"An' there's another thing," went on Tom, using the gaff without mercy. "How about if Uncle Jonah turns on you with that old note of gran'-pop's? He ain't forgot it. You can see that by what he just said to you. He was throwin' it up to you. An' now it's proved he ain't got a fortune, he'll try seeing what he can get out o' you." "You hesh up," commanded Sarah Petty, suddenly recovering her poise. Orrin might be utterly helpless; but she had begun to think again. Tom's point was well taken. She could only judge other people by her own mind. That was the great lack in her character, after all. She measured every other person by her own warped standard. It was possibly within Uncle Jonah's power to make the Pettys a great deal of trouble. Even if the old note for two thousand dollars was outlawed, if the old captain pressed the matter the fact would be made public that Sarah Petty had not settled her father's just debts when she had administered his estate. The Petty family--Uncles 'Poley, Perse, Solon and Enoch, and their wives and connections--would hear all about it. Sarah was a social climber. She had desired to use the prestige of Cap'n Jonah's supposed fortune as a ladder on which to mount to the higher branches of the family tree. There was nothing criminal in Sarah being deceived by the old sea captain regarding his financial affairs. That was not her fault. But if the story got abroad that she, after all, owed Cap'n Jonah all the attention she had given him--and much more--the Harwich Pettys would have something to say about it! Sarah Petty could better bear being laughed at for being fooled by Cap'n Jonah, than be exposed as having cheated the old man out of two thousand dollars. Her calmer thought compassed this fact almost immediately. Shrewdly she readjusted her plans for the future. "Tom Petty," she said briskly, "you go after that gal. You bring Pearl back here. She ain't got no right to leave us this-a-way in any case, for we're her guardeens, made so by the 'thority of the town _se_lectmen till she's eighteen." "You want I should spoil ev'rything," her son complained. "If I try to order her back----" "I didn't say so, did I?" snapped his mother. "We've got a hold on her just the same. But that's our last resort. You find Pearl an' tell her to come back. You be nice to her. If you want to marry the girl your father and I ain't got no objections. She's a fav'rite of Uncle Jonah Hand. A blind man can see that. And he won't do nothin' that'll hurt her or her'n. D'ye see? If Pearl an' you marry, he won't press no old note against this estate that's a-comin' to you some day. That is sure." "I dunno can I git her back," grumbled Tom, buttoning his coat again. "But I'll find out where she's goin' and what she's goin' to do." "You can look in at Abe Silt's store," said his mother, sharply. "If that old tramp's such good friends with Silt, that's where he an' Pearl's gone."