"Here by this grave I promise all you ask."




THE CROMPTONS




PART I




CHAPTER I

THE STRANGER AT THE BROCK HOUSE


The steamer "Hatty" which plied between Jacksonville and Enterprise was
late, and the people who had come down from the Brock House to the
landing had waited half an hour before a puff of smoke in the distance
told that she was coming. There had been many conjectures as to the
cause of the delay, for she was usually on time, and those who had
friends on the boat were growing nervous, fearing an accident, and all
were getting tired, when she appeared in the distance, the puffs of
smoke increasing in volume as she drew nearer, and the sound of her
whistle echoing across the water, which at Enterprise spreads out into a