A moment’s profound silence was followed by a peculiar sound. Thump, thump, thump! echoed from the room inside, at regular intervals, and then the door was suddenly opened and a man with a wooden leg stood before us. He was clothed in sailor fashion and a bushy beard ornamented his round, frank face. For an instant we three stood regarding one another in mute wonder. The open door disclosed the long living-room, at the back end of which Mrs. Ranck stood by the kitchen table with a plate in one hand and a towel in the other, motionless as a marble statue and with a look of terror fixed upon her white face. Singularly enough, I was the first to recover from my surprise. “Dad!” I cried, in a glad voice, and threw myself joyfully into the sailor man’s arms. “Why—Cap’n Steele, sir—what does this mean?” faltered Uncle Naboth. “I thought you was dead an’ gone long ago, an’ safe in Davy Jones’s locker!” CHAPTER XIX. THE CONQUEST OF MRS. RANCK. I regret to say that my father’s welcome was not especially cordial. Nevertheless, he was for some reason evidently pleased by the sudden appearance of his son and his brother-in-law. Releasing himself gently from my clinging embrace, he said, in his deep, grave voice: “Come in and sit down. I never thought to see you again, Sam; and, much less you, Naboth Perkins. But now that you’re here, we’ll have a few mutual explanations.” Mrs. Ranck, a few paces behind him, was bristling like a frightened cat. “If them thieves an’ scoundrels enters this house, I’ll go out!” she fairly screamed, in her shrill voice. “Be quiet!” commanded the Captain, sternly. “This is my house; and, although it’s all that my friends have left to me,” he added, bitterly, “I’m still the master under my own roof. Sit down, Perkins, sit down, Sam, my lad.” A sudden tenderness that crept into the last words seemed to rouse the woman to fury. “That’s the boy that robbed you!” she cried, pointing at me a trembling, bony finger. “That’s the boy that skinned the house of all your valeybles and treasures as soon as he thought you was dead, and couldn’t come back to punish him! An’ stole all my savin’s too; and swore he’d be a pirate and murder and steal all his life; an’ that the man,” turning fiercely upon my horrified uncle, “as aided an’ abetted him in his wickedness, an’ threatened to kill me if I interfered with Sam’s carryin’ away of your property! Cap’n Steele, how dare you harbor sich varmints? Drive ’em out, this instant, or I’ll go myself. This house can’t hold Sam Steele, the robber, and me at the same time!”