me his executor."

Zoeth nodded. "We supposed likely he would," he observed.

"Couldn't get a better man," added Shadrach, with emphasis.

"Thank you. Captain Hall leaves all he possessed--practically all; there
is a matter of two hundred dollars for his housekeeper, Mrs. Hobbs, and
a few other personal gifts--but he leaves practically all he possessed
to his stepdaughter, Mary Lathrop."

Both his hearers nodded again. "We expected that, naturally," said the
Captain. "It's what he'd ought to have done, of course. Well, she'll be
pretty well fixed, won't she?"

Judge Baxter shook his head. "Why, no--she won't," he said, soberly.
"That is a part of the surprise which I mentioned at first. Captain Hall
was, practically, a poor man when he died."

That the prophesied surprise was now a reality was manifest. Both men
looked aghast.

"You--you don't mean that, Judge?" gasped Zoeth.

"Poor? Marcellus poor?" cried Shadrach. "Why--why, what kind of talk's
that? He didn't have no more than the rest of us when--" he hesitated,
glanced at Zoeth, and continued, "when the firm give up business back in
'79; but he went to sea again and made considerable, and then he made a
whole lot in stocks. I know he did. You know it, too, Zoeth. How could
he be poor?"