ou. Well, well, well! I started right there and I fetched up way over
in Semurny, along of George Dingo. Well, by Henry! Ain't that queer,
now?"

He rubbed his legs and shook his head, apparently overcome by the
queerness of it. Kendrick, judging that another Mediterranean cruise was
imminent, made a remark calculated to keep him at home.

"What did this--what's-her-name--this Tidditt woman say about me?" he
asked.

"Hey? Oh, she said that Judge Knowles wanted to see you. Said that he
asked about you 'most every day, wanted to know how you was gittin'
along, because just as soon as you was well enough to cruise on your own
hook he wanted you to come in and see him."

"Judge Knowles wanted me to come in and see him? Why, that's funny! I
don't know the judge well. Haven't seen him for years, and then only two
or three times. What on earth can Judge Knowles have to say to me?....
Humph! I can't think."

He tried to think, nevertheless. Judah busied himself with the sloppy
process of clam opening. A little later he observed:

"So you wan't lonesome all alone here by yourself while I was gone,
Cap'n? That's good. Glad to hear it."

"Thanks, Judah. I wasn't alone, though."

"You wan't? Sho! Do tell! Have company, did ye? Somebody run in?"

"Yes. And they wouldn't run out again, not for a good while. They came
on business."

"Business? What kind of business?"

"Well, I suppose you might call it gardening. They were interested in
raisin' vegetables, I know that."

Judah laid down the clam knife and regarded his former skipper. "Raisin'
vegetables?" he repeated slowly. "What--? Look here Cap'n Sears, who was
they? Where'd they come from?"

"I believe they came from next door?"

"Next door? From the Harbor?" He rose to his feet, suspicion dawning
upon his face above the whiskers.

"Yes, Judah."

"Cap'n Sears, answer me right straight out. Have those dummed
everlastin' Fair Harbor hens been in my garden again?"

"Yes, Judah."

"Have they--have they?----" Words failed him. He strode up the path to
the garden. Then, after a moment's comprehensive gaze upon the scene of
ruin, the words returned.

CHAPTER IV

Sears Kendrick's prophecy that Bayport would, within the next day or
two, talk about him even more than it had before was a true one. As soon
as it became known that he had left the Macomber home and was boarding
and lodging with Judah Cahoon in the rear portion of the General Minot
house every