nt to attend my
funeral ahead of time."

Mrs. Tidditt gasped.

"Oh, Judge Knowles, how _can_ you talk so!" she wailed.

"I intend to talk as I choose--while I can talk at all.... There, there,
woman, that's enough. Put the blasted things up.... Umph! That's better.
Sit down, Cap'n, sit down. I want to look at you."

The captain took one of the walnut and haircloth chairs. The judge
looked at him and he looked at the judge. He remembered the latter as a
tall, broad-shouldered figure, with a ruddy face, black hair slightly
sprinkled with gray, and a nose and eye like an eagle's. The man in the
armchair was thin and shrunken, the face was deeply lined, and face and
hands and hair were snow white. The nose was, however, more eagle-like
than ever, and the eyes beneath the rough white brows had the old flash.

Sears waited an instant for him to speak, but he did not. So the captain
did.

"I beg your pardon, Judge," he began, "for not comin' over here sooner.
I got your message----"

Knowles interrupted. "Oh, you got it, did you?" he said. "Humph! I told
Emmeline to get word to you and she said---- Oh, well, never mind that.
Can't waste time. I haven't got any too much of it, or strength either.
Sorry to hear about your accident, Cap'n. Doctor Sheldon says you had a
close call of it. How are the legs?"

"Oh, I can navigate with 'em after a fashion, but not far. How are you,
Judge? Gettin' better fast, I hope."

The head on the pillow gave an impatient jerk. "Your hope is lost then.
Don't waste time talking about me. I'm going to die and I know it--and
before long.... There, there," as his caller uttered a protest, "don't
bother to pretend, Kendrick. We aren't children, either of us, although
you're a good many years younger than I am; but we're both too old to
make-believe. I'm almost through. Well, it's all right. I've lived past
my three score and ten and I'm alone in the world and ought not to mind
leaving it, I suppose. I don't much. It's an interesting place and there
are two or three matters I should like to straighten up before....
Humph! I'm the one's who's wasting the time. How are you? I don't mean
how would you like to be or how do your fool friends and the doctor tell
you you are--but how _are_ you?"

Captain Sears smiled. It had been a long, long time since any one had
talked to him like this. Not since he relinquished a mate's rating for
that of a master. But he did not resent it; he, too, was sick of