"You're right there, Mr. Phillips," he announced, with emphasis. "Don't talk to me about habits! When a man's been to sea as long's I have he runs afoul of pretty nigh every kind of habit there is, seems so. Why, I knew a feller one time--down to Surinam 'twas--I was cook and steward aboard the old _Highflyer_--and this feller--he wan't a white man, nor he wan't all nigger nuther, kind of in between, one of them--er--er--octoreens, that's what he was--well, this feller he had the dumdest habit. Every day of his life, about the middle of the dog watch he'd up and----" "Judah." "Aye, aye, Cap'n Sears?" "You'll be late down at the store, won't you?" "Hey? Oh, I don't care how late I be. I don't know's I'm so dreadful partic'lar about goin' down there to-night, anyhow. Don't know but I'd just as live stay here." "I'd go." "Hey? Oh, I----" "I'd go, if I were you. You know there's likely to be a good deal goin' on." "Think so, do you?" Judah was evidently on the fence. "Course, I---- Well, maybe I had better, come to think of it. Good night, Mr. Phillips. I'll tell you about that octoreen feller next time I see you. So long, Cap'n Sears. I'll report about," with a wink, "the cacklin' later. Creepin'! it's most eight now, ain't it?" He hurried out. Egbert looked rather relieved. He smiled tolerantly. "Evidently an eccentric, your--er--man," he observed. "He has his ways, like the majority of us, I guess," declared the captain, crisply. "Underneath he is as square and big-hearted as they make. And he's a good friend of mine." "Oh, yes; yes, I'm sure of it. Captain Kendall----" "Kendrick, not Kendall." Mr. Phillips begged pardon for the mistake. It was inexcusable, he admitted. He had heard the captain's name mentioned so frequently since his arrival in Bayport, especially by Mrs. Berry and her daughter, "so favorably, even enthusiastically mentioned," that he certainly should have remembered it. "I am not quite myself, I fear," he added. "My recent bereavement and the added shock of the death of my dear old friend the judge have had their effect. My nerves are--well, you understand, I am sure." He made a lengthy call. He talked a great deal, and his conversation was always interesting. He spoke much of his dear wife, of life abroad, of Genoa and Leghorn, ports which the captain had visited, and of the changes in Bayport since his last sojourn in the village. But he said almost nothing concerning his plans for the future, and of the Fair Harbor very little. In fact, Sears had the feeling that he was waiting for him to talk concerning that institution. This the captain would not do and, at last, Mr. Phillips himself touched lightly upon the fringes of the subject. "Do you find your duties in connection with the--ah--retreat next door arduous, Captain Kendrick?" he inquired. "Eh?... Oh, no, I don't know as I'd call 'em that, exactly."