trouble between you two?" I asked.

"It's more'n I could ever find out," he replied in a voice that was
really mournful, so difficult and non-understandable was the subject to
him. "Before I started to work for this office there wasn't a day that I
didn't meet and speak friendly with Elihu. He used to have a good many
deeds and papers to sign, and he never failed to call me in when I was
passing. When I started to work for this office I noticed he took on a
cold manner toward me, and I tried to think of something I might have
done, but I couldn't. Finally I wrote and asked him if there was
anything between us if he wouldn't set a time and place so's we might
talk it over and come to an understanding." He paused and then added, "I
wish you could see the letter he wrote me. Comin' from a Christian
man--from him to me--I wish you could see it."

"Why don't you show it to me?" I asked inquisitively.

He went back into the office and returned with an ancient-looking
document, four years old it proved to be, which he had been treasuring.
He handed me the thumbed and already yellowed page, and I read:

"MATTHEW HOLCOMB, ESQUIRE,

"DEAR SIR:--In reply to your letter asking me to set a time and
place in which we might talk over the trouble between us, would
say that the time be Eternity and the place where God shall call
us to judgment.

"Very truly,
"ELIHU BURRIDGE."

His eyes rested on me while I read, and the moment I finished he began
with:

"I never said one word against that man, not one word. I never did a
thing he could take offense at, not one thing. I don't know how a man
can justify himself writing like that."

"Perhaps it's political," I said. "You don't belong to the same party,
do you?"

"Yes, we do," he said. "Sometimes I've thought that maybe it was because
I had the support of the shipyard when I first tried to get this office,
but then that wasn't anything between him and me," and he looked away as
if the mystery were inexplicable.

This shipyard was conducted by a most forceful man but one as narrow and
religionistic as this region in which it had had its rise. Old Mr.
Palmer, the aged founder of it, had long been a notable figure in the
streets and private chambers of the village. The principal grocery
store, coal-yard, sail-loft, hotel and other institutions were conducted
in its interests. His opinion was always foremost in the decision of the
local authorities. H