Then, knowing as did everybody else in the community, where the chapel key was kept, he ran his hand along the clapboards and found the nail. The key was there. Then, thought Helmford, he was the first of the decorating committee to arrive. He took down the key and kept on to the vestry door. The dead chill of the place struck him as he entered. "Wonder what's happened to Mr. Truitt," Helmford thought; for he, like everybody else, expected the taut little ex-steward to do all the chores of the chapel as a matter of course. The fire was laid in the Baltimore heater, and soon the young man had it roaring and the heat radiating from the surface of the stove below as well as rising through the register above, in the audience room. The piles of greens were ready for the workers; but nobody arrived. Helmford opened the box he had brought from the post-office. In it was as fine a bough of mistletoe as he had ever seen. It had been sent to him from Boston by parcel post. When he had sent for this bit of Christmas decoration he had secretly borne Pearl in mind. There was something more in the significance of the mistletoe than a mere pleasantry. He thrilled even now at the thought of pressing the girl's dewy lips with his own, under the benison of the Christmas bough. How lovely Pearl was in her sweet simplicity. Joe Helmford, when he bought the mistletoe, had been playing with fire. He knew it now. He had come to a full realization of it when Tom Petty had attacked him on the Shell Road and he had struck that single blow in Pearl Holden's and his own defense. Bitter indeed had been his thoughts as he packed his things that night after speaking his mind to the Pettys. He had allowed himself to go so far with Pearl Holden that he felt he should never be at peace again. She was the object of a growing and consuming passion, and he could not put thought of her away. Yet, there stood the specter of Cap'n Jonah's fortune between them! He could not deliberately besiege the heart of this girl who had been chosen to be the recipient of the old seaman's wealth. But how he now desired to see Pearl again and to be with her! He hid the mistletoe bough away in the sexton's closet under the stairs. Then he went to the door to gaze out upon the storm. Nobody was coming toward the chapel that he could see. It was past the hour Miss Sue had set for the decorators to gather, and she was not here herself. Nor was Pearl coming, it seemed. The storm was increasing; but so disturbing were the young man's thoughts that he scarcely noticed that fact as he stepped out into it again and closed the vestry door behind him. His mind and heart on fire with the passionate thoughts that had assailed him for days past, Joe Helmford began, like 'Liphalet Truitt, to challenge the storm; through the buffeting of the elements he sought mental peace again. * * * * *