Mr. Babbitt waved his fists again, preparatory to another outburst.
Jed laid a big hand on his shoulder.

"Don't seem to me time for the benediction yet, Phineas," he said.
"Ought to preach your sermon or sing a hymn first, seems so. What
did you come here for?"

Phineas Babbitt's hard gray eyes looked up into the big brown ones
gazing mildly down upon him. His gaze shifted and his tone when he
next spoke was a trifle less savage.

"He knows well enough what I came here for," he growled, indicating
Hunniwell with a jerk of his thumb. "He knows that just as well as
he knows why he had himself put on that Exemption Board."

"I didn't have myself put there," declared the captain. "The job
was wished on me. Lord knows I didn't want it. I was just tellin'
Jed here that very thing."

"Wished on you nothin'! You planned to get it and you worked to
get it and I know why you did it, too. 'Twas to get another crack
at me. 'Twas to play another dirty trick on me like the one you
played that cheated me out of the post office. You knew they'd
drafted my boy and you wanted to make sure he didn't get clear.
You--"

"That'll do!" Captain Hunniwell seized him by the shoulder.
"That's enough," cried the captain. "Your boy had nothin' to do
with it. I never thought of his name bein' drawn when I said I'd