"Oh dear!" she cried. "Oh, dear, that is the very thing they mustn't do! I wouldn't have Judge Knowles worried or troubled about this for the world. I have kept everything from him. He is _so_ ill! If those women go to him and---- Oh, but they mustn't, they mustn't! I can't let them." Mrs. Tidditt, diminutive but combative, offered a suggestion. "Do you want me to go out and stop 'em?" she demanded. "I'll go and stand in the kitchen doorway, if you want me to. They won't get by if I'm there, not in a hurry, anyway." "Oh no, no, Esther, of course not." "I tell you what I'll do. I'll go and tell Emmeline not to let 'em in the judge's house. She's my cousin and she'll do what I ask--sometimes--if I don't ask much." "No, that wouldn't do any good, any permanent good. But they must not go to the judge. They must not. He has been so kind and forbearing and he is so very sick. The doctor told me that he.... They shan't go. They can say anything they please to me, but they shan't torment him." She started toward the door through which Mrs. Tidditt had entered. At the threshold she paused for an instant and turned. "Please excuse me, Cap'n Kendrick," she said. "I almost forgot that you were here. I think I wouldn't wait if I were you. There will be another scene and I'm sure you have had scenes enough. I have, too, but.... Oh, well, it will be all right, I'm sure. Please don't wait. Thank you for calling." She turned again but the captain stopped her. As she faced him there in the doorway their eyes had met. Hers were moist--for the first time she was close to the breaking point--and there was a look in them which caused him to forget everything except one, namely, that the crowd in the "parrot cage" at the other end of that hall should not trouble her further. It was very seldom that Captain Sears Kendrick, master mariner, acted solely on impulse. But he did so now. "Stop," he cried. "Miss Elizabeth, don't go. Stay where you are.... Here--you--" turning to Mrs. Tidditt. "You go and tell those folks I want to see 'em. Tell 'em to come aft here--now." There was a different note in his voice, a note neither Elizabeth nor the Tidditt woman had before heard. Yet if Judah Cahoon had been present he would have recognized it. He had heard it many times, aboard many tall ships, upon many seas. It was the captain's quarter-deck voice and it meant business. Mrs. Tidditt and Elizabeth had not heard it, and they looked at the speaker in surprise. Captain Sears looked at them, but not for long. "Lively," he commanded. "Do you hear? Go for'ard and tell that crew in the galley, or the fo'castle, or wherever they are, to lay aft here. I've got somethin' to say to 'em." It was seldom that Esther Tidditt was at a loss for words. As a usual thing her stock was unlimited. Now she merely gasped. "You--you--" she stammered. "You want me to ask--to ask Elviry and Susanna and them to come in here?"