"Answer us! Is this here true? Has that old whelp been foolin' us? Ain't Cap'n Jonah got no fortune?" "Cap'n Jonah?" Pearl gasped the name as the door was flung open allowing the old seaman and, seemingly, a good part of the storm, to enter. It was such a furious blast that accompanied Cap'n Jonah into the kitchen that he had to put his back against the door and so force it shut against wind and snow. He cleared his eyes with the back of his hand. He beheld the three Pettys surrounding the girl with an astonishment that turned instantly to indignation. "Belay there!" he commanded. "What do you folks mean to do to that gal? Ain't I told you what I'd do if you didn't stop pickin' on her? Belay all! What d'you mean?" Sarah flung around on him, her eyes fairly sparking. "Ah! Here ye be!" she cried. "You're the rich Jonah Hand, I hear tell? You got a box full of securities and money, I wouldn't wonder? _And who loaned 'em to you?_" Cap'n Jonah was, for the moment, staggered. But he was already leaning against the door for support and his grim old mahogany face showed no flicker of emotion as he listened to his niece's tirade. "We know all about it now, you pauper!" the woman cried. "Comin' here an' deceivin' your own blood rel'tives. Livin' on our bounty an' makin' a show out'n us that has give ye bit an' sup." "Easy! Easy!" murmured Cap'n Jonah, grim-lipped. "Ye ain't lost nothin' by _me_, Sarah Petty." "Shet up!" she shrieked at him. "I've been slavin' for you--ev'rybody knows it. Aunt 'Poley, an' Aunt Perse seen it. Miz Enoch Petty said I was a fool to do so much for any old tramp of a sailor----" "Sarah Petty!" Cap'n Jonah's voice thundered through the room and silenced the woman. He was no longer aghast at the discovery the Pettys had made. His commanding voice and manner held his three relatives in abeyance as though he were speaking from his quarterdeck. "Sarah Petty, I am your father's brother. There was a time, as you well know, when poor John--and you and your mother--might have been cast on a lee shore if it hadn't been for me standin' by an' seein' that you weathered the storm. "If I had come to you when I landed here from China and demanded that you take me in and do for me, 'twould ha' been no more than right, as you know, Sarah Petty. As 'tis, I don't owe you nothin'. "If you let yourself be fooled into believin' I was a wealthy man, you done it easy. _I never said I was!_ "I've paid you every cent I agreed to for board and lodgin'--_an'_ wash. My money is jest as good somewhere else, I reckon, as 'tis here, as long as it lasts. I'd ruther go to strangers and hire my keep from 'em, than stay under _your_ roof, Sarah Petty, on any terms. I'll go now. I'll find a shelter somewhere and send for my duffel." He thumped his cane resoundingly on the floor and wheeled toward the door again. Pearl started toward him, both hands held out appealingly: "Oh, Cap'n Jonah!"