while there I should think of you."

"Sir," I said, "You startle me!"

But he continued, regardless of my interruption.

"And what should be there also, but the _Eclipse_, ready to set for home!
Quite suddenly I determined to sail her back. I, too, was curious, my
son." For a moment his voice lost its bantering note. "Curious," he
continued gravely, "to know whether you were a man like me, or one of
whom I might have reason to be proud.... So here we are, Henry. Who said
coincidence was the exception and not the rule?"

His last words drifted gently away, and in their wake followed an awkward
silence. The logs were hissing in the fire. I could hear the clock in the
hall outside, and the beating of the vines against the window panes. It
was no sound, certainly, that made me whirl around to look behind
me,--some instinct--that was all. There was Brutus, not two feet from my
back, with my father's cloak over his right arm, and my father's sword
held in his great fist.

"Do not disturb yourself, Brutus," said my father. "We are both
gentlemen, more or less, and will not come to blows. My cloak, Brutus.
I am sorry, my son, that we must wait till later in the day to
exchange ideas. Even here in America affairs seem to follow me. Will
you content yourself till evening? There are horses in the stable and
liquors in the cellar. Choose all or either, Henry. Personally, I find
them both amusing."

He stood motionless, however, even when his dark cloak was adjusted to