This order was superfluous. Captain Jerry was already half-way to the fence, and going at a rate which bid fair to establish a record for his age. The others fell into his wake, and the procession moved across country like a steeplechase. They climbed over stone walls and splashed into meadows. They took every short cut between the station and their home. As they came in sight of the latter, Captain Perez' breath gave out almost entirely. “Heave to!” he gasped. “Heave to, or I'll founder. I wouldn't run another step for all the darkies in the West Indies.” Captain Eri paused, but it was only after a struggle that Captain Jerry was persuaded to halt. “I shan't do it, Eri!” he vowed wildly. “I shan't do it! There ain't no use askin' me; I won't marry that black woman! I won't, by thunder!” “There! there! Jerry!” said Captain Eri soothingly. “Nobody wants you to. There ain't no danger now. She didn't see us.” “Ain't no danger! There you go again, Eri Hedge! She'll ask where I live and come right down in the depot wagon. Oh! Lordy! Lordy!” The frantic sacrifice was about to bound away again, when Captain Eri caught him by the arm. “I'll tell you what,” he said, “we'll scoot for Eldredge's shanty and hide there till she gits tired and goes away. P'raps she won't come, anyhow.” The deserted fish shanty, property of the heirs of the late Nathaniel Eldredge, was situated in a hollow close to the house. In a few moments the three were inside, with a sawhorse against the door. Then Captain Eri pantingly sat down on an overturned bucket and laughed until the tears came into his eyes. “That's it, laff!” almost sobbed Captain Jerry. “Set there and tee-hee like a Bedlamite. It's what you might expect. Wait till the rest of the town finds out about this; they'll do the laffin' then, and you won't feel so funny. We'll never hear the last of it in this world. If that darky comes down here, I'll--I'll drown her; I will--” “I don't blame Jerry,” said Perez indignantly. “I don't see much to laff at. Oh, my soul and body there she comes now.” They heard the rattle of a heavy carriage, and, crowding together at the cobwebbed window, saw the black shape of the “depot wagon” rock past. They waited, breathless, until they saw it go back again up the road. “Did you lock the dining-room door, Perez?” asked Captain Eri. “Course I didn't. Why should I?” It was a rather senseless question. Nobody locks doors in Orham except at bedtime. “Humph!” grunted Captain Eri. “She'll see the light in the dining room, and go inside and wait, more 'n likely. Well, there's nothin' for us to do but to stay here for a while, and then, if she ain't gone, one of us 'll have to go up and tell her she won't suit and pay her fare home, that's all. I think Jerry ought to be the one,” he added mischievously. “He bein' the bridegroom, as you might say.”