"This foolin' Pearly an' young Helmford, an' even Cap'n Beecher and Miss Sue and the Doc an' all, does go against the grain. If them bonds and sheer certificates I showed that half-baked boy of Sarah Petty's was real, instead of phony, and I was rich 'stead of scurcely havin' a cent to bless myself with, I'd be the happiest man alive, I do guess. But as 'tis----" He spoke earnestly, and he meant it, did Cap'n Jonah. He was never cut out for a deceitful man, and the strain of the hateful situation was telling on him. Cap'n Abe was called to the rear premises by Betty Gallup, the "Able Seaman," before he could make reply to the troubled captain. The latter drifted back into the radiance of the stove's warmth. Then out of the dark pocket between soap boxes and sugar barrels at the end of the counter rose up a figure, the presence of which neither of the old men had suspected. There was a door into the side hall of Cap'n Abe's house right here. The eavesdropper opened this softly and passed through unobserved. Once in the entry, he opened the outside door and slipped out into the storm. So excited and enraged was he that he scarcely noticed the buffeting of the snow and sleet. He plunged through it, his face twitching violently, his hands clenched, rage and chagrin seething in his breast. For once Tom Petty, thick-headed though he was, was thoroughly aroused. CHAPTER XXV THE PRICE OF HEROISM 'Liphalet Truitt lifted the latch of Suz Montevedo's door, and a groan was the response to his first hail. "By Hannah! you're darker'n the inside of a nigger's pocket here," he said. "How ye doin', Suz?" "Bad, Mist' Life! Oh, so ver' bad!" moaned the Portuguese, who was a good deal of a child in time of sickness. "And all alone?" 'Liphalet's tone was rather shocked. "Ah, I haf not been alone, Mist' Life. The saints be praised! I haf had an angel veesitor." 'Liphalet was relieved to some degree. He knew he was on the right trail. "Where's this here angel gone?" he asked dryly. "I know not. Where do angels go when they have made a veesit of mercy, Mist' Life? Do they not return to heaven?" queried the poetical Suz. The ex-steward was willing to agree that Doctor Ambrose's old-fashioned parlor had often seemed near heaven to him. But he eventually got down to practicalities with Montevedo. Miss Sue had been there for more than an hour. She had tidied up the shack, cooked some food for the man, and left more, with a cooling drink and the doctor's medicine within his reach. She had promised to come again on the morrow, while she hoped to send Washy Gallup to spend the night with him. "But eef my leetle Loretta was here, she would do for me," moaned Suz. "That fly-away young'un!" ejaculated 'Liphalet. "She can't do nothin' but dance. Crazy as a sand-piper. She's better off with her father's people and you're better off here without her, Suz."