seemed to reflect; started to
drive in, then checked the horse and got out of the sleigh. Hastily
bringing an armful of straw, he cast it down on the barn floor,
spreading it thick and soft where the iron-shod hoofs must tread. Then,
without a sound, he led the good beast in, rubbed him down, washed his
feet, and gave him his supper.

All the while, though he spoke no word aloud, one phrase was saying
itself over and over in his mind; the same phrase that old Ivory
Cheeseman had spoken as he looked after him in the morning.

"_Where did she get the money_?"

The stairs which led to his attic room went up from the shed. Coming in
silently, his foot was on the lowest step when he heard voices in the
kitchen, one of them speaking his own name. Involuntarily he paused.

"S'pose the Cap'n should find it out!" said the old woman's creaking
voice.

"He won't find it out!" barked her daughter. "It's all wopsed up in a
bunch, I tell you, and stuffed into the wallet anyhow. He don't know how
much he's got. Hark! was that the sleigh-bells?"

"Dust and ashes!" creaked the old woman. "I never thought a child of
mine would be a thief, but I don't know as it matters. Hell-fire lights
easy!"

"I ain't a thief!" said Phrony fiercely. "I'm only takin' what's my
own, or will be when we're man and wife."

"Jesus'll kerry me through!" Mrs. Marlin piped. "Who knows you ever will
be, darlin'? He's no fool, the Cap'n ain't, for all his easy ways. You
may go too fur. Jordan's rollin' past, rollin' past!"

"Let it roll!" cried the other woman savagely. "If you'll only hold your
tongue, mother, I can fix it all right. Do you want the mortgage
foreclosed, and us both on the town? You leave this to me! Mebbe he
ain't a fool, but he's as good as one for soft-heartedness. If I can't
get round that man--hark! was that the bells?"

Calvin Parks stole noiselessly up the stairs. Slipping off his shoes, he
crept across the garret room to the cupboard; groped with trembling
hands for the wallet, found it, and brought it out; lighted the lamp and
hastily counted the money it contained. One hundred dollars--two
hundred--three hundred! He counted again and again; there was no
mistake. He thrust the money into his bosom and stood up; his face
showed white under the tan.

"She has taken two hundred dollars!" He said. "Poor miserable creatur'!"

He stood perfectly still for some minutes, thinking rapidly. Then,
creeping swiftly about the room, li