was you, Jim, I'd just cancel
that mortgage. The interest has more than paid it back these years.
Mack's estate otter be clear."

The man before whom great ones had been made to tremble because of
financial power, now meekly nodded assent to a sea captain.

"And we'll just include everything you owe Mack in the papers Harold is
going to draw up?"

"I'll be only too glad to do as you say. But how about this Rogers
woman?"

"I'll see to her. She'd never recognize you as the dude who beat her
son-in-law. You've changed consider'ble since then. You've even changed
a mite to-night."

The Captain took up his pipe from the table, shook off the ash, and
relighted it.

"Is that all, Josiah?"

"Yes. I cal'late you'd best be going." He handed the Elder his hat, and
lifted his walking-stick from the floor.

"Thanks, Josiah. You have been very kind to me. More than I deserve."

"There ain't no room for argument on that p'int."

As the Elder reached the door the Captain halted him.

"If I was you, Jim, I'd keep my oar out of that love affair of Mack and
Beth."

"Quite right, Josiah. Good night."

The Elder got out of the house and into the road in a stumbling fashion.
He climbed the knoll to his estate, a saddened and broken old man, but
with a relief of mind and heart that he had not known for years.

CHAPTER XIX

"Now, ain't you a pair to look at, and you to give your sermon this
morning, Mr. McGowan! You look a heap sight worse than Edna Splinter,
and she's been raving with a fever all night."

Miss Pipkin made this observ