shaking with emotion. "You--you come here and--and pretend-- Oh, by The Almighty, if you was a man, if you wasn't the--the poor, pitiful fool that you be, I'd--I'd--"

His daughter had reached his side. "Father," she begged. "Father, for my sake--"

"Be still! Be still, girl! . . . Marietta Hoag, you answer me. Who put you up to tellin' me to sell that stock to Pulcifer? Who did it? Answer me?"

Marietta tried, but she could do little but gurgle. She gurgled, however, in her natural tones, or a frightened imitation of them. Little Cherry Blossom had, apparently, fluttered to the Chinese spiritland.

"I--I-- Oh, my good land!" she wailed.

"Answer!"

"Father--father!" cried Lulie. "Don't talk so! Don't act so!"

"Act so! Be still! Let me alone, Martha Phipps! This woman here is a cheat. She's a liar! How do I KNOW? DON'T ask such fool questions. I know because--because she says my wife--Julia--my wife--tells me to sell my four hundred shares of Wellmouth Development stock--"

"Yes, of course. But, perhaps--"

"There ain't any perhaps. You, woman," addressing the cowering medium, "didn't you say that?"

"Yes--oh, yes, Cap'n Jeth, I said it. PLEASE don't!"

"And you pretended my dead wife's spirit said it, didn't you?"

"Yes. Yes, she did. Oh--oh--"

"She did not! Listen, all of you!" with scornful disgust. "Listen! That four hundred shares of Development stock this--this critter here says Julia knows I've got and wants me to sell to Raish Pulcifer I SOLD two months ago. Yes, by the everlastin', I sold 'em! And--eh? Yes, there he is. I sold 'em to that Bangs man there. He knows it. He'll tell you I did. . . . And now this swindler, this cheat, she--she-- Who put you up to it? Who did? Was it Pulcifer?"

Marietta began to sob. "Ye-es, yes," she faltered. "He--he said he--"

"I thought so. And you pretended 'twas my--my Julia, my wife. . . . Oh, my God! And you've been pretendin' all the time. 'Twas all cheatin' and lies, wasn't it? She--she never come to you. She never told you nothin'. Ain't it so?"

Poor, publicity-loving, sensation-loving Marietta's nerve was completely gone. She sobbed wildly.

"Oh--oh, I guess so. I--I guess likely 'twas," she wailed. "I--I don't know. I only--"

Captain Jethro took his hand from her shoulder. He staggered a little.

"Get out of my house!" he ordered. "Out of my house--all of you. You're all liars and cheats together. . . . Oh, Julia! Oh, my Lord above!"

He collapsed in a chair and put his hands to his head. Lulie, the tears streaming down her face, tried to comfort him. Martha, also weeping, essayed to help. Cabot, walking over to where his cousin was standing, laid a hand on his arm. Galusha, pale and wan, looking as if the world had slipped from under him and he was left hanging in cold space, turned a haggard face in his direction.

"Well, Loosh," said Cousin Gussie, dryly, "I think you and I had better go home, hadn't we? This has been an interesting evening, an--ah--illuminating evening. You appear to be the only person who can add to the illumination, and--well, don't you think it is time you did?"

CHAPTER XXI

Galusha did not answer. He regarded his relative vacantly, opened his mouth, closed it, sighed and turned toward the dining room. By this time most of the congregation were already in the yard and, as Cabot and his companion emerged into the dripping blackness of out- of-doors, from various parts of that blackness came the clatter of tongues and the sound of fervent ejaculations and expressions of amazement.

"Well! WELL! Don't talk to ME! If this don't beat all ever _I_ see! . . ." "I should say it did! I was just sayin' to Sarah B., s' I, 'My soul and body,' s' I, 'if this ain't--'" . . . "And what do you s'pose made him--" "And when they turned up them lights and I see him standin' there jammin' her down into that chair and wavin' that big fist of his over top her head, thinks I, 'Good-NIGHT! He's goin' to hammer her right down through into the cellar, don't know's he ain't!'"

These were a few fragments which Cousin Gussie caught as they pushed their way to the gate. In one spot where a beam of light from the window faintly illuminated the wet, he glimpsed a flowered and fruited hat picturesquely draped over its wearer's ear while from beneath its lopsided elegance a tearful voice was heard hysterically demanding to be taken home. "Take me home, 'Phelia. I--I--I . . . Oh, take me home! I--I--I've forgot my rubbers and--and I feel's if my hair was comin' off--down, I mean--but--oh, I don't CARE, take me HOME!"

Galusha, apparently, heard and saw nothing of this. He blundered straight on to the gate and thence along the road to the Phipps' cottage. It seemed to Cabot that he found it by instinct, for the fog was so thick that even the lighted windows could not be seen further than a few yards. But he did find it and, at last, the two men stood together in the little sitting room. Then Cousin Gussie once more laid a hand on his relative's arm.

"Well, Galusha," he said, again, "what about it?"

Galusha heaved another sigh. "Yes--ah--yes," he answered. "Yes-- ah--quite so."

"Humph! What is quite so? I want to know about that stock of the Wellmouth Development Company."

"Yes. . . . Yes, certainly, I know."

"That Captain--um--What's-his-name, the picturesque old lunatic with the whiskers--Hallett, I mean--made a statement that was, to say the least, surprising. I presume he was crazy. That was the most weird collection of insanity that I ever saw or heard. Ha, ha! Oh, dear! . . . Well, never mind. But what did old Hallett mean by saying he had sold YOU his four hundred shares of that stock?"

Galusha closed his eyes. He smiled sadly.

"He meant that he had--ah--sold them to me," he answered.

"LOOSH!"

"Yes."

"Loosh, are you crazy, too?"

"Very likely. I often think I may be. Yes, I bought the--ah-- stock."

"You bought the-- YOU? Loosh, sit down."

Mr. Bangs shook his head. "No, Cousin Gussie," he said. "If you don't mind I--I won't sit down. I shall go to my room soon. I bought Captain Hallett's stock. I bought Miss Phipps', too."

It was Cabot himself who sat down. He stared, slowly shook his head, and then uttered a fervent, "Whew!"

Galusha nodded. "Yes," he observed. "Ah--yes."

"Loosh, do you know what you are saying? Do you mean that you actually bought Hallett's four hundred shares and this woman's--?"

"Miss Phipps is her name. Miss Martha Phipps."

"Yes, yes, of course. And you bought . . . Eh? By Jove! Is THAT what you did with that thirteen thousand dollars?"

Again Galusha nodded. "Yes," he said.

Cousin Gussie whistled again. "But why did you do it, Loosh?" he asked, after a moment. "For heaven's sake, WHY?"

Galusha did not answer immediately. Then he said, slowly: "If--if you don't mind, Cousin Gussie, I think I should tell HER that first. That is, I mean she should--ah--be here when I do tell it. . . . I--I think I will change my mind and sit down and wait until she comes. . . . Perhaps. you will wait, too--if you don't mind. . . . And, please--please don't think me rude if I do not--ah--talk. I do not feel--ah--conversational. Dear me, no."

He sat down. Cabot stared at him, crossed his knees, and continued to stare. Occasionally he shook his head, as if the riddle were proving too much for him. Galusha did not move. Neither man spoke. The old clock ticked off the minutes.

Primmie came home first. "Miss Martha said to tell you she would be over in a few minutes," she announced. "Cap'n Jeth, he's a- comin' around all right, so Miss Martha and Zach and them think. But, my savin' soul, how he does hang onto Lulie! Keeps a-sayin' she's all he's got that's true and honest and--and all that sort of talk. Give me the crawlin' creeps to hear him. And after that seance thing, too! When that everlastin' foghorn bust loose the first time, I cal'lated--"

Galusha interrupted. "Primmie," he suggested, gravely, "would you--