. "I came up
here to see Edith and found that that fellow you saw in the launch was
trying to starve out this camp."

"Edith here? Who says Edith's here? You're out of your senses! You know
perfectly well the child's in Ohio!"

"Break in on that dialogue," said the Governor to Archie. "Those men
will never get anywhere yelling at each other. I'll attend to Eliphalet
after we land the freight."

"If that wife of yours has stolen Edith I'll have the law on her!"
screamed Eliphalet. "She's not fit to have the care of children!"

Archie walked to the edge of the wharf and commanded Eliphalet to hold
his peace.

"Putney, row out a few hundred yards and watch Carey. You needn't worry
about your father. We'll find some way of getting him out of his
scrapes."

The detective, who had been lashed to the pilot house, reused himself to
shout:

"You'll make a nice mess of it trying to get him away from the
Government. The whole lot of you are crooks, and you're holding me at
your peril."

The discharge of freight had not ceased during this colloquy. The crane
swung over the wharf at regular intervals, and the men with the
wheelbarrows trotted back and forth with the spirit and agility of men
intent upon finishing an honest day's work. As Putney Congdon, mystified
but obedient, rowed away, his father began begging Perky to leave the
place and steer for Canada.

"You promised to protect me but you've made a fool of me," the old man
wailed. "You betrayed me to the police; you--"

The Governor flung a sack of potatoes into a wheelbarrow, and surveyed
the infuriated Eliphalet for a moment.

"Pray calm yourself, Mr. Congdon, and please be careful how you charge
people with serious crimes. It seems to be an obsession with you that
everybody on earth is a crook. The proposition interests me
psychologically. When I get through with this freight I'll look at your
data. Meanwhile I solemnly warn you to make no charge against me or any
friends of mine that you can't prove."

It was five o'clock when the last of the cargo was landed in the store
house. The engineer (a gentleman whose grimy face and mournful eyes
belied his record as a hold-up man) sounded the whistle.

Ruth ran down to the shore and Archie and the Governor went to meet her.

"O you angels!" she cried. "I've just taken a peep into the store house
and you've given us enough food to last all next summer. It's perfectly
splendid. I wasn't watching--really, I wasn'