thought of that hateful word."

"You have stricken it mortally," I answered, "but I can scarcely promise
so speedy a funeral. However, what more I feel," I added, "I will keep
to myself."

"It would be better," he answered curtly.

"You have asked me," I said, "many questions. I am emboldened to ask
you one. You have spoken of my father."

The look he threw upon me was little short of terrible.

"Ay," he answered, "I have spoken of him. Let me tell you this, young
man. If I believed that you were a creature of his breed, if I believed
that a drop of his black blood ran in your veins, I would take you by
the neck now and throw you into the nearest creek where the water was
deep enough to drown."

I rose to my feet, trembling.

"If those are your feelings, sir," I declared, "I have no wish to claim
your kindness."

"Sit down, boy," he answered coldly. "I have no fear of you. Nature
does not pay us so evil a trick as to send us two such as he in
successive generations."

He rose and looked out of the window. The storm had abated but little.
The roar of the sea and wind was still like thunder in the air. Black