esire Peasley, too, for what I know. What
do you want me to do? Ain't there any way I can help stop 'em?"

For the first time in that distressing forenoon Captain Kendrick saw
Miss Berry's nerve shaken. She clasped her hands.

"Oh dear!" she cried. "Oh, dear, that is the very thing they mustn't do!
I wouldn't have Judge Knowles worried or troubled about this for the
world. I have kept everything from him. He is _so_ ill! If those women
go to him and---- Oh, but they mustn't, they mustn't! I can't let them."

Mrs. Tidditt, diminutive but combative, offered a suggestion.

"Do you want me to go out and stop 'em?" she demanded. "I'll go and
stand in the kitchen doorway, if you want me to. They won't get by if
I'm there, not in a hurry, anyway."

"Oh no, no, Esther, of course not."

"I tell you what I'll do. I'll go and tell Emmeline not to let 'em in
the judge's house. She's my cousin and she'll do what I
ask--sometimes--if I don't ask much."

"No, that wouldn't do any good, any permanent good. But they must not go
to the judge. They must not. He has been so kind and forbearing and he
is so very sick. The doctor told me that he.... They shan't go. They can
say anything they please to me, but they shan't torment him."

She started toward the door through which Mrs. Tidditt had entered. At
the threshold she paused for an instant and turned.

"Please excuse me, Cap'n Kendrick," she said. "I almost forgot that you
were here. I think I wouldn't wait if I were you. There will be another
scene and I'm sure you have had scenes enough. I have, too, but.... Oh,
well, it will be all right, I'm sure. Please don't wait. Thank you for
calling."

She turned again but the captain stopped her. As she faced him there in
the doorway their eyes had met. Hers were moist--for the first time she
was close to the breaking point--and there was a look in them which
caused him to forget everything except one, namely, that the crowd in
the "parrot cage" at the other end of that hall should not trouble her
further. It was very seldom that Captain Sears Kendrick, master mariner,
acted solely on impulse. But he did so now.

"Stop," he cried. "Miss Elizabeth, don't go. Stay where you are....
Here--you--" turning to Mrs. Tidditt. "You go and tell those folks I
want to see 'em. Tell 'em to come aft here--now."

There was a different note in his voice, a note neither Elizabeth nor
the Tidditt woman had before heard. Yet if Judah Cahoon had been