n again with the rector. To
talk of the recent events at the Crompton House was natural, and before
they parted Jack knew the contents of the Rev. Charles's letter to his
son, and in his mind there was no doubt of a secret marriage and Amy's
legitimacy.

"It will be hard on Howard," he thought, "but Amy ought to have her
rights,--and,--Eloise! And she shall!" he added, as he retraced his
steps to the Crompton House.

Chancing to be alone with her, he told her in part what he had heard
from the rector, keeping back everything pertaining to the poverty of
the surroundings, and speaking mostly of Jakey and Mandy Ann, whom Amy
might remember.

"She does," Eloise replied, "and at every mention of them her brain
seems to get clearer. Peter has brought me a copy of a letter which Col.
Crompton received from Jake just before he went for my mother, and which
he has kept all these years. It may help me to find whatever there is to
be found, good or bad." She handed him the copy, and continued, "The
letter was mailed in Palatka, but from what you tell me, Jakey is
farther up the river. Shall I have any trouble in finding him, do you
think?"

"None whatever," Jack replied, a plan rapidly maturing in his mind as
to what he would do if Eloise persisted in going to Florida. "Better
leave your mother here," he said, when she told him of her determination
to unravel the mystery.

"No," she answered. "Mother must go. I expect much from a sight of her
old home and Jakey."

Jack shivered as he recalled the Rev. Charles Mason's picture of that
home, but he would not enlighten her. She must guess something from
Jakey's note to the Colonel, he thought. Evidently she did, for she
asked him what a Cracker was.

"I ought to know, of course, and have some idea," she said. "I asked
mother, and she said she was one. What did she mean?"

"If you go to Florida you will probably learn what a Cracker is," Jack
replied, as he bade her good-night, pitying her for what he knew was in
store for her.

The next day a telegram from New York called him to the city. But before
he went he had an interview with Ruby with regard to the journey which
Eloise was designing to take as soon as her mother should have recovered
from the shock of the Colonel's death.

For a few days after his departure matters moved on quietly at the
Crompton House, where Howard assumed the head unostentatiously, and
without giving offence to any of the servants. The Crompto